The Anatomy of Self: The Individual Versus Society
Takeo Doi, Mark A. Harbison (translation), Edward Hall (foreword)
The Anatomy of Self is a sequel to Doi's pioneering & acclaimed bestseller, The Anatomy of Dependence in which he set out his theory of passive, dependent love as the key to understanding the Japanese. More than 100,000 foreign readers have been intrigued by this work. With The Anatomy of Self, Japanese society again serves as the subject of an analysis by one of its most original thinkers.
Like Doi's renowned Anatomy of Dependence, The Anatomy of Self addresses the question of the Japanese individual & his or her integration into Japanese society. Its approach is based on an analysis of the Japanese perception of public & private. What kind of society is made up of individuals capable of a constant traversing between behavior based on two simultaneously held, mutually contradictory modes of perception? Doi discusses this feature of the Japanese psyche, often referring to Western psychology. He compares the individual trauma that classic Western psychology believes to result from such a split, to the Japanese sense that adulthood is only achieved by acknowledging & accommodating the difference. Finally, the wide-ranging references to history & psychology serve to provoke thought on Freudian notions of the unconscious.