Ever since my first classes in graduate school, I was alarmed at the way family dysfunction was relativized via the ethnic family system model. My own family having spent three generations + wresting itself out of its debilitating role identity, where individuation is harshly subordinated to authoritarianism, made these academic concessions to multi-culturalism suspect from the beginning. But at least I was keen enough not to step on any tenured toes, as the wrong thing said could have made getting my degree much harder.

Now, as a professional I have no diffuculty working respectfully within an ethnic family system where children's innate desire to individuate is thwarted, short of abuses that must be reported. One can sense how children in such environments are simply not being connected with, or seen and understood, by their parents at the psychic/empathetic levels. For those few minutes where the child's behavior violates the authoritarian mandate of the ethnic family system, these kids simply do not exist as people in their own right, and it is a sad thing to see, inspite of how complicite the children are in the moment or how adaptive they may be in internalizing those proprieties into their adult lives.

Obviously, humans individuate to a much greater degree than animals. The higher brain centers, if one simply takes a reductionistic biological view, almost demands this sort of maturation. Certainly the survival needs of a community under pressure and without the luxury of focusing on emotional intelligence, such as during the U.S. depression era, depend upon conformity. But children just seem to demand support to separate from the parents, not just physically, but emotionally as well, regardless of where they're raised. Were the role-identified family system most congruent to the unfolding of the human psycho-biological identity then it simply wouldn't fade so predictably under the influence of a society like ours where individualism is supported. I prefer to think of this as the soul's impetus to differentiate itself as fully as possible through a conscious true-self experience, which enables it to function intimately in ways that support that same autonomy in a mate or friend. Moreover, without support for emotional intelligence as understood in this way, there is much less opportunity for developing a mystical sensibility.

Here's an example of an academic study which caves into similar rationalizations, assuming that the psychological development of a child in a family where role identity severely constrains individuality is ameliorated simply by the fact of its cultural uniformity, as though the innate expectations of child development were re-fashioned via mere social proprieties.


http://www.blackwell-synergy.c...45-5300.2002.41305.x


And as seen from research on spanking children, the social/cultural context does not in fact change the psychological outcomes, or turn an otherwise abusive discipline into one that generates no unwanted behaviors:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.co...ews.php?newsid=33612


"The researchers found differences in how often mothers used physical discipline and the mothers' perceptions of how often other parents used physical discipline. Specifically:

- - Mothers in Thailand were least likely to physically discipline their children, followed by mothers in China, the Philippines, Italy, India, and Kenya, with mothers in Kenya most likely to physically discipline their children.

- - More frequent use of physical discipline was less strongly associated with child aggression and anxiety when it was perceived as being more culturally accepted, but physical discipline was also associated with more aggression and anxiety regardless of the perception of cultural acceptance.

- - In countries in which physical discipline was more common and culturally accepted, children who were physically disciplined were less aggressive and less anxious than children who were physically disciplined in countries where physical discipline was rarely used.

- - In all countries, however, higher use of physical discipline was associated with more child aggression and anxiety."

I realize I'm mostly keeping my own counsel here, but this issue just seems to stand out for me as I listen to my leftist friends and colleagues, although they seldom seem to notice how they step into a mess they'd otherwise rankle over under other situations. So for all the talk about fully accomodating the multi-cultural model, which ends up generating a relatively lower emotional intelligence leading to misogynist behaviors which leftists/feminists are especially reactive to, all I can see, other than their unwillingness to outright accept this contradiction, is a socialist-like idealism that really does depend upon the masses not indulging in the individuating creative impulse.