Shame in the Korean uri culture: An interpretation of self psychology and Korean indigenous psychology.

摘要

Shame as a self-conscious emotion can be differently experienced among cultures, since the motives and consequences of shame are attributes to the self in very different ways according to specific socio-cultural value systems. Therefore, shame for Korean people should be perceived and interpreted in the indigenous Korean value system, as the Korean shared view of the self that is conceptualized within the system can critically affect the way in which Korean people experience shame. However, the current mainstream psychology of shame and the self depends primarily on western, i.e., European and American, experiences, values, and beliefs, which are usually seen as universal in their applicability. Mainstream psychology has failed to include cultural variables in its research and theories, and this failure has led to the tendency to view all human behaviors and experiences through universal categories with limited cross-cultural applicability. Yet western-centric theories and concepts of mainstream psychology have largely been used without reservation in Korea.;For an exploration of the Korean experience of shame involving the self using the theories of Heinz Kohut's self psychology and Donald Capps' pastoral work of them, and as a proper way of applying them to the Korean cultural context, an integrated methodology of cross-cultural psychology and Korean indigenous psychology is proposed. In this integrated approach, limitations of cross-cultural psychology are made up for by Korean indigenous psychology, and at the same time cross-cultural psychology supplies a theoretical tool for the application of western theories to Korean psychology, and vice versa; they can complement and supplement each other. From this perspective, Korean indigenous psychological constructs such as uri, jeong, chemyeon, and nunchi in connection to shame are analyzed, and Kohut's and Capps' frameworks are modified and expanded for a relevant application. An interpretation of the Korean experience of shame through this methodology can provide strategies for enhancing the cross-cultural application to shame of Kohut's self psychology and Capps' pastoral psychology. It can help to construct a psychology of shame for Koreans, and to suggest pastoral implications crucial for responding adequately to the shame experience in the uri culture.