The self in Japan

Indigenous Japanese concepts are integrated with psychoanalysis as

Doi (1990) reviews some of his studies on amae (dependence) from a neo-analytic perspective.
-While studying psychiatry in America, Doi found an inadequacy to express himself in English, consequently, he turned to indigenous Japanese concepts to elucidate his ideas on psychoanalysis.
-Thus arose his analysis of amae or a sense of dependence upon others (usually) in a vertical or hierarchical relationship.
-the relationship is shaped by the qualities of giri (social obligation) and ninjo (human feeling)
-"ninjo welcomes dependence whereas giri binds human beings in a dependent relationship"

  Amae as a Japanese ideology akin to "emperor worship", accounting for the relative abundance of such psychological being in Japan as compared to the relative dearth of it in America.

Roland (1988) concludes that this orientation to amae leads to the more rapid establishment of empathic communication during psychoanalysis in Japan.

Doi (1990) discusses dependence and authority as they relate to the psychoanalyst and his or her patient. Based upon these accounts, it appears that the typical "Japanese self" is cognitively and emotionally integrated with other "selves" to a much greater degree than the typically "American self".

This is not to say that no Americans experience dependence, nor is it to say that no Japanese fail to experience it; but that the integration (or enmeshment) of selves is institutionalized and recognized more readily in Japan than in America.

Yamaguchi (2006) offers a critique of this concept.

Rosenberger (1992a) Rather than viewing the Japanese self as a static interdependent (social) entity under hash controls of shame (not guilt),

she presents a view of the Japanese sense of self that is always changing in its embodiments of both the individual and society.

  This self, "jibun, implies that self is not an entity apart from the social realm. 
"Jibun literally means 'self-part'-a part of a larger whole."

  Japanese Self shows multiple dimensions and identities rather than a single face. "people take up multiple positions in social, political, and economic worlds that are highly differentiated and constantly changing" (1992a, pp. 3-4).

Bachnick (1992) the changing self in Japan as Kejime or shifting

Tobin (1992) - early development of kejime in Japanese pre-schools

-Dispel the myth that "these overindulged and under-controlled infants and toddlers somehow are transformed by age seven or eight into spiritless, unimaginative school children capable of little other than memorizing facts for exams" (p. 21).

Through various ritualized outings, such as marching to a muddy field to play (taiso) or going to temple services, the contexts of ura (informality) and omote (formality) are "learned on the path". Through such praxes, children learn, along with the two formal languages, to distinguish and shift between ura and omote.

  Bachnick provides a more detailed account of the features and differences between these two important contexts for social and linguistic shifting.

  As in Table 2, list of metaphors and frameworks of spatial and directional co-ordinates which mark distinctions in the expression of self.

  -the self is organised and structured around various contexts where discipline, self-submission, boundedness, self-expression, and spontaneity may or may not be appropriate.

 

-Kejime marks the ability to sense and appropriately react to given situations.

  Rosenberger (1992b) incorporates a discussion of kejime in a pair of indigenous accounts which view the self as changing in context.

  Movements of ki or psycho-spiritual energy along with movements in relationship through the taking and giving of amae (indulgence) are joined by movements in context between soto (formality) and uchi (informality) to form the three dimensions.

-With practice, it is said that one can easily loosen (expressing kokoro)
or tighten (expressing seishhin) ki (universal energy) contexting
between uchi and soto

  Figure 6a

  -The tradition of Shinto philosophy which makes use of transformations of ki as a central tenet. Traditional Shinto writings present tama (sacred power) as revealed through various transformations.

-Four primal aspects of its power provide the poles for two dimensions of such changes:

1) outer manifestation (arimitama) vs. inner essence (nigimitama) and

2) differentiation (kushimitama) vs centralization (sakimitama).

3) material diversity through outer authority vs. immaterial unity through inner consolidation and centralisation

(a tree in summer and a tree in winter). Figure 6b.

  The metaphor of the tree in summer (with trunk, branches, leaves and blossoms) and its material diversity through outer authority also represents the masculine.

Conversely, the tree in winter metaphor (with energy harmonised and consolidated in its roots--conserved for generativity--) represents the feminine.

Rosenberger elaborates on these differences with the case of a menopausal Japanese woman who works at building up her ki while she moves through transformations of the life-cycle.

Taoist yin-yang is maintained by transformation of
yin--feminine, receptive, shadded--and
yang--masculine, extensive, illuminated
-Japanese self is also built around such transformations.

Lebra (1992) also provides an indigenous account of self as changing in context. Her account of the self reveals the components of the interactional, inner, and boundless selves.

 Interactional self, or "the awareness of self as defined, sustained, enhanced, or blemished through social interaction" (1992, p. 106).
-Divided into the presentational and empathic selves representing the surface layer and the social intimacy seeking orientations to the interactional self.

Lebra draws a parallel between the presentational self and Goffman's self on a stage which always presupposes an audience.

 The empathic self seeks out group membership and intimacy involved in relationships with muchi (fellow insiders) rather than tanin (known and unknown outsiders). These two orientations of the interactional self are seen as universal elements of the self

The inner self, according to Lebra is contrasted with the outer (interactional self) through the metaphors 

This self is most clearly expressed and articulated in spontaneous private or social gatherings (with family) as well as the artistic expressions (e.g., in theatre or dance) which often have a strong spiritual dimension.

 The Boundless self arises through the spiritual pursuits (as described above in Buddhism) of transcendence involving the evanescent passivity, receptivity, and emptiness of pure subjectivity.