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'The word amae comes from the word amaeru, which, according to Japanese psychoanalyst Takeo Doi (he's the guy who basically made this term a thing), can be defi

'The word amae comes from the word amaeru, which, according to Japanese psychoanalyst Takeo Doi (he's the guy who basically made this term a thing), can be defined as "to wish to be loved." On top of this, it has connotations of a need for dependency and a request for indulgence of one's perceived needs. This amae type of relationship is the ideal for all close relationships in Japan. It starts with child and mother, but expands out to student and teacher, student and upperclassmen, salaryman and boss, husband and wife, etc. It's the senpai-kohai relationship in a nutshell. If everyone is able to indulge their needs into everyone else then everything will work out, or so Japanese society has been saying for quite a while now." I've seen a number of Japanophiles quite taken with this idea of amae, popularized by psychoanalyst Takeo Doi in 1971. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anatomy_of_Dependence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anatomy_of_Dependence To me it sounds like a bunch of Freudian psychobabble or pseudoscience. The author doesn't even really attempt to empiricially link Japanese amae and non-cognitive skills (persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence) in the specific case of Japan—where children should do better on the the Marshmallow Test, if this is accurate. Tofugu has some great essays on learning Japanese, but this is not one.

snailletters 9y ago
To be critical is to be thinking, but I read this article more as a concept and take the emotional responses that it seems to elicit as a stronger guage of the idea than its factual evidence.
jansho 9y ago
It might not be just psychobabble though. Amae may seem loosely connected to those non-cognitive skills, but if the author's right about it being widespread and so deeply embedded in society that it's applied everywhere, then I think it's a reasonable assumption that it does contribute to certain cultural traits, like grit. The author does need to cite studies showing the relationship between empathy/happy childhood and IQ/EQ though. Still, I thought that his opinion and what-ifs interesting.
bykovich 9y ago
lol do you call any attempt at a useful psychology "Freudian psychobabble"

snailletters 9y ago

To be critical is to be thinking, but I read this article more as a concept and take the emotional responses that it seems to elicit as a stronger guage of the idea than its factual evidence.

jansho 9y ago

It might not be just psychobabble though. Amae may seem loosely connected to those non-cognitive skills, but if the author's right about it being widespread and so deeply embedded in society that it's applied everywhere, then I think it's a reasonable assumption that it does contribute to certain cultural traits, like grit. The author does need to cite studies showing the relationship between empathy/happy childhood and IQ/EQ though. Still, I thought that his opinion and what-ifs interesting.

bykovich 9y ago

lol do you call any attempt at a useful psychology "Freudian psychobabble"