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Individualism And Collectivism (New Directions in Social Psychology)

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For those looking for the latest social-psychological literature on the individualism-collectivism parallel, this is a good source. However, the dry academic approach leaves the wise layman fundamentally unsatisfied simply because cultural relativism and political correctness permeate this work way more than they should. The book presents the two types of "culture" as if they were merely "different" all while downplaying chronological developments in human history as well as fundamentals of human psychology. Humans - EVERYWHERE! - were not naturally wired to live socially and psychologically separate from one another. Before I hear the "yeah, the nature argument again", the quintessence of our humanity is "attachment" - a trait that Robert Karen examined in amazing detail in her book "Becoming Attached - First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love". Read this one first to understand why individualism, particularly the cancerous form in which it has mutated during the 20th century, is NOT just a "different" form of culture and why it has much more malign potential than collectivism for ALL humans. The author presents with apparent scientific neutrality what are the advantages and disadvantages of the two cultural orientations and how both can be characterized by extremes with very serious consequences.
Yet even in the most collective of cultures, "ingroup-outgroup" conflicts are still seen as undesirable (albeit perceived as necessary at any given point in time). However, when entire populations become so atomized that they can hardly relate to their fellow humans, that they are no longer capable of experiencing any sort of authentic forms of loyalty, affection or empathy going beyond a "what's in-it-for-me" self - that is a human failure of catastrophic proportions. Lip service to such virtues doesn't count. Industrialization may have created the illusion of self-sufficiency but there is ample evidence that self-sufficiency is hardly a psychologically healthy state for humans, even when they are in possession of endless material crutches. Entire industries, professions and sectors in the modern world feed off of the disastrous human consequences of extreme individualism and the psychological pain it invariably creates. The intense preoccupation with "happiness" so typical of individualistic cultures is a pretty good cue to the permanent personal torment of individualists. True happiness is not something humans can be aware of when it is happening. It only becomes apparent in retrospective. Something individualists have a very hard time understanding as they are too busy chasing it - always in the wrong place and in the wrong ways.