In Search of Self in India and Japan: Toward a Cross-Cultural Psychology

By Alan Roland and Alan Roland -

Drawing on work with Indian and Japanese patients, a prominent American psychoanalyst explores inner worlds that are markedly different from the Western psyche. A series of fascinating case studies illustrates Alan Roland's argument: the "familial self," rooted in the subtle emotional hierarchical relationships of the family and group, predominates in Indian and Japanese psyches and contrasts strongly with the Western "individualized self." In perceptive and sympathetic terms Roland describes the emotional problems that occur when Indians and Japanese encounter Western culture and the resulting successful integration of new patterns that he calls the "expanding self." Of particular interest are descriptions of the special problems of women in changing society and of the paradoxical relationship of the "spiritual self" of Indians and Japanese to the "familial self.?

Also described is Roland's own response to the broadening of his emotional and intellectual horizons as he talked to patients and supervised therapists in India and Japan. "As we were coming in for a landing to Bombay," he writes, "the plane banked so sharply that when I supposedly looked down all I could see were the stars, while if I looked up, there were the lights of the city." This is the "world turned upside down" that he describes so eloquently in this book. What he has learned will fascinate those who wish to deepen their understanding of a different way of being.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691024588
• ISBN13: 9780691024585
• Release Date: April 1989
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

In Search of Self in India and Japan

I found Dr. Alan Roland's book extremely valuable in helping me understand the deeper underpinnings of the East Indian culture. Firstly, he is able to communicate, sometimes clunky psychoanalytic language, into smooth and clear form. But even more important the book quite accurately portrays many of the early developmental dynamics and their ensuing unfoldment in adult life. There is good theory which is brought to life by numerous examples. As a psychologist I work with many East Indian patients. I found myself have a deeper understanidng of their unconscious processes and was able to share my insights and ideas with them effective ways. The book additionally helped me when I spent time with Indians in India, visiting, studying, and living with families there. The book has also helped me contrast the Western psyche with the Eastern psyche. This has helped me gain clarity in working with my European-American patients as well. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a deeper view of human development and relationships from a psychoanalytic perspective.