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Dr Kawai has written a personal account of his lifelong journey to integrate his cultural roots (Japanese), his philosophical heritage (Buddhism), and his Jungian analytical training. He guides the reader through his experience of bridging his Western professional training with the Eastern values and sensibilities of his primary culture.
Dr Kawai studied psychology in California and was trained in analytical psychology in Zürich. He became professor of clinical psychology at Kyoto University and during his career as a psychologist has written extensively. When he returned to Japan in the 1960s, Jungian analysis was still an esoteric and unfamiliar profession. He cautiously started to introduce Jung's concepts into his practice, yet felt there were aspects of analytical psychology that did not so easily adapt to the Japanese psyche. In searching for ways to bridge the cultural differences, he began to explore Buddhism as a philosophy and was drawn to a synthesis of Buddhist wisdom and Jungian analysis.
Through an elaboration of the Oxherding pictures, Dr Kawai draws contrasts between the Western and Japanese psyches. His discussion of Buddhism and analytical psychology directs the reader to the problem of language and concepts, such as soul and anima. Since in Zen Buddhism the concept of soul simply does not exist, the anima concept presents the analyst with some difficulty in application. On the other hand, Buddhism amplifies our understanding of compassion, which transcends empathy, eros, or relatedness as used by Jungians. Similarly, in Buddhism the mind unequivocally locates the Self in the transpersonal realm and deepens our understanding of its centrality in the psyche. Clearly, there is much room for more dialogue which bridges the best of both worlds, East and West, analytical psychology and Buddhism.
I was particularly pleased at Dr Kawai's thoughts on what he terms ‘Self-nature’ and consciousness of the inter-relationship of the psyche with all beings, often t