In July this year I spent some time at the Hong Kong Polytech University looking at counselling in a multi-cultural context; in the course of my discussions there I had many a long lunch debate with a Phillipine Psychologist who challenged some thinkings I shared with him...
The story first - a few years back the American Psychological Society put out a booklet that looked at resilience suggesting that if an indivdiual master ten strengths then they would demonstrate high resilience factors. Amongst these list of strengths is EGO i.e. have a strong ego, but do not be headstrong nor self-centred...
It was this point the guy mentioned earlier really felt was incorrect and not relivant to 'Asian society' - his feeling was that it was very 'western' in its ideal and hence disempowered members of the Asian community by its very listing in the original text.
I argued it is relivant to all societies; even more traditional models where often family comes first - is not that a part of my ego i.e. a "family-centric" ego or perhaps my self ego is fulfilled by the honor I bring myself for being a selfless family giver - the selfishness of being selfless...
Anyway interesting thought - anyone wish to share their feelings around the matter...
Edited: November 14, 2008 03:06PM
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