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(v12) Page 3
Group-Actualization vs. Self-Actualization: Two concepts
"Individualism"
is based on emotional independence from groups,
organizations and collectives,
"Collectivism"
is based on association, in-groups, conformity,
solidarity, reciprocal obligations.
Two
ideas of "personhood", comparing USA and
Japan:
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"American culture shows how metaphorical
meanings invent a self/person as a unique decision maker, author of its own
motivations and ontologically* separable from the social world.
In Japanese
culture, on the other hand, concepts of
personhood precipitate out of a set of cultural meanings which feature a
radical ontological attachment of the individual to the social world, with
self-control and the suppression of (selfish) desires as the central motif of
this personhood." (Steven Rosen 1997)
* ontology - Ontology is the study of what there is, an inventory of
what exists. An ontological commitment is a commitment to an existence
claim.
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"In a collectivistic society, other-enhancement
is more desirable than self-enhancement, because the latter risks isolating the
individual from the network of reciprocal relationships."
(Kim
C.W. 2000)
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Contact: wolfgang.arlt@fh-stralsund.de
Office: 1/132, Tel. (03831) 45 6961
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