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Originally defined as an “interpreter” in an intercultural care relationship between French health care providers and Chinese families, over the course of her fieldwork the author, an ethnographer, ended up crossing blurred boundaries between literal translation, intercultural mediation, sociological mediation, and sociological interview. Through analysis of linguistic formulations used in encounters between the psychiatric and sociological categories, this article highlights a research relationship of reciprocal domination distinguished by interdependence between psychiatrist and sociologist. Provided that the researcher’s positions are objectivized, it is possible to free culture from culturalism and confirm sociology’s epistemological ability to contribute to the study of a medical setting.