No modern psychoanalyst would claim that psychoanalysis is a universal theory that explains the truth of the human mind beyond cultural differences. But have our beliefs really changed? I think not. Non-Western analysts, including myself, prefer to examine their own traditions from a psychoanalytic perspective, and use psychoanalysis as the theoretical framework to explain their own cultures. This essay is a critical examination of my own perspective, as a person born and raised in Japan, trained in the United States, and practicing in Japan.