DOES THE SOCIOCENTRIC SELF EXIST - REFLECTIONS ON MARKUS AND KITAYAMAS CULTURE AND THE SELF

This paper argues that there are a number of logical errors, methodolo gical flaws, and ethnographic misconceptions in Markus and Kitayama's famous claim (1991) that non-Western sociocentric and interdependent s elves are the polar opposites of Western egoistic independent selves. In fact, completely opposite conclusions about the nature of Eastern a nd Western selves (or self-representations) can be drawn from the data Markus and Kitayama have themselves provided. Perhaps, then, the diff ering actions, beliefs, and motivations of individuals in the East and the West can best be understood not as due to a mysterious ''self'' b ut as reasonable and predictable human responses to divergent patterns of power and constraint. The paper concludes with a short considerati on of two classical Japanese literary texts to illustrate the case tha t interdependence is not a satisfactory description of the Eastern exp erience of the self.