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The psychoanthropology of American culture
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387
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Japanese view that Japan’s culture is largely to understand. In that and other respects, The Essence of Japanese Management is similar in style to the sixteenth century views of the samurai Miyamoto Musashi described in The Book of Five Rings: In each we are presented with a number of homilies that are repetitive to the point of being condescending. In a short piece on the nature of generalizations, James Thurber once described a conversation he had with a woman concerning a film she had seen which was set in Japan. The film was, she claimed, absurd since in one scene there was a piano and, as everyone knew, “there are no pianos in Japan”. Many similarly ludicrous generalizations now characterize much of the writing on Japanese management. In particular, many of the foreign-authored books and articles convey more information about the foreigner than they do about Japan. Thus, while this classic story of Onda Moku has its own generalizations, they are at least from the Japanese point of view. For those unfamiliar with the story and interested in Japanese management, the book is, therefore, worthwhile reading. Oh, and if you were to encounter someone who, like Thurber’s conversationalist, suggested that there were no pianos in Japan, you might refer them to this book and proffer the view that, as a result of the implementation of the Onda philosophy, they have all been exported!
Bruce W Stening The University of Western Australia Nedlands, Perth, Australia
THE PSYCHOANTHROPOLOGY
OF AMERICAN
CULTURE
Howard I;: Stein New York, NY: The Psychohistory Press, 1985. 168 pp., $17.95 (cloth) The contribution that The Psychoanthropology of American Culture makes to the field of intercultural communication rests entirely on your definition of what constitutes research. If you believe that research must adhere to the scientific method, and that it should not include the undocumented opinions of the investigator, then this book may not belong in your library. However, if your view of research includes the observations of people who, by longevity, by title, or position, are “experts,” then this book may have somethng for you. As you would suspect, my reaction to this book was influenced by how
388
Book Reviews
I defined the boundaries of research. However, before I offer my subjective evaluation of the book, let me begin by telling you what the book is about. Howard F. Stein’s book, in its broadest sense, is about American culture. As a student of intercultural communication my interest is immediately piqued whenever I come across any book or journal that claims to help us understand our own culture. I have long believed that knowing how we communicate, what values we hold, and how we perceive the world is an excellent starting point to the study of intercultural communication. Therefore, at least in its concept, The Psychoanthropology of American Culture has the potential to help us see what our culture is like. As a way of teaching us about our culture Stein “explores the role of unconscious forces in the life of contemporary American society.” In his own words he tells us that this “book is about what it feels like to be an American in the late 1970’s and 1980’s, together with how those feelings come to be articulated in social institutions, symbols and rituals, and enacted in social policy.” It should be underscored that the key element in Stein’s analysis is the issue of the unconscious. He believes that it is the unconscious dynamics of a culture that offer the greatest insight into that culture. He asserts “ . the psyche exerts a decisive influence on cultural continuity and change, [and] that psychoanalysis is heuristically indispensable rather than being inconsequential for explaining society. . . . ” To help explain the unconscious realm of American culture, Stein offers five chapters that he maintains deal with central themes in psychoanthropology. Each chapter, primarily drawn from journal articles or convention papers presented earlier by the author, is built around a case study. Each case examines some specific aspect of the unconscious matters in American life. In Chapter One, Stein studies the midwestern cowboy/farmer polarity as a way of understanding the conflict between wildness and domestication. Chapter Two looks at the New Ethnicity or White Ethnic Movement in the United States. Stein believes that this movement, with its interest in nostalgia and search for the past, is actually “a collective metaphor that increasingly takes the form of group-ism” and “corporate national identity.” In Chapter Three Stein conducts a “fantasy analysis” of newspaper content and radio station programming as yet another way of examining the unconscious influences in American culture. The interplay between the group dynamics of an academic retreat and the themes or currents in the national mood are the topics of Chapter Four. Stein’s message, at least in its stating, is clear. By watching the unconscious behavior of the members of the retreat he learned something about the “war-strategy” of the United States. In Chapter Five, Stein attempts to help us understand the role of alcoholism in the United States by demonstrating that alcoholism is soci-
Book Reviews
389
ety’s way of allowing its deviants to rebel against the dominant culture. This chapter, like the other four, wants the reader to see that you can only understand American culture by looking deep into the psyche of the American people. However, because that psyche is below the level of awareness, it is not even known to the members of that culture. Hence, we can only learn about the unconscious forces by speculating about what is really beneath the surface of rural life, the White Ethnic movement, radio programming, group retreats, and alcoholism. It is in this area of speculation where I will end my summary of the book and begin my brief criticism of Stein’s use of the psychoanthropological approach. To begin, this book is far more a volume on collective psychiatry than it is a book on cultural anthropology. While Stein attempts to make a case for the fusing together of psychiatry and anthropology (note the title: The Psychoanthropology of American Culture), he is, at least in the collection and presentation of his materials, first and foremost a psychiatrist. For me, this fact limits his overall contribution to the study of culture. I find it hard enough to understand the “unconscious forces” of one person, let alone an entire society. Yet one must give Stein credit for trying. He insists that parallels can be drawn from individual unconscious behavior to the collective behavior of a culture. For example, when talking about his participation in a group formed as an academic department retreat, Stein writes: The group regresses to the mother-child unity of primary narcissism. Each member enlists himself in the defense of the symbiotic tie to eliminate any badness from within the groupand to fight any threat of violation from without. Like the ‘nation,’ the group is a projection of infantile primary narcissism. (p. 123)
Here Stein is at a group retreat with his colleagues and tells us that their child-like behavior is that of the nation. Examples such as these punctuate every page. We are told that by analyzing newspapers and listener requests of music on an FM radio station in Oklahoma, we can understand “group fantasy” and something about “social, diplomatic, and military actions” underlying these fantasies. The rodeo becomes “one’s struggle with inner beasts” and “a metaphor for the early interpersonal relationship and internalized object relations of childhood.” Professional football is viewed as “ritualized homosexual aggression and conquest.” And, “alcoholics, cowboys, and Soviets are psychologically parts of the same psychological system.” In short, everything can become a symbol for something else. While these interpretations might be interesting, they hardly pass for research. However, as I noted at the beginning of this review, if you believe that Stein’s type of generalizing is in the domain of legitimate research, then there is something in this book that you might find useful. But if you hold to the notion that ideas are plentiful and that
Book
390
Reviews
anyone can produce them, but that proof is harder to come by, then this book is not for you. As for me, at least when it comes to the study of culture, I am more comfortable with reporting what I see rather than guessing and speculating as to motives behind that behavior. In short, the decision to read, or not to read, this book is indeed linked to the larger question of what constitutes knowledge and how it is gained. Larry A. Sarnovar San Diego State University San Diego, California
MANAGEMENT
IN TRANSITION
Philip R. Harris San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 404 pp., $29.95 (cloth)
1985,
For the last few years, books on management have come in vogue. They appear now on the best seller lists in the U.S. markets. The issues of global interdependence, Japanese management, American productivity, leadership and managerial styles have been presented, discussed, and analyzed. Management in Transition by Philip Harris is a valuable and distinctive addition to that literature in the field. The book is important because of its timeliness and content. The author’s major theme deals with the present and future impact of new technologies on the nature and shape of organizational structures and the need for change and adaptation to develop new management forms. The book presents a vast, eclectic collection of insights and analyses of dynamic changes in the work environment. A visionary and challenging look at the future is also provided. Harris sees a transformation in today’s work place caused by new and advanced technologies that are altering the work culture. He foresees a work force characterized by greater autonomy and teamwork, increased automation, new information systems, and a growing entrepreneurial spirit among employees. Also, Harris describes the various dimensions of the new work culture and offers new management leadership strategies that focus on human resource development and high performance management. The book also provides extensive, practical, and valuable lists of resources and instruments for management’s use. Harris depicts present day U.S. organizations and work force as in a transition from being the word’s major smokestack industrial center to
387
Reviews
subscribe to the popular impossible for foreigners
Japanese view that Japan’s culture is largely to understand. In that and other respects, The Essence of Japanese Management is similar in style to the sixteenth century views of the samurai Miyamoto Musashi described in The Book of Five Rings: In each we are presented with a number of homilies that are repetitive to the point of being condescending. In a short piece on the nature of generalizations, James Thurber once described a conversation he had with a woman concerning a film she had seen which was set in Japan. The film was, she claimed, absurd since in one scene there was a piano and, as everyone knew, “there are no pianos in Japan”. Many similarly ludicrous generalizations now characterize much of the writing on Japanese management. In particular, many of the foreign-authored books and articles convey more information about the foreigner than they do about Japan. Thus, while this classic story of Onda Moku has its own generalizations, they are at least from the Japanese point of view. For those unfamiliar with the story and interested in Japanese management, the book is, therefore, worthwhile reading. Oh, and if you were to encounter someone who, like Thurber’s conversationalist, suggested that there were no pianos in Japan, you might refer them to this book and proffer the view that, as a result of the implementation of the Onda philosophy, they have all been exported!
Bruce W Stening The University of Western Australia Nedlands, Perth, Australia
THE PSYCHOANTHROPOLOGY
OF AMERICAN
CULTURE
Howard I;: Stein New York, NY: The Psychohistory Press, 1985. 168 pp., $17.95 (cloth) The contribution that The Psychoanthropology of American Culture makes to the field of intercultural communication rests entirely on your definition of what constitutes research. If you believe that research must adhere to the scientific method, and that it should not include the undocumented opinions of the investigator, then this book may not belong in your library. However, if your view of research includes the observations of people who, by longevity, by title, or position, are “experts,” then this book may have somethng for you. As you would suspect, my reaction to this book was influenced by how
388
Book Reviews
I defined the boundaries of research. However, before I offer my subjective evaluation of the book, let me begin by telling you what the book is about. Howard F. Stein’s book, in its broadest sense, is about American culture. As a student of intercultural communication my interest is immediately piqued whenever I come across any book or journal that claims to help us understand our own culture. I have long believed that knowing how we communicate, what values we hold, and how we perceive the world is an excellent starting point to the study of intercultural communication. Therefore, at least in its concept, The Psychoanthropology of American Culture has the potential to help us see what our culture is like. As a way of teaching us about our culture Stein “explores the role of unconscious forces in the life of contemporary American society.” In his own words he tells us that this “book is about what it feels like to be an American in the late 1970’s and 1980’s, together with how those feelings come to be articulated in social institutions, symbols and rituals, and enacted in social policy.” It should be underscored that the key element in Stein’s analysis is the issue of the unconscious. He believes that it is the unconscious dynamics of a culture that offer the greatest insight into that culture. He asserts “ . the psyche exerts a decisive influence on cultural continuity and change, [and] that psychoanalysis is heuristically indispensable rather than being inconsequential for explaining society. . . . ” To help explain the unconscious realm of American culture, Stein offers five chapters that he maintains deal with central themes in psychoanthropology. Each chapter, primarily drawn from journal articles or convention papers presented earlier by the author, is built around a case study. Each case examines some specific aspect of the unconscious matters in American life. In Chapter One, Stein studies the midwestern cowboy/farmer polarity as a way of understanding the conflict between wildness and domestication. Chapter Two looks at the New Ethnicity or White Ethnic Movement in the United States. Stein believes that this movement, with its interest in nostalgia and search for the past, is actually “a collective metaphor that increasingly takes the form of group-ism” and “corporate national identity.” In Chapter Three Stein conducts a “fantasy analysis” of newspaper content and radio station programming as yet another way of examining the unconscious influences in American culture. The interplay between the group dynamics of an academic retreat and the themes or currents in the national mood are the topics of Chapter Four. Stein’s message, at least in its stating, is clear. By watching the unconscious behavior of the members of the retreat he learned something about the “war-strategy” of the United States. In Chapter Five, Stein attempts to help us understand the role of alcoholism in the United States by demonstrating that alcoholism is soci-
Book Reviews
389
ety’s way of allowing its deviants to rebel against the dominant culture. This chapter, like the other four, wants the reader to see that you can only understand American culture by looking deep into the psyche of the American people. However, because that psyche is below the level of awareness, it is not even known to the members of that culture. Hence, we can only learn about the unconscious forces by speculating about what is really beneath the surface of rural life, the White Ethnic movement, radio programming, group retreats, and alcoholism. It is in this area of speculation where I will end my summary of the book and begin my brief criticism of Stein’s use of the psychoanthropological approach. To begin, this book is far more a volume on collective psychiatry than it is a book on cultural anthropology. While Stein attempts to make a case for the fusing together of psychiatry and anthropology (note the title: The Psychoanthropology of American Culture), he is, at least in the collection and presentation of his materials, first and foremost a psychiatrist. For me, this fact limits his overall contribution to the study of culture. I find it hard enough to understand the “unconscious forces” of one person, let alone an entire society. Yet one must give Stein credit for trying. He insists that parallels can be drawn from individual unconscious behavior to the collective behavior of a culture. For example, when talking about his participation in a group formed as an academic department retreat, Stein writes: The group regresses to the mother-child unity of primary narcissism. Each member enlists himself in the defense of the symbiotic tie to eliminate any badness from within the groupand to fight any threat of violation from without. Like the ‘nation,’ the group is a projection of infantile primary narcissism. (p. 123)
Here Stein is at a group retreat with his colleagues and tells us that their child-like behavior is that of the nation. Examples such as these punctuate every page. We are told that by analyzing newspapers and listener requests of music on an FM radio station in Oklahoma, we can understand “group fantasy” and something about “social, diplomatic, and military actions” underlying these fantasies. The rodeo becomes “one’s struggle with inner beasts” and “a metaphor for the early interpersonal relationship and internalized object relations of childhood.” Professional football is viewed as “ritualized homosexual aggression and conquest.” And, “alcoholics, cowboys, and Soviets are psychologically parts of the same psychological system.” In short, everything can become a symbol for something else. While these interpretations might be interesting, they hardly pass for research. However, as I noted at the beginning of this review, if you believe that Stein’s type of generalizing is in the domain of legitimate research, then there is something in this book that you might find useful. But if you hold to the notion that ideas are plentiful and that
Book
390
Reviews
anyone can produce them, but that proof is harder to come by, then this book is not for you. As for me, at least when it comes to the study of culture, I am more comfortable with reporting what I see rather than guessing and speculating as to motives behind that behavior. In short, the decision to read, or not to read, this book is indeed linked to the larger question of what constitutes knowledge and how it is gained. Larry A. Sarnovar San Diego State University San Diego, California
MANAGEMENT
IN TRANSITION
Philip R. Harris San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 404 pp., $29.95 (cloth)
1985,
For the last few years, books on management have come in vogue. They appear now on the best seller lists in the U.S. markets. The issues of global interdependence, Japanese management, American productivity, leadership and managerial styles have been presented, discussed, and analyzed. Management in Transition by Philip Harris is a valuable and distinctive addition to that literature in the field. The book is important because of its timeliness and content. The author’s major theme deals with the present and future impact of new technologies on the nature and shape of organizational structures and the need for change and adaptation to develop new management forms. The book presents a vast, eclectic collection of insights and analyses of dynamic changes in the work environment. A visionary and challenging look at the future is also provided. Harris sees a transformation in today’s work place caused by new and advanced technologies that are altering the work culture. He foresees a work force characterized by greater autonomy and teamwork, increased automation, new information systems, and a growing entrepreneurial spirit among employees. Also, Harris describes the various dimensions of the new work culture and offers new management leadership strategies that focus on human resource development and high performance management. The book also provides extensive, practical, and valuable lists of resources and instruments for management’s use. Harris depicts present day U.S. organizations and work force as in a transition from being the word’s major smokestack industrial center to