[Buddha-l] Re: The Dalai Lama on Self-Loathing

[jkirk]

Here’s an interesting piece from Alan Roland’s *In Search of Self in India
and Japan: Toward a Cross-Cultural Psychology* (Princeton, 1988):  

"One particular aspect of we-self regard and structural hierarchical
relationships is profoundly related to caste.  As Bhaskar Sripada . . . has
noted from reflections on his own psychoanalysis, the particular ego-ideal
internalizations of a Brahmin enhance his or her own self, we-self regard
being further supported by unconsciously splitting off and projecting any
poor aspects of self-esteem onto the lower castes.  In turn, the lower
castes split off certain idealized aspects of their own self and project
them onto the upper castes, further supporting the we-self regard of the
upper castes." (p. 247)

For us westerners, self-loathing seems to take place in a smaller "space",
within each individual.  In other cultures, the self-loathing might be
projected onto a larger, social "space."  Perhaps there are some cultures
that lack self-loathing completely, because they're not part of
industrialized culture.  I’m not sure about this, though.

Katherine Masis




       
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