Abstract
Due to many refugees seeking asylum in Germany, we are currently experiencing various ways of how people deal with foreigners. Some welcome asylum seekers openly trying to help as much as they can, others protest against migrants fearing a threat to their own culture. Right-wing parties gained momentum and terror attacks seemed to affirm their arguments. Intercultural education often promises to deliver the knowledge and technical know-how to deal effectively with otherness. However, in most cases the main objective is to control differences in order to handle one’s own feelings of anxiety, helplessness and insecurity.
In this chapter I argue that we have to turn around and look at what we actually experience in us when we encounter otherness. We have to shift our attention from handling the other towards caring for the self. This shift I call Umwendung (German: turning around). In order to explain what I mean by Umwendung I draw from ancient Greek philosophy, especially from the concept of self-care (epimeleia heautou) as it was rejuvenated by Foucault. This entails facing our own inner shadow, coming to terms with the unknown other in self.
In this context the Dialogical Self Theory proves to be extremely relevant, particularly when it comes to the process of self-cultivation. Here I expand on the notion of a “society of mind” by arguing for a “culture of self” which means to reflect on the “web of significance” (Geertz) each of us lives by. Intercultural education thus means preparing the ground and taking care of oneself in order to be able to welcome the other in dialogue.
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Notes
- 1.
This is something Clifton and Fecho criticise in educational settings in the USA and seek to foster “agentive dialogue” (see chapter “Being, Doing, and Becoming: Fostering Possibilities for Agentive Dialogue”).
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Very similarly Straub (2012, p. 54) posits that identity ought to be sought of in a triadic manner within a continuum between totality on one side and multiplicity/fragmentation on the other. He, too, argues that the self can be seen as analogous to a democratic society. This idea is explored in great detail in Hermans, Konopka, Oosterwegel, and Zomer (2016).
- 5.
This is something that has also been proven by neuroscientific research. Döring (2013, p. 160) for example explains that emotions are directed towards situations we experience and evaluate. Due to our ability to control ourselves through reflection, we are able to refine and differentiate these evaluations continuously (re-appraisal strategy). We quarrel about the emotionally charged understanding of what we experience with the rational explanation of it in order to cultivate our emotional reaction in light of these explanations. Through this ability, man distinguishes himself as “animal rationale” from animals (at least gradually).
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“So a [moral] virtue is a habitual disposition connected with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, a mean which is determined by reason, by which the person of practical wisdom would determine it” (NE II, 6, 1106b36-1107a2).
- 7.
In a similar vein Foucault (1997, p. 209) states that in texts by Epictetus “writing appears regularly associated with ‘mediation’, with that exercise of thought on itself that reactivates what it knows, calls to mind a principle, a rule, or an example, reflects on them, assimilates them, and in this manner prepares itself to face reality.”
- 8.
Socrates already knew that consciously adhering to the dialogue within myself is the primary condition to reason well. Arendt (2016, p. 62) explains that this premise and deliberately taking time to meditate in solitude is of great political relevance because it is far more effective than strict laws and the threat of punishment. Instead of forcing onto people what is right, they have to realize it within themselves.
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Schellhammer, B. (2018). The Experience of the Other and the Premise of the Care for Self. Intercultural Education as Umwendung . In: Meijers, F., Hermans, H. (eds) The Dialogical Self Theory in Education. Cultural Psychology of Education, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62861-5_5
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