Les divers mouvements de déplacement humains nous poussent un peu plus chaque jour à nous rencontrer et à relever les défis que nous proposent les échanges avec l’Autre culturellement différent. Dans le champ de la psychologie, l’évaluation psychologique fait partie de l’une des interrogations princeps puisque centrale de nos prises en charges quotidiennes. Considérant que la plupart des tests et manuels diagnostiques ont été développés dans le contexte occidental, l’application de ces outils à d’autres populations reste controversée. Cette révision de la littérature a comme but de décrire l’état des connaissances actuelles sur l’examen psychologique en situation transculturelle. Plus précisément, nous aborderons des questions telles que, l’utilisation de tests psychologiques en situation transculturelle, l’entretien de formulation culturelle (DSM-5) et l’entretien clinique : langage, relation thérapeutique et participation d’interprètes.

Human migration provokes transcultural clinical encounters that may challenge the way clinicians see themselves and how they proceed in their usual practices. In the field of psychology, psychological assessment is an important tool to better understand the patients’ needs and to design psychological interventions. Considering that most diagnostic tests and manuals have been developed in the Western context, the application of these tools with other populations remains controversial. The present literature review aims to describe the state of current knowledge on psychological transcultural assessment. Specifically, we will address: (1) the use of psychological tests in transcultural contexts, (2) the development of the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI, DSM-5) and (3) the clinical interview: language, therapeutic relationship and participation of interpreters. In the first section, we discuss the international norms for scales and tests translation and adaptation, as well as the cultural issues that may bias the test’ application and interpretation. In the second section, we describe the creation of the CFI, and its use in recent studies. The CFI is composed by four clusters: (1) cultural definition of a problem, (2) cultural perceptions of cause, context, and support, (3) cultural factors affecting self-coping and past help seeking, and (4) cultural factors affecting current help seeking. The revised studies indicated that the CFI has a positive impact on the cultural sensibilization of mental health professionals, also improving the relationship between the patients and professionals. The cultural formulation may also prevent misdiagnosis. Beyond the use of tests and structured interviews, the clinician also faces other challenges during a transcultural assessment. We discuss in the third section the transferential and countertransferential relationship in a transcultural situation. Several elements may influence this relationship, at an individual, institutional and societal level. The evaluation of these elements may allow the clinician to better understand results of the psychological assessment. We also describe the current guidelines for the use of interpreters during health consultations in France. In conclusion, several advances have been made in the field of transcultural psychological assessment, among other things the development of guides for good translation and cultural adaptation of tools, as well as the integration of cultural issues into the DSM. However, research and changes in clinical practice are still needed, as the evaluation of cultural biases in cognitive tests and the expansion of cultural competences training among clinicians.