The Best of the Two Worlds

Dividing the entire cultural universe into two large categories of Collectivists and Individualists seems like a wild idea. As someone who has grown up, went to school and worked in both societies, I can understand why the distinction could not only be a useful idea, but also an important survival tool for people of dual cultural identities such as myself.

In a collectivist society, the community is placed ahead of the individual. It sounds simple, nice and convenient it sounds, the idea comes with a number of disadvantages. For instance, in a collectivist community, any marriage decision must be made by a number of family members including second relatives. That is where the ideas of arranged marriages and individuals sacrificing their loves for the sake of the whole community come from. While that appears as a disadvantage to the individual, the idea prevents a large number of societal problems that exist in an individualis community such as teenage pregnancy.

In an individualist society on the other hand, the needs of an individual always come ahead of the community and even the family. As selfish and self-centred the idea sounds, it has many advantages over considering the community’s benefits over self’s. for instance, it advocates for focusing on one’s true needs which in turn could put the individual on their path towards self actualization. In an individualist society, one learns to take responsibility for their own decisions and actions instead of blaming others for their mistakes. For the same reasons, the individual is more likely to face life problems alone with less community support than their counterparts in collectivist societies.

The interesting idea arises when migrations happen between the two cultures. Movement is more likely to happen from collectivism into individualism either in idealistic transformation or physical movement than the other way around. Either form of movement will result in very well defined concepts:

Acquiring individualist thoughts in a collectivist society will result in “Radical Feminism”, while practicing collectivism in individualist societies will result in “Patriarchy”. One should not cherry pick as they go along in either societies as that will result in “Stereotyping”. For example, arranging marriages in an individualist society will imply the idea of oppression against women in collectivist practices. The important idea is to “act as Romans when in Rome”. Practicing against societal and cultural norms will not only result in isolation but is likely to put the individual in conflict with the law.

Let’s not forget about the existence of sub-cultures in either societies. Each community could come up with their own ways of practices in a larges society. Each family, community, group and even city could have collectivist or individualist ways of functioning in a larges society which itself could be individualist or collectivist. Familiarizing oneself with both ways of relating to the larger community will insure the benefits of the best of the two worlds.

Shahrzad Shahriari
BSc.Psych, MSW., RSW.
647-405-7706
shahrzad.therapy@gmail.com
www.shahrzadtherapy.com