Who Am I? And What’s That Got to Do With Therapy?
Culture and Identity
“It is our belief that culture is a fundamental component of human experience, and that no person or group can be fully understood in the absence of a purposeful inquiry into culture.” - Nancy Arthur & Sandra Collins
Culture can be a huge part of who we are and the lives we live. While we often think of culture as ethnicity, it can also be understood more broadly “to include ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability, socio-economic status and social class, religion, age, and other dimensions of culture that are relevant for each individual [emphasis added]” (Arthur & Collins, 2010, p. 18). We’ve probably even used phrases beyond these dimensions to describe a culture, like “workplace culture” or “the culture of the gym or book club I go to.”
Culture can be an inseparable part of our identity at times, a major part of what makes us who we are. Some cultures we identify with, we choose; others we are born with. Our cultural identities can come to the forefront of our day through times of connection and celebration, and yet at other times they can be jarringly thrust into our face without our say in the challenges of today’s world. They can play a huge role in defining our values, how we experience adversity, how we see the world, and what it means to live a good life.
Finding and Defining Ourselves
It wasn’t until I visited a friend’s house when I was just 6 or 7 years old until I realized that part of who I am is based around my identity as a Chinese Canadian. Though I was born in Canada, I picked up my bowl to eat at the dinner table (as a Chinese person might normally do sometimes) and my Caucasian friend turned to me and said, “What are you doing?” with his family looking on. If memory serves, we laughed it off and chalked it up to cultural differences, and I am grateful that I was rarely if ever made to feel less-than because of my race and ethnicity growing up.
Fast-forward to today, and I often now see myself, my successes, and my challenges through the lens of culture. As a young adult, I found myself at a loss for what to do for a career and how to get there. But all good children of parents who immigrated to Canada are supposed to make their family proud and excel on the fast-track to academic glory and occupational prestige, right? So how come I wasn’t there? And aren’t successful men in general supposed to be strong, confident, independent, and assertive, not emotionally tender, depressed, and in need of help? So how come I didn’t really feel that way?
Somewhere around then and there, I began to dive into the cultural values and the social narratives that defined the world I lived in and who I was “supposed” to be. I came to realize that we are around ideas all the time, about culture and gender (like the ones above) and the age by which we are meant to achieve certain things. But this was maybe the first time I considered that these ideas can maybe be more harmful than helpful.
Re-Defining and Re-Identifying with Ourselves
In my Master’s research, I interviewed seven Canadian-born Chinese individuals about their experiences of engaging with mental health services of some kind when they were in school as young adults. The Chinese Canadian culture within which they first came to connect with counsellors, psychologists, and family doctors was characterized by a few challenging ideas. There was limited discussion and knowledge about mental health, privacy and secrecy around mental illness, pressure towards academic and occupational achievements, and the idea that struggling meant that you lacked strength and the ability to persevere through adversity. But that same culture came with many positives too, like a strong sense of connection with others, families that valued and supported health and wellness, and rich opportunities to re-identify with Chinese Canadian culture in a healthy and empowering way.
The research out there that’s come before mine also supports the idea that successfully navigating and developing a strong sense of one’s (bi)cultural and/or intersectional identity can be an important aspect of exploring and addressing mental health. And appreciating how our identity plays into our life experiences and concerns can be a real key to better understanding ourselves and one another.
Mental health is not always a topic that many of us have gotten a chance to talk openly about, particularly within some cultures, groups, and walks of life. In fact, we know there’s some work to do in terms of making therapy more accessible to immigrant and ethnically diverse Canadians. And we know that male mental health service utilization rates are low despite a concerning level of depression and anxiety particularly among young, racialized, and gay & bisexual men in Canada. The next time you find yourself thinking or talking about mental health and mental health support, know that who you are matters. Maybe more than we’d think!
Written by Alexander Choy, M.Sc., Registered Provisional Psychologist
References
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