Dependency and Japanese Socialization: Psychoanalytic and Anthropological Investigations into Amae by Frank A. Johnson New York:  New York University Press, 1993,  xix + 452 pp., $50.00

This book by an American professor of psychiatry at the University of California is a comprehensive and scholarly attempt to understand the leitmotiv of the Japanese modal character, that is, of Amae, which may be defined parsimoniously as “indulgent dependency.”

The book itself is wide ranging. The first section examines the theoretical and cultural background of dependency and attachment theory, relating it particularly to Japanese childrearing and socialization practices. The second section focuses on the psychoanalytical and cultural writing of Doi (1973, 1986, 1987), who is considered to be the originator and principal advocate of Amae, and examines his work in the context of analytic theory and technique. The final section relates psychoanalytic theory (and findings) to