Asian America, Psychology, and Psychoanalysis
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2016 Boundaries and Belonging: Asian America, Psychology, and Psychoanalysis Natalie C. Hung Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1239 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING: ASIAN AMERICA, PSYCHOLOGY, AND PSYCHOANALYSIS By NATALIE HUNG A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Clinical Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2016 BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING – N. HUNG ii © 2016 NATALIE HUNG All Rights Reserved BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING – N. HUNG iii Boundaries and Belonging: Asian America, Psychology, and Psychoanalysis By Natalie Hung This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Clinical Psychology to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ______________________ ____________________________________________ Date Paul Wachtel, Ph.D. Chair of Examining Committee ______________________ ____________________________________________ Date Maureen O’Connor, Ph.D. Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Deidre Anglin, Ph.D. Robert Grossmark, Ph.D. Diana Puñales, Ph.D. Joseph Reynoso, Ph.D. THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING – N. HUNG iv ABSTRACT Boundaries and Belonging: Asian America, Psychology, and Psychoanalysis By Natalie Hung Advisor: Professor Paul Wachtel This dissertation addresses a vexing problem. In psychology and psychoanalysis, Asian Americans are more often understood as a collective Other than as individual Selves, more frequently an object of study than a subject. Through two overarching aims, my dissertation sheds light on neglected aspects of Asian American selves, the meanings of the invisibility surrounding them, and implications for clinical practice. First, the project challenges extant psychological perspectives on Asian Americans, which often implicitly assume a wide gulf of difference between Asian American cultural values and the Western epistemologies of psychology and psychoanalysis. Through the examination of academic research, clinical literature, and social scientific perspectives, my research outlines several contextual factors that contribute to this trend, including the structural binary between “the individual” and “the social” in psychoanalysis and psychology, ambivalent dynamics of anti-Asian racism, and collective anxieties about Asian Otherness. Second, influenced by relational psychoanalytic theory, my dissertation seeks to reconfigure and broaden perspectives on Asian Americans in psychology and psychoanalysis. BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING – N. HUNG v My foregrounded field of inquiry begins broad and becomes increasingly narrow, moving from international, to national, to interpersonal, to clinical contexts. Chapter 2 examines the three binaries—East-West, shame-guilt, and individualism-collectivism—that structure most psychological studies about Asian Americans. Chapter 3 brings to bear a psychological perspective on the histories and contemporary manifestations of racialization and cultural identities of Asian Americans. Chapter 4 reviews the subtle and ambivalent nature of anti-Asian racism through a close investigation and relational understanding of racial microaggressions. Finally, using empirical literature and case studies, Chapter 5 identifies and challenges the “culture gap narrative,” the overculturalized explanation for the underutilization of the mental health system by Asian Americans that assumes radical difference between Asian Americans and Western psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING – N. HUNG vi Acknowledgements First and foremost, I am extremely grateful to my advisor Paul Wachtel for recognizing my abilities and challenging me to stretch beyond my limits. His careful reading, commitment, and mentorship have immeasurably sharpened my thinking and writing, and I will continue to learn and grow from his influence. I would also like to thank my core committee members Deidre Anglin and Robert Grossmark for their steadfast support, guidance, and willingness to think alongside me; my internship research mentor, Annie Chang, for sharing her valuable perspective; and my committee readers, Diana Puñales and Joseph Reynoso, for taking an interest in my work. I am deeply indebted to Laura Kleinerman and Neal Vorus for appreciating my mind and teaching me courage, and to my dear friends and colleagues Mia Pixley and Hannah Wallerstein, who talked me through ideas, emotions, and deadlines with humor and intelligence. I could not have completed this project without my mother and her gentle reminders to rest and be kind to myself. I would like to thank my partner, Michael Degani, for all the riches, wonders, and laughs. And finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my father, whose memory lives on in this project. BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING – N. HUNG vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements vi Chapter 1 BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING 1 Boundaries in American psychoanalysis 2 The individual and social in theory 6 Race: The unasked questions 11 Asian America between the lines 16 Chapter 2 THREE BINARIES 23 Orientalism 24 Shame, guilt, and cross-cultural studies 29 Individualism and collectivism 38 Relational approach to culture 47 Chapter 3 ASIAN AMERICAN RACIALIZATION 56 LIMINALITY, INVISIBILITY, AND AMBIVALENCE Model minority myth, yellow peril, and civil rights 58 Psychological blind spots 64 “Asian eyes” and unsociability 67 Racial stereotype and cultural identity 76 BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING – N. HUNG viii TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Chapter 4 RACIAL MICROAGGRESSIONS AND ASIAN AMERICANS 84 The topography of racial microaggressions 85 A social virus 90 Phenomenological experiences, vicious circles, and complementarity 95 Revising microaggressive scripts 105 Carrier: Tolerating discomfort and expanding racial reality 109 Recipient: Feeling caught and opening other options 114 Broadening racial awareness 121 Chapter 5 PSYCHOTHERAPY AND THE CULTURE GAP NARRATIVE 126 Bridging the culture gap 127 East and West in psychodynamic approaches 134 Limitations of the culture gap narrative 142 Cultural anxieties: Countertransference or lack of expertise? 147 Psychoanalysis: A culture of belonging 157 Conclusion 165 References 170 BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING – N. HUNG 1 CHAPTER 1 BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING Belonging means that we have a place in the world, but it also means that we find ourselves placed in the world. (Dalal, 2012, p. 408) The impulse to write this dissertation is the culmination of a lifetime of reflection on my racial and cultural identity and the relative beginning of my socialization as a psychoanalytically informed therapist. This process led me to consider some painful questions as an American-born daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who is also a trainee, patient, and therapist. Where is my place in psychoanalysis in the United States? And relatedly, why does it feel like there is no such place? These questions guided many of my intellectual, theoretical, and professional interests. My pursuits led me to shame, to immigration, to studies about Asian Americans1, to other disciplines like sociology, anthropology, and social psychology. My anecdotal impression was that culture (and attendantly, race, ethnicity, language, diversity, etc.) had failed to sufficiently infiltrate certain strains of psychoanalytic theory in the United States. Instead, “culture” was relegated to psychological disciplines apart from psychoanalysis, encapsulated by multicultural competence or approaches of a positivist psychology mainly devoted to identifying differences in psychological sequelae between Asian Americans and European Americans in a cross-cultural 1 Throughout the dissertation, I will focus mainly on people of East Asian descent (including those China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan) and Southeast Asian descent (those from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) because they share certain phenotypical characteristics that engage similar stereotypes, not because their cultural norms are homogenous. Thus, the familiar shorthand of “Asian American” will generally be used to refer to East Asian Americans and Southeast Asian Americans. Similarly, “Asian” will be used to specify East Asians and Southeast Asians. I do not include people of South Asian and Central Asian descent who have different cultures, histories, and phenotypes, and thus have related, but different racial identities in America. If I am departing from these definitions, I will specifically note it. BOUNDARIES AND BELONGING – N. HUNG 2 framework. These attempts, while a well-intentioned starting point, somehow lacked the dynamism and sensitivity that I found appealing about much of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theory. Upon reflection, I realized that it was not that I had no place, but that my place in psychoanalysis, psychology, and America was constricted by invisible lines that I could not seem to cross, let alone, articulate. My search led me to learn about a history of legalized exclusion of Asian people from America that had been