SMC2: Cultural and social dimensions of Psychology – Theoretical Perspectives E2023 19.09.2023 / 22.09.

2023

The Fast-Paced Twentieth-First Century Through Showa Lenses

An essay on the conflict of the Self towards the realm of the others and its uncontrability

To theorise on the topic “How the urges of globalisation can shape the concept of Harmony? How can an
alien Self integrate into an established community? What does Psychology of Everyday Life have to say about
it?"; this essay will provide an introductory explanation of the psychology of everyday life and its
social extent, an analysis of a specific cultural and social conflict, and a conclusion exploring its
possible outcomes considering all the revisited circumstances.

Introduction

The mere conception of psychology as a social phenomena and how this shall be conceptualised has
been on the target of academic discussion for several decades; this has led us to ask ourselves: how
Psychology can be applied into the framework of the quotidian and its problems? Where does it begin
and end in its extension and its applications? The conceptualisation of the etymological origin of
psychology shall be discussed before targeting its reasonings and scope, as “the original Greek
meaning of psyche was much closer to the biological sense (zoe) than the psychological one (bios), as it
referred to the fundamental life principle of all living things (plants, animals, humans)’, and ‘that the
first claim is that psychological phenomena properly belong to the realm of bios rather than zoe.”
(Brinkmann, S. 2016).

Psychology; then, was linked to the biological understanding of the self (way before the apparition of
the catholic corporality and spirituality theses or the cartesian duality of mind and body). The psyche
(as much as it is comprehended as intertwined with human physicality nowadays) had been linked to
the phenome of spirituality and the transcorporeal phenomena. From the end of the nineteenth
century onwards, discussions on the matter of bringing Psychology towards the human landscape, and
by this, to the social; have been incorporated into the play while targeting to understand the social
circumstances inside and outside of the visible stage of human cotidianity.

Fg. 1. The extent of Psychology before the birth of Psychology of Everyday Life as a discipline.
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As similar as Bertolt Brecht´s Verfremdungseffekt, Psychology (too) used to distanced itself from the
human world as the roleplay of psychologist was to evidence the psychic world in an intellectual
fashion that seeked observing the humankind as characters whose actions and doings in the world had
a certain profundity when performing its daily life actions; however these academics lacked a
cosmovision on the subjects they were dealing with. The emotional proximity or the understanding of
the social as a crucial structure in human development (e.g. the circumstances of the individual
situated inside the world) was thus not desired as it might affect the academic enterprise that situated
knowledge and researchers above the daily life experiences contextualised in a certain circumstance.

It was not until the upcoming of the Viennese schools of psychology at the beginning of the twentieth
century that social experience is taken into account when confronting the human ways of being in the
world. To be a conscious subject on a plentiful, meaningful action with the world is to be an objective
knower mirroring the world based on a relational ontology. Therefore, representation of the others and
the connections established from the interrelationship shall be in the point of debate in this essay
where a short analysis of a daily life problematic situation in a transcultural context will be further
discussed.

A coffee shop in Tokyo (An Analysis)

There is a coffee shop located in a corner of a quiet street in the neighbourhood of Higashi-Nagasaki,
Toshima City, Tokyo. The owner, an Australian named Vaughan Allison started his business in early
2020. This coffee shop, established in a traditional neighbourhood (something the residents are very
proud of) was located a few minutes away from my old flat. I went there once. Had a coffee. Chatted
with Vaughan. While there I had some impressions of a conflict that had been worrying him since the
opening of the bar and its implications towards the community he wanted to integrate to.

He exposed that he was willing to create a thriving community around the coffee shop that was to
merge the concept of the local bars and the international setting he was coming from. This was well
received by youngsters of the neighbourhood; however some voices were raised concerning the social
aspect of Vaughan´s establishment: some people did not tolerate the idea of a new place filled with
music and events in this old-fashioned Showa neighbourhood. One review said: "The owner seems to be
a foreigner here, but is it a special zone for foreigners? Why is it okay to always open the door and play loud
music only here? Aren't you a little too excited? I'll wait and see how things go, but if things look bad, I'll file a
complaint with the ward and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Let's follow the morals and rules of Japan." He
was perplexed for its true intentions were to integrate his coffee shop (and thus himself and its
envision of communitas) into the neighbourhood. However, intentions are not free from
contextualisation. And he received these bittersweet reprimands from the ones he sought to
harmonise.
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Fg. 2. An epistemological shift can be a staggering knowledge development process.

Here one could oversee the top of the iceberg. Or at least, the first glance of an underlying impression.
Some locals could not explain Vaughan´s cosmovision and vice versa. I thought about that for some
time; almost envisioning some war-like scenario between the Australian owner and the Japanese
neighbours to gain the community´s approval. Nowadays, looking back with sharpened eyes, I reckon
it is sounder to explore the dynamic dramatisation and the cultural actions that predates this
exemplary short story of conflict between the self and the communitas.

Vaughan was turning to the Showa Era-born neighbours in a welcoming, almost translucent way (as
far as I could understand from its intentions with the vicinity) since he was willing to gain the
confidence of the residents. It was not a merely economical factor (although it is undoubtedly part of
the broader situation) but a matter of integration of himself and its project into this human landscape.
Some might argue he desired to build a communal beatus ille; but, was he othering the neighbours
profiting from its position to gain support applying his conventions? Was it right to establish an
“exciting” coffee shop in such a quiet, family-oriented neighbourhood? Would not be better that
Vaughan could act in a more reserved way honouring the Japanese morals? As Valsinger (2014) has to
say about it: “Negotiation of social norms requires acting within a social context—turning to the
others . The others are related to the Self in different ways, at different distances, in different power
roles.” But, cannot one simply exist in a singularity-driven line of action?

In a social context, to welcome others is a double-edged sword. As hell is other people, some form of
ontological conflict might arise. Nobody desires to be framed into the villain side of the story. But was
not Vaughan precisely living through the others? Vaughan was emphasising a sense of hospitality as
one of the most valuable things the coffee shop offers to the customers. The constructive loop of the
self includes the creation of meaning, the projection, emphasis, to act towards the other and “by
turning to them, the person faces the uncertainty of their responsivity—and their goals-oriented
action in relation to the experiencing person. The person is the centre of one’s life-field, involved in
acting within it and selectively referencing others who are present in that world.” (Valsinger, J. 2014).
Relationships between and towards the others are usually found in this domain of uncertainty and are
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a matter of conflict. It is an undeniable circumstance that shakes existence turning it into a complex
net of models of human relations.

Conclusion

After what has been exposed so far, one could not help but to ask: is it not terrible to be an obstacle in
someone's life? Is there any seekable emergency exit for this circumstance? German sociologist and
political scientist Hartmut Rosa’s concept of resonance can illustrate this concern, proposing resonance
as “a way of relating to the world, in opposition to the mode of aggression and the experiences of
alienation that correspond to it” and “that resonance is not just a metaphor for a certain experience,
or a subjective emotional state, but is a mode of relation that can be precisely defined by four
exemplary characteristics: being affected, self-efficacy, adaptive transformation, and
uncontrollability.” (H, Rosa. 2020). These characteristics (exposed in the story presented beforehand)
show how Vaughan's story (or any other human experience) is embodied into other people's lives since
every way of existence is intertwined and works in a multipolar manner.

Fig. 3. Psychology’s relational ontology is crucial to explore situational analysis.

As social sciences in its discourse have long sought to achieve, the desire for relationships is based on
not to be “reached, but rather to assert ourselves; we aim to experience self-efficacy not by affecting
and being affected, but by instrumentalising and manipulating other people and things.” (Rosa, H.
2020.) This is why resonance has such a crucial transformative impact into Everyday Life and its
problems (such in Vaughan´s case). Relational ontology is such an excellent tool when confronting
this situation; for as blind men against elephants as we are, living experiences are not inevitably
interconnected with a single first impression of reality, nor are they true. As the story shows, even
storytelling that creates a visible framework to analyse might contain as well several life stories that
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are interlinked (and dependent on the relation between the subjects in its cosmos construction)
although creating an uncertain, troublesome reachable truth or response. As opposed to the
individualistic ontology, relational ontology brings us as active subjects in the experience of living
towards the realms of a new contextualisation of ourselves plus the others (human agents, concepts, or
objects) in the world-work of the twentieth-first century. Far away from the coasts of the hierarchies of
dualities, there is a relational multiverse, far complex and (because of this) far more problematic,
although vaster to the meaning-making knowledge process in a discursive and practical aspect.

References

Brinkmann, S. (2016). Psychology as a normative science. In J. Valsiner, G. Marsico, N. Chaudhary, T.

Sato, & V. Dazzani (Eds.), Psychology as a Science of Human Being: The Yokohama Manifesto (pp. 3-16).
Springer. Annals of Theoretical Psychology No. 13.

Valsiner, J. (2014). Human experience through the lens of culture: An invitation to psychology in a new
key. In J. Valsiner, An invitation to cultural psychology (pp. 6-25). London: Sage.

Rosa, H. (2020). The world as a point of resonance. In The uncontrollability of the world (pp. 30-39). Polity
Press.

Cohen, S. (2022). Vaughan and Rie Allison welcome all new arrivals to Mia Mia. The Japan Times.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2022/03/07/our-lives/vaughan-rie-allison-welcome-new-arriv
als-mia-mia-tokyo-toshima-cafe-coffee/

Figures

Watterson, B. (1985-1995). Calvin and Hobbes. Universal Press Syndicate.