AMAE: AN EMOTION TO UNDERSTAND THE JAPANESE PSYCHE

Abstract

This article’s main goal is to present an overview of the Japanese concept of amae from the perspectiveof cultural psychology. Scientific literature on the topic is presented and discussed, beginning with the first published book on the subject in the West in the 1970s, Takeo Doi’“s The Anatomy of Dependence,”to current cross-cultural research. The article begins with a brief presentation of cultural psychology and its importance, then goes through the history of research on amae, discusses possible cultural functions of amae, its influence within clinical psychology, the differences between amae and attachment, studies that have investigated amae in nonJapanese cultures, and ends with a discussion on the concept.