Peter Geyer - Mail Culture

Hawaii conjures up visions of sun sand and surf, but one of the interesting things for me about travelling there is leaving home in the dark to drive to the airport and then arriving in the dark, scuttling in shuttles or taxi cabs through the streets at midnight to your designated hotel destination.

So it was that I arrived in Honolulu for the Type and Culture Conference, for me one of the more interesting events on the type learning calendar. It's a relatively small conference, which means you can broadly meet and talk to whoever you want, no matter their status in the type world and elsewhere.

In terms of approach, it combines culture and personality in an informative way, particularly as the co-organiser with CAPT is the University of Hawaii at Manoa, people from many parts of the world come to present, and the location provides some interesting observations on what might constitute American life.

Although Hawaii itself is multicultural, it's still part of the United States. I think of it sometimes as the place Americans go to if they want to go overseas and still be in America, with US Dollars, McDonalds and the like. So I walked out of my hotel room on the morning after arrival at the same time as a parade through the streets commemorating Martin Luther King's Birthday (a US public holiday).

The parade seemed to involve any and every interest group in Hawaii it seems, even those mutually opposed like the Rainbow Coalition and Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values and it was a genial affair.

The Conference itself mirrored this geniality, with a chance to meet up with old friends and acquaintances and encounter someone new. Those who had visited Australia included Otto Kroeger and Janet Thuesen, who were there to talk about their experiences using type in India, Elizabeth Murphy to share her wisdom about children and type, John Bathurst from New Zealand, and of course Mary McCaulley who, with Ray Moody from the University opened the Conference.

Mary spoke about the importance of understanding both type and culture in terms of both ideas and links. She gave an example of an Australian phrase "cutting down tall poppies" and how that was represented in other cultures.

This was followed by a panel of sorts moderated by Charley Ginn of people from various parts of the world. Most interesting were the presenters on European perspectives, particularly Ilona Eros(Hungary) and Ivana Petrovic (Yugoslavia) simply for talking about their country and the obvious differences between them and the American or Australian experience. There was also a curious presentation on Poland, which consisted mostly of photos of concentration camps, but nothing on Poland itself, or the Poles, for that matter. Extraverted Feeling gone awry perhaps.

All the presentations had their worth, but I wondered in particular about the feelings of Ivana in being in a country that had so recently participated in a war against hers, for whatever reasons and notwithstanding the welcoming atmosphere at the Conference.

I was also interested in John Bathurst's comments in his brief about Form M not being the way to go. There was an undercurrent of discussion at the conference between a few people who lament some of the methods used and decisions made concerning the new Form; remarkable when you consider the knowledge of the participants in the Form's development, but there you are; a learning for us all.

Concurrent sessions followed, and I selected Peter Walsh's entertaining type dynamics presentation and Greg McCann and Michelle DeMoss' work on Family Businesses, which was very thought-provoking. I'd never considered a large corporation as being a family business, for instance, but of course we have two large ones in Australia in Rupert Murdoch's News Limited and Kerry Packers enterprises, and others as well. Greg and Michelle were at the previous Conference and it was good to meet up with them again.

The day finished with an engaging and informative presentation by Dharm Bhawuk , originally from Nepal, but teaching at the University, on theories of culture. I've sat in on his presentations before and they force you to think about the interactions of type and culture and how we observe and ask about behaviours and attach them to type.

The next day began with Michaelle Kitchen giving an ESTJ view of diversity and tolerance. I enjoyed her wit and humour and her perceptive observations about the differences between Intuitive approaches to this area and the down to earth approach of Sensing types. This was followed by a plenary session moderated by Richard Brislin on Cross-Cultural Training. We were put in small groups, each facilitated by one of his students (from a number of cultural backgrounds) and asked to address a cultural scenario.Group processes aren't my forte, but this one was well-managed and helpful. Richard is extremely well-known in his field and his contributions to these Conferences are always valuable; it was interesting this time to see this shy man (He identifies with INTJ) skillfully manage the process.

I spent most of the rest of the time talking with individuals about various issues. Charley Ginn is heavily involved in the development of the MBTI in Eastern Europe and he was keen for the Australian Review to be the model for any publications in that area. Copies of the Review were actually in high demand and I think I could have brought a suitcase of them.

Many people were also interested in Australia, and mentioned some television programme about Australia involving an outdoorsy type who struggled with crocodiles etc. They were a little disappointed when I said the typical Australian was more likely to be Suburban Man than anything else.

There were also some hearty discussions about voting methods, as well as a general observation that Americans like to vote for Feeling types as their President, which I'd never thought of before. Probably Richard Nixon was the last American President to prefer Thinking, which is hardly a great recommendation. It's interesting to compare that with here, where that would be a rarity (e.g. Bob Hawke). Certainly our current crop of politicians seem to be much the same, although being a leader of a country is a different job description to that of a politician. Something to reflect on, anyway.

My own presentation rounded out the Conference, but not before an Elizabeth Murphy session. Mary McCaulley introduced Elizabeth with the observation that although they were both INFPs, Elizabeth liked group exercises but Mary didn't like them at all. A learning there. Elizabeth always brings insight in what she does and this was no exception, with some comments on what preferences are of importance on the way from infant through to adolescence in the context of Jung's views, something I might return to at another time.

To summarise, there was lots to learn in a most genial environment where some famous names were there for you to talk and/or listen to and I reconnected with old friends and made contact with many others; not bad for a shy introvert. This Conference is the perfect place to learn about cultures and type.

It's disappointing, therefore that I was the only Australian present. There were a few New Zealanders, but no-one else from here. My experience is that Australians' views and experiences are highly valued in this forum because of how we talk about type and that we can make an impact on type in general by attending gatherings like this and talking and presenting to receptive ears and eyes.

The Conference occurs every two years at about the same time. I'll be there next time, and I hope to see you there as well..

References

Jonatha Brooke Ten Cent Wings from MCA CD 10¢ Wings MCA MCAD-11706, 1997 Dog Dream Music ASCAP

Ivana Petrovic MBTI in Yugoslavia, a paper presented at The Fourth Multicultural Research Conference– Psychological Type and Culture East and West Honolulu Hawaii USA January 2001

This article was published in the Australian Psychological Type Review Vol.3 No .1 March 2001

Photograph courtesy of Jamie Johnston, CAPT Library.

PETER GEYER (INTP) is a consultant, researcher and writer in the field of C G Jung's theory of psychological types. He conducts MBTI Accreditation programs and presents internationally on a regular basis.

Peter is a life member of AusAPT and a professional affiliate of the Australian Psychological Society.

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