Narrative and Cultural Humility

This is a story of the decade-long collision of cultures as the American author teaches group therapy in China. The basic assumptions of the two cultures become visible when clashes in understanding human experience and human relationships become the focus of attention. The author learned about the need for cultural humility in trying to narrate both her own experience and the experiences of her students. The author examines deep psychological encounters between people with radically different worldviews. In China, many people thought of her as “a Good Witch” and a magical being because her approach to therapy was profoundly healing for many. Her efforts to teach her theories and techniques, not at all magical to her, revealed cultural differences both subtle and pervasive. The author discusses what it means to deeply encounter people of a different culture, what it taught her about herself and her Western mind—and also what is universally human. In closely observed, sometimes momentary, interpersonal exchanges, culture emerges from the shadows. Because psychotherapy is such an intricately relational process, it reveals taken-for-granted ways of being in the world. Only in narrative can these processes be illuminated, and this book details the micro-level of encounters with the “Other.” The author invites readers to learn from the challenges she experienced as people from different cultures try to make sense of one another. The author compares her experience with existing scholarship on East/West differences in cognition and social organization and argues that the hegemonic individualistic/collectivistic distinction is not useful.