Cross-Cultural Differences in the Self

Hollan, Douglas

doi:10.1086/jar.48.4.3630440

Cited by 85 publications

(47 citation statements)

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“…see discussions in de Munck, 2000;Fogelson, 1982;Harris, 1989;Hollan, 1992;Holland, 1997;Spiro, 1993). A recurring topic concerns whether there can be said to be a 'western' self in contrast with a 'non-western' self (e.g.…”

Section: Cross-cultural Differences In the Self?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrating Troubling Experiences

Garro¹

2003

transcult psychiatry

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This article presents a process-oriented perspective that relates to the broad question of how self-related experience comes to be endowed with meaning. The approach highlights the implications of 'living by' particular culturally based understandings in specific contexts and centers on how jointly cultural, social, and cognitive processes offer potentialities for orienting the experiential self without determining self-related experiences. This process-oriented perspective revolves around the interplay between the range of historically contingent cultural resources available for endowing experience with meaning and the socially and structurally grounded processes through which individuals learn about, orient towards and traffic in interpretive plausibilities -a socially situated experientially based process. This perspective is informed by, and provides an entree for exploring, variability within a cultural setting. The narrative accounts examined are from individuals who grew up speaking either Ojibwa or Cree (both Algonkian languages) in First Nations communities in Manitoba, Canada. Key words cross-cultural views of the self • cultural processes • illness narratives • intracultural variation • self-related experienceMuch of my work revolves around how troubling experiences with the potential to be seen as indicating the presence of an illness in need of some form of care or treatment, enter into and are dealt with in everyday life. In this article, with reference to accounts of troubling experiences told from the perspective of the sufferer, I present a process-oriented perspective that

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Section: Cross-cultural Differences In the Self?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrating Troubling Experiences

Garro¹

2003

transcult psychiatry

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“…Rather than think about it in these terms, I argue that we approach the use of multiple metaphors of the heart and brain by Mr. Xian, Mrs. Zhou, Mei Ling, and others through the lens of anthropological theories that incorporate such multiplicity and variation into their understanding of "culture" (Garro, 2000(Garro, , 2003(Garro, , 2005Hollan, 1992Hollan, , 2000Sapir, 1958Sapir, [1932; Schwartz, 1978;Shore, 1995;Wikan, 1990). Thus, instead of viewing cultures as "shared metaphorical understandings of the world" that are "preserved" through their conventional metaphor systems (Kovecses, 2005, p. 284), it is possible to view both conventional and relatively unconventional metaphors as culturally available resources or "tools that both enable and constrain interpretive possibilities" (Garro, 2003, p. 6).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ever since Sapir (1958Sapir ( [1932), anthropologists have argued that any understanding of culture must include the variations that result from diverse personal interpretations of cultural models (Garro, 2000(Garro, , 2003(Garro, , 2005Hollan, 1992 Hollan, , 2000Sapir, 1958Sapir, [1932Schwartz, 1978;Shore, 1995;Wikan, 1990). Several of these scholars suggest that as individuals are exposed to different ways of understanding the self, they develop a set of multiple and often contradictory models, each with differing metaphorical entailments (Garro, 2003;Strauss, 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinking Hearts, Feeling Brains: Metaphor, Culture, and the Self in Chinese Narratives of Depression

Pritzker

2007

Metaphor and Symbol

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This paper explores the heart and brain metaphors used in the meaning-making efforts of Chinese individuals diagnosed with depression. Past studies assert that the origin of Chinese language metaphors for thinking and feeling can be found in traditional Chinese medico-philosophical theory, where the heart is viewed as the seat of thought and emotion, and the brain, which constitutes the cognitive center in western theories of the self, is secondary. While most participants employed heart metaphors to express thinking and feeling, many of the participants also employed brain metaphors. Instead of suggesting that this multiplicity implies westernization, this paper argues that cultural understandings of the self can be multiple. To appreciate this, it is necessary to look at spontaneously generated speech in a narrative context. This paper thus analyzes three participant narratives, a process that carries several implications for studies approaching the relationship between metaphor, culture, and the self. INTRODUCTIONIn cognitive linguistics, metaphors of the heart and brain have been held up as exemplars of cultural difference between China and the English-speaking west. Chinese metaphors for both thinking and feeling, argues Yu (2005), are shaped by the underlying cultural model provided by traditional Chinese medicine and philosophy, in which the heart is considered to be both the cognitive and METAPHOR AND SYMBOL, 22(3) Vallée, 1991;Farquhar, 1998;Yu, 2005). In contrast, Yu (2005) suggests that the influence of Western medical philosophy, which tends to separate the "mind" and "body," attributing emotions to the body or heart and thought to the mind, or brain, has given rise to the tendency for Westerners to use heart metaphors for feeling and brain metaphors for thinking (Parrott, 1995). As noted by Yu (2003Yu ( , 2005, however, in the context of "modern" Chinese language, head or brain can also be used to metaphorically express mental experience:It is also where one's thoughts and ideas are stored and one's thinking takes place...Nevertheless, this usage is limited to modern Chinese in a relatively small scope. On the other hand, the bulk of conventionalized expressions, including compounds, idioms, and idiomatic sayings, demonstrate that the heart, rather than the brain, is the locus of the 'mind' as known in English. (Yu, 2005, p. 13) The fact that most conventional Chinese metaphors for thinking and feeling, derived mainly from various dictionaries and texts, revolve around the heart is certainly indicative of the salience of the heart in Chinese language and culture. The fact that the brain can also be used to refer to mental experience, however, suggests that traditional Chinese medical philosophy does not provide the only culturally relevant model of the thinking and feeling self in China. As Yu himself points out, since the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644Qing ( -1911 dynasties, "the functions of the brain as the organ for mental activities came to be recognized" in China (Yu, 2005, pp. 7-8). The...

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“…People in those places experience conflict between individual desires and interpersonal obligations. Spiro also documented that there is a discrepancy between the messages in public documents or religious doctrines and the judgments maintained by individuals [see also Hollan, 1992;Lau, 1992;Mines, 1988].…”

Section: Autonomy Agency and Cooperationmentioning

confidence: 99%