This document is from the booklet I made as a project in
Dr.Casanave's Writing and Writing Process Seminar
during the spring semester of 1995. I first made that booklet
mainly for American high school students, but
I would like as many people in the world as possible to know about
Self-Counseling. So I made a html version. I hope you all will enjoy
lerning about Self-Counseling.
Please excuse my mistakes because
English is not my native language, and do not use any parts of this
document without my permission. Thank you.
Hello. My name is Aya. I am writing this to introduce you to something I've benefited from, Self-Counseling. How have I benefited? I would like to show you my experience through whole this booklet, so please keep on reading.
It was last September that my mother suggested that I read a book named "What is myself?" written by Yasumaro Watanabe. At first I felt reluctant, but as I went on reading, I remembered and thought about many things which happened to me in the past. This book was something. After finishing reading that book, I felt as though clouds had lifted. I felt like I could find the answers I have been unsure about for a long time. That was my first experience with Self-Counseling.
Since then, I've been very interested in Watanabe's idea on Self-Counseling and I read most of his books. My mother, who has attended Self-Counseling class for longer than a year, also told me what she learned there. The more I know about Self-Counseling, the better I could understand myself, so I started attending Self-Counseling class. Although I was a beginner, I could discover many things through Self-Counseling. Therefore, I decided to write something to introduce American high school students to Self-Counseling. There were two reasons.
Self-Counseling was first made to help us think and write how and by what you have been molded. And as Self-Counseling has developed, it came to be benefited with also by many mothers and fathers, because when mothers and fathers have a problem with their children, they can find a solution easily through Self-Counseling. Now, Self-Counseling is mainly used by mothers to raise children. I think most of you will be a mother or a father in the future. I am sure Self-Counseling will help you a lot at that time. Not only when you become a mother or a father but also now it will help you a lot to discover yourself as it did to me.
I also thought that this book could be an opportunity for you to know a part of Japanese way of thinking through my, Japanese girl's, experience. In "What is myself?", Watanabe says, "Many theories on Japanese people is lack of a point of view about how Japanese people are molded. To put it concretely, it is a lack of basic understanding for how human beings are molded by the connection with their environment. (Yasumaro, Watanabe, 1993: Zibuntte-nandarou, Tokyo, Japan Editor's School Press, 70. All translations by me.)" He also says, "Japanese self-formation is from self-evaluation which belongs to social dimension, because their self-evaluation is done with social-evaluation. (...) Most theories on Japanese people pointed out Japanese people's heteronomous behavior and collective sense of value. It can be said that they all are from their social-evaluation. (Watanabe: Zibuntte-nandarou, p.77-78)" I will explain about it through my experience in this booklet.
I hope you will enjoy reading this booklet.
Ayako A. Tanaka