2022년 증산도 후천선문화 국제학술대회 발표논문 

A Clinical Practice Study of Korean “Han” Transformation:

- Lamenting Entangled Suffering Saturated Stories for Renewed Narrative Identity

KuiHee Song, Ph.D.

Abstract

Despite a long-standing interest of Korean Han 한恨 in a variety of fields, no clinical research studies on Han transformation treatment exist. Mental health practices that enable individuals to be healed from Han may be particularly important for disadvantaged and marginalized groups. Building upon the author’s integrative and interactive notions of postmodern collaborative and narrative approaches, this article articulates an actual clinical study of Han transformation treatment for a Korean American immigrant woman. This transformation treatment of Korean Han was designed to meet for twelve weekly sessions, as well as for one follow-up session one month later. Using a naturalistic study, coding and thematic analysis measures of data focused on the sessions of 1, 6, and 12. The results of Han transformation treatment indicate that she moved through stages of Han transformation from beginning to end (the first stage of fermenting, “Sak-hee-gi”; the second stage of reflecting anguish, “Neuk-deul-li”; the third stage of disentangling, “Han-pul-li”; and the last fourth stage of freeing self-centered misconceptions, “Ma-eum-bi-eun-da”). Both progressive and oscillating processes produced significant clinical changes toward balanced family relationships (from conflict-based family rules to mutually beneficial family rules), caring parenting behavior (from coercive parent-aversive child to affectionate), and dialogic speech development (from monologic speech to internal/external dialogic speech). The study indicates that the elements of therapist dialogical-relational processes for Han Transformation was helpful. The study also suggests that, in addition to the importance of the therapeutically responsive dialogical approach to transform the effects of Han, there is converging evidence for the direct, self-dialogic effects on the Han transformation process. The author concludes that it was possible for a Korean American immigrant woman facing disadvantaged and marginalized life circumstances to transform Han affliction sufficiently through progressive change to a new narrative identity from a problem-saturated, misrepresentative narrative identity. Building upon this promising practice, the implications are discussed. The theoretical perspective of Han transformation practice for downtrodden clients offers hope with focus on the concepts of the Latter Heaven’s Order from Korean ethnophilosophical thoughts: Jeung San Do and the unique Korean mathematical philosophy, Jeongyeok (Right Change).

“My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaveth steadily…
Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;…

The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned…
- Quote from The Weaver written by Grant Colfax Tuller

Many studies of Korean Han한恨 overemphasize a static and closed emotional aspect of Han한恨. The studies characterize Han as destructive, pathological, an oppressed state with somatic symptoms of mental disease (Choi, 2011, Kim, 1996, Oh, 2015, 2021). Han also refers to a complex of conscious and unconscious entanglement of the frustration of desire or will, the catastrophe of life, and the paranoid and obsessive attitudes and wounds of the mind (Kim, 1996). Choi (2011) defines Han as the mind that thinks about a certain object and stays in the heart, so it becomes stagnant and becomes Han like a vase and it has the meaning of limiting. Han means standing still. Han is referred to an indigenous Korean construct with a rich psychological, social, cultural background with connotations to refer to an emotional residue of the mind (S.M. Lee, 1991; S.W. Lee, 1994). These views represent only one side of Korean Han. It is the external manifestation, the explicit of Han. Little is known about the other side of Han, the implicit side of Han.

Few studies focus on conceptualizing the nature and internal mental structure and processes of Han transformation. Oh (2021) merged self-psychology and Christian spirituality of healing. Oh defines Han as an oppressed feeling in Korean society. Oh (2021) explains that Han is caused by self-splitting which employs a deceptive self-object image and the state of feeling unloved that is the characteristic vicious Han-ridden circle. This is a place for the beginning of healing, where there are both the feeble self and deepest manifest as self-fragility. Obtaining heathy self-object experiences no longer result in the feeling of fragility associated with the resolution of Han. From a Korean literature approach, Ahn (1988) analyzed the dynamic principle that transforms the smoldering structure of “Han” into a resolution structure. Through the analysis of the Korean poem “Chohon” and Korean short story “Baettaragi,” Anh (1988) articulated that “dialectical, sequential principles is one of several methods and processes to solve Han; he explained dynamics in relation to the dialectical imagination that sublimated extreme emotion into Han” (Ahn, 1988, p, 21).

This deeper aspect of Han represents quiet but dynamic, ceased but moving, nothingness, but with great potential for transformation. This nature of Han simultaneously resonates with further spiritual awareness, growth, and maturation. In particular, Yang (2021b) offers the valuable concept of Han associated with Juyeok’s Gangwae(간괘艮卦) that is considered the most important gwae among 64 gwae. From an aesthetics of cessation and movement, Yang articulates the meaning of Gangwae(간괘艮卦). Gan is “cease” but it’s not saying that way because Gan represents a shape of mountain that has a meaning of being stable, heavy, and faithful. Gan can be understood as: the top is to cease and the bottom is to be calm. Ceasing occurs because it feels at ease (Yang, 2021b). As Yang (2021b) emphasizes, this concept of Gangwae(간괘艮卦) has implication for the Early-Latter Heaven Gaebyeok thought which will be discussed in depth later. Yang(2021b) also defines Gan as “time centered 시중(時中) that is a dynamic concept with focus on the harmony of existence, awareness, values, and actions” (p.442). The author argues that Han constitutes two sides of a coin. The co-existence of the implicit invisible and explicit manifested aspects of Han can transform into spiritual and interpersonal growth and maturation. While every Han story is different for persons and their personal anguish, they all share a common thread of uncommon courage, silent power of sacred rest, and resilience – the courage not only to survive, but to persevere and rebuild their shattered lives. People with Han were once crushed, but not destroyed, waiting tearfully for a new dawn. Although there is no exact translation and interpretation of the meaning of Han 한恨 into English, it denotes long-held mind entanglements with suffering that is developed over time by tragic life events and situations. Han can be seen as an ethnocultural form of Korean lamentation. It reflects a deep intra-psychic process associating and interacting with the external historical-social environment. For that reason, Han involves very complex and comprehensive mental processes that have a transforming power that has not yet been recognized in the Western culture.

Change Processes from Korean Ethnophilosophical Thoughts:
Principles of Creation-Transformation

Because many Han stories have shared the common root causes of 원한怨恨 and 원한寃恨, this article focuses on the concepts of 원한怨恨 and 원한寃恨. From Korean ethno-cosmological philosophical thought, Han is defined in broader context of the Later Heaven Gaebyeok (Ahn, 2019b; Jeung San Do Dojeon Publication Society, 2016; Yang, 2020, 2021a, 2021b; You, 2001, 2011, 2021). The concept of Han has many close familial concepts. Examples are 원한怨恨, 원한寃恨,정한情恨, 원한願恨, 해원(解怨) and 해한(解恨). In this article, Han한恨 is viewed as reflected in Wonhan 원한怨恨 and WonHan원한寃恨 that aims for 해원(解寃) and 해한(解恨). Particualry, Wonhan 원한寃恨 has a remarkable connection to the fundamental idea of the Autumn season of Wonsibanbon (seeking out the beginning and returning to the origin) and Cheonjigongsa (Work of Renewing Heaven and Earth). Conceptualizing Han, You (2011) explains the difference between Won원怨 and Han한恨. Han한恨 is a self-generating oppressive state of the subjective mind and is absent from specific offender(s) as reflected in the phrase: disentangle the entangled, Han pul-i. You (2011) suggests that the resolution of Han is through artistic and religious-spiritual forms as opposed to internal recognition of Han. In contrast, Won원怨 recognizes obvious offender(s) and involves an inter-subjective victim and offender relationship. The resolution of 원한怨恨 is through fighting back against interpersonal injustice. Furthermore, You (2001) separates WonHan원한怨恨 from 원한寃恨. Won원寃 is formed by the power of another as obvious offender(s) and by a discriminating social system, environment, custom, etc. Won원寃 is considered as a prior stage of 원한怨恨. When Won寃 is caused by a powerful person, it goes deeper and then it emerges as WonHan원한怨恨. And “when won is caused by unclear external social and cultural circumstances it becomes Han한恨. Through the entanglement, WonHan 원한寃恨 grows further into WonHan원한怨恨, Salgi살기殺氣, and vengeful qi (척隻)” (You, 2011, p.152). Salgi살기殺氣 and Chuck (척隻) are harmful energies that are an external expression of WonHan 원한寃恨. Particularly, Chuck (척隻) is defined as “vengeful, harmful energy that results from feelings such as anger, jealousy envy, malice, and hatred harbored by humans and spirits” (Jeung San Do Dojeon Publication Society, 2016, p. 303).

From Jeung San Do’s philosophical perspective, Wonhan 원한寃恨 refers to “bitterness and grief representing torment internalized by all sentient beings under the Early Heaven’s order of mutual conflict and domination” (Jeung San Do Dojeon Publication Society, 2016, p. 287). Jeung San Do’s conceptualization of Han emphasizes more the destructive power of wonhan 원한寃恨 than 원한怨恨. Furthermore, Jeong San Do explains that “resolving bitterness and grief is the only way to achieve eternal peace for humanity” (Ahn, 2019, p. 341) and even instructs that “Be vigilant against sins arising from your mind, mouth or intentions, and never provoke vengeful qi (척隻) within others” (5:240).

Jeung San Do Dojeon sums up “the destructive power of WonHan 원한寃恨” (Ahn, 2019b, p. 343) engendered by the conflict-domination order very well in the statements of Dojeon:

“The bitterness and grief of a single person is enough to impede the flow of Heaven and Earth qi, energy (Dojeon 2:68); “If all the bitterness and grief born of mutual conflict and domination were allowed to explode, the universe itself would collapse into ruin” (Dojeon 2:17); A woman left with deeply held Won원怨, her harmful energy reaches out to heaven; the divine transformation project does not work out well(Dojeon 2:64:5); and Women’s Han한恨 is full of the Heaven and the Earth. Blocking the path of the Heaven and the Earth, and her effusion will burst forth and eventually destroy the human world. Therefore, if this WonHan원한寃恨 is not resolved, the world cannot be saved even if a great man who possesses the virtues of the Holy Spirit and the literary and martial arts comes out (Dojeon 2:52:2-3).

Significantly enough, You (2001) defines Won 원寃 not as limited to psychological symptoms of a pathological mind, but a universal characteristic of all beings due to the inevitable result of the conflict and domination-led Early Heaven era. 원한寃恨 is full of the heaven and the earth due to inevitable results from the conflict driven Early Heaven history. In the same way, K. J. Ahn, Jeung San Do Master (2019b) defines Han as more of a universal feeling that is deep-felt, aroused by failing to accomplish what one has long sought to achieve due to the hardship and pain resulting from the order of mutual conflict.

The character “Won” 怨 (to resent) and “Han” 恨 (to be regretful) are usually used to express Won-Han, that is, the resentment and grief emerging from the deepest part of the mind. However, Sangjenim used a different character for “Won(寃)” one with a different meaning, namely, “bitterness, embittered.” Here, bitterness refers to the pain accumulated in one’s mind due to experiencing unfairness and injustice. It is an uneasy feeling aroused ad experienced individually when one has been done a unilateral wrong by another. In contrast, the combination of these two characters, WonHan원한寃恨 refers to the mind being full of deep resentment due to an event that led to one-sided bitterness and resentment. The accumulation of such bitterness and grief is a destiny that humanity can’t evade, as we exist in this physical body and live in a world of mutual conflict. (Ahn, 2019b, p.341)

WonHan 원한寃恨 requires a total resolution project of Haewon해원解寃 (resolution of bitterness and grief). And “the totality of Haewon (resolution of bitterness and grief) reflects the ultimate purpose of Jeung San Do’s Cheonjigongsa 천지공사天地公事 (Work of Renewing Heaven and Earth)” (You, 2001, p. 66). Building upon this metaphysical idea of Cheonjigongsa 천지공사天地公事, the Wonsibanbon concept emphasizes three core principles: Haewon (resolution of bitterness and grief), Sangsaeng(mutual life-giving and life-saving), and Boeun (requital of benevolence). The three principles are interlocking concepts that support each other for the successful completion of Cheonjigongsa associated with the work of creation-transformation. Korean ethnophilosophical thinking of Latter Heaven Gaebyeok (Ahn, 2019b; Yang, 2020, 2021; You, 2001, 2011, 2021) provides a well-conceived conceptual framework for understanding of Han transformation processes. The concepts of Oppressed Yin and Revered Yang 억음존양抑陰尊陽 and 정음정양正陰正陽 represent the key to the Dao of HaeWon 해원(解寃). It brings eternal life creation transformation from the old Age of Oppressed Yin and Revered Yang 억음 존양抑陰尊陽 to the new Age of Equality Between Women and Men(정음정양,正陰正陽). Particularly, “the concept of oppressed Yin and Revered Yang (억음 존양抑陰尊陽) provides practical meaning for the Dao of HaeWon”(You, 2011, p.189). The Early Heaven is the world of oppressed yin and revered yang (억음 존양抑陰尊陽). This reflects “how women have suffered all form of contempt and oppression in the heaven-based (yang) culture of the Early Heaven. An age of equality between women and men will be established in the coming Later Heaven, wherein all men will be magnificent men and all women will be magnificent women” (Ahn, 2019b, p. 53). Jeung San Do explains the new order of the world in the context of an enlightened collective action: “I will make it the era of equalization of men and women... In the world to come, both men and women will be the big bosses and the big bosses” (Dojeon 2:53:2-4).

The dao of HaeWon해원解寃 is made unavoidable for moving forward to Sangsaeng. This creates a sacred transformation of humanity from the order of Geon and Gon of the Early Heaven of oppressed yin and revered yang (억음 존양抑陰尊陽) to the new order of the Later Heaven of equality yin and yang, balanced yin and yang, 정음정양正陰正陽. This also reflects a paradigm shift from the older order of Early Heaven’s Majesty to the new Later Heaven order of the Era of Humanity Majesty (人尊於人). Cosmic order changes from conflict which leads to unbalanced yin and yang of the Early Heaven Gaebyeok, to equality yin and yang, balanced yin and yang of the Later Heaven Gaebyeok. The order of balanced yin and yang is interfaced between the universe and human beings where they meet in the balanced yin and yang. You (2011) argues that “Haewon해원解寃 is possible; and entangled Han can be disentangling when Heaven and Earth as well as Heaven and Humanity touch each other” (pp.121-122). Jeong San Do explains the idea of mind as:

All life is based on the one mind and people live together in harmony through love. Mind is defined as “the eternal origin of life. Bittiness and grief scar mind and deliver a traumatic shock that cannot be erased from one’s life, transforming one’s inner person into a spirit filled with bitterness and grief. If our inner person transforms into a spirit of bitterness and grief, the anger, curses, and revenge of the spirits of bitterness and grief cause all kinds of terrible disasters. (Ahn, 2019b, pp.342-343)

This explains the importance of healing and restoration of the entangled mind according to the Principle of One Cosmic Year (Ahn, 2019b). This states that “Early Heaven is the time of Heaven-Earth Misfor tune, while the Later Heaven is the time of Earth-Heaven Peace” (Dojeon, 2:43). This suggests that Han can be transformed by renewing the problem-saturated mind, reconstructing misrepresentative narrative identity, and aligning with the new cosmic order of the Latter Heaven. Figure 1 presents the principle of one cosmic year and the changed orders effects on all creation, including humanity. And Table 1 shows the fundamental cosmic energy change to right position of yang and yin from Heaven-Earth Misfortune (䷋):천지비天地否 to Earth-Heaven Peace ䷊)지천태地天泰 that signifies the cosmic power for Han transformation.

(Source: Ahn, 2019b, p. 37; Jeung San Do Dojeon Publication Society, 2016, p. 7)).

Table 1: Cosmic Energy Change. Source: Ahn, 2019b, p.40.

Another important point is that the concept of two opposing cosmic energies in Early Heaven and Later Heaven implies the sacred providence associated with sorrow saturated narrative identity transformation. According to Kyu-tae Lee (1987, 1991), the Chinese character “Han” is composed of two characters: “Shim” (mind, heart), and “Yin” which means “to remain in a quiet, still state.” This may be an end stage. In a different context of defining Han, Yang (2020, 2021b) explains that the Chinese character Han 恨 constitutes 心mind and 艮gan. Han is understood as the mind of Gan (艮). Gangwae(간괘艮卦) explains the principle of ganbang艮方. Gan艮 is a gwae 卦 when there is the end stage and the new beginning stage of all things. This means Gan艮 as “종어간(終於艮)시어간(始於艮)” (Yang, 2020, p.79, Yang, 2021a, p. 383). The most important meaning of Gangwae(간괘艮卦) is that all things start and end in the Gan. The end means the end of all human history and civilization, and the point of completion in the cycle of creation and completion (or re-creation). Therefore, this earth is the most intimate concentration of Heaven’s providence and the gathering of special energy. It is where the energy of fruitfulness and harmony matures and bears fruit, aiming at completion and maturation.

Conceptualization of Han as deeply rooted in Korean ethnophilosophical perspective makes an effective method of inquiry of the ultimate purpose of humanity as associated with transforming self-identity and social disparities. The author suggests that in addition to understanding complex multi levels of intrapsychic processes of Han, artistic and/or spiritual forms of human experiences are instrumental in Han transformation as well. This article emphasizes that Han exists as the two sides of a coin. Both the explicit state of being static, passive, ceased as problem-saturated and the implicit state of being dynamic energetic, passionate, and moving, as creation-transfiguration are alive in Han. From a postmodern perspective, the definition is helpful to separate the person from the problem and the problem from the person. Han treatment approach informed by postmodern social constructionist ideas, emphasizes the importance of a participatory partnership between therapist and client family (and/or larger system), and the challenges of a “not-knowing” stance toward clients.

In this article, Korean Han is referred to as problem-saturated misrepresentative narrative identity with long held-deeply rooted traumatic distress for the disadvantaged and marginalized. And Han transformation is defined as a journey of healing and restoration in a variety of ways with actual changes from a conflict saturated narrative identity to a new mutually beneficial narrative identity. This definition also includes the importance of the shared valid root cause of Han(한恨) with Won(원寃) (full of deep resentment) that has universal, total, and historical meaning (You, 2001).

Mental health practices that enable individuals to be healed from Han may be particularly important for disadvantaged and marginalized groups. Building upon the author’s integrative and interactive notions of postmodernist cross-cultural and linguistic approaches, this article describes a clinical study. The subject is a Korean American immigrant woman as representative of a culturally and linguistically disadvantaged and marginalized client group in the Unites States. The idea for this specific research emerged from my dissatisfaction with the limited attention to culturally and linguistically effective treatment approaches and research of multicultural and postmodern philosophies of science, as well as to recent postmodernist intellectual developments in the social sciences.

Integration of Multiculturalism and Postmodernism

Within the multiculturalism movement of the 1980s (Latting & Zundel, 1986; Korbin, 1987), as well as the postmodern spirit of the 1990s, a family member’s experience in therapy might be one of collaboration and empowerment—with a solution evolving naturally out of dialogue—rather than a therapy experience that is prescribed and/or directed (Anderson, Goolishian & Winderman, 1986; Goolishian & Anderson, 1987, 1990; Anderson & Goolishian, 1988, 1992; Goolishian, 1990; Nichols & Schwartz, 1998; Lax, 1992; Laird, 1993, 1995; H. Anderson, 1997).

In particular, the narrative/constructivist and postmodern movement of the 1990s has challenged the epistemological limitations of modern approaches. The limitations of the physical, cybernetic, biological, and sociological epistemologies that inform the clinical field of social work have been criticized (Watzlawick, 1976, 1984; Dell & Goolishian, 1981; Sampson, 1981; Gergen, 1982, 1985, 1991, 1994; Kleinman, 1986, 1988; Cecchin, 1987; T. Anderson, 1987, 1990; Anderson & Goolishian, 1988, 1990; Atkinson & Heath, 1990; Chessick, 1990; Flax, 1990; White & Epston, 1990; J. D. Anderson, 1992; McNamee & Gergen, 1992; Hoffman, 1993; Shotter, 1993; Gergen, Hoffman, & Anderson, 1995; D. S. Becvar & R. J. Becvar, 2000; H. Anderson, 1997). The narrative/constructivist movement concerns a much broader range of the human experience than merely a few oversimplified, characteristic ways of behaving. Postmodernism concerns itself with the total variety of meanings that can be derived from the situational and linguistic contexts of a given situation. Accordingly, the rapid shift to an epistemology of the semantic and the narrative results in a more interpretive position regarding empirical data gathered in the field of mental health, a welcome change from previous characterizations of child abuse as a disease.

The author argues that the current therapeutic culture involves the realities of multiple therapeutic systems with an emphasis on pathologizing, victimizing, and authoritative or interventive foci. Therapeutic language within the current discourse is deficiency-based and yet is often assumed to represent all behavioral and mental realities accurately (H. Anderson, 1997). From the vantage point of cultural-linguistic dissonance, the current Child Protective Services(CPS) delivery system needs to be critically examined for its counter-therapeutic effects among clients representing diverse cultural backgrounds (Billingsley & Giovannoni, 1972; Adebimpe, 1981; Jansson, 1994; Brown, 1997). Furthermore, K. S. Song (1986) has suggested that existing child welfare service networks have not reached out to the Korean American community. Knowledge of preventive strategies to reduce the risk of child abuse is important, as is the ability to assist marginalized Korean clients in negotiating “multiple perspectives and accepting the relativity of meaning itself…in the relational context in which behavior is situated” (Gergen & Kaye, 1992, p. 183).

A postmodern collaborative-narrative approach to therapy highlights socially created multiple meanings and narratives/voices (Pen & Frankfurt, 1994; Freedman & Combs, 1996) and empowerment processes. This approach also helps to define identities in terms of organizing and categorizing mutual social behavior. This approach will help the therapist understand a client’s construct system, the semantic meaning accorded to child abuse, and the actual personal experience of child abuse. This practice also involves understanding the way that clients relate and respond to each other in their everyday lives (Freeman, 1993). And, in working with Korean family clients of CPS, this approach also facilitates the therapy process. It enables relationships to create/recreate meanings and understanding, and to construct/reconstruct realities of the self with a sense of freedom and hope (H. Anderson, 1997).

Key Concepts in Postmodernist Multicultural Practice

Circular questions refer to relationship questions that investigate the recurring contextual patterns of relating, constituents of a family system (Penn, 1982; Fleuridas, Nelson, & Rosenthal, 1986, p. 114).

CPS Korean client is defined as a family composed of first-generation Korean immigrant parents and one-and-a-half- and/or second-generation children addressing a problem of child abuse with CPS in Cook County, Illinois, and the Lake County Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) regions.

Conversational questions are defined as circular and reflective questions based on circular assumptions about the nature of the mental phenomena used in therapy (Tomm, 1987, 1988).

Dialogue refers to thinking and communication that allow for creativity and consciousness through the complementary autonomy of participant perspectives (Bråten, 1992).

External dialogue refers to conversation that occurs to all people present, spontaneously joining in the telling of the story, adding to, and expanding on it rather than correcting the other’s version (H. Anderson, 1997, p. 128).

Internal dialogue refers to conversation or internal speech (Vygotsky, 1962, p. 218) that occurs in language, putting thoughts into words (H. Anderson, 1997).

Meaning is defined as that which is represented by the Korean client’s narratives in therapy about what constitutes his or her actions pertaining to the child abusive behavior.

Monologue refers to thinking and communication that involve control through the monopoly of a single perspective in terms of which a domain is defined (Bråten, 1992; Nelson, 1989).

Narrative is a discursive schema located within local individual and broader contexts, as well as within culturally driven rules and conventions (H. Anderson, 1997).

Physical child abuse is defined as a problem dealt with in therapy emanating from social (cultural) narratives and self-definitions that do not yield an effective self-agency for the parenting tasks defined (H. Anderson, 1997).

Reflective questions are questions that provide new contextual information to the family (Tomm, 1987, 1988).

Self-agency is defined as a personal perception of competency for action, including freedom (from an imprisoning past, present, and future) and hope (for a different future) (T. Anderson, 1987, 1990; J.D. Anderson, 1992; H. Anderson 1997).

Story-telling is defined as a therapeutic technique that changes the emotional setting or viewpoint. It relates to a situation that is experienced, applying a broader and more fluid context of meaning that embraces past, present, and future dimensions, rather than the immediate, narrow interactional context that surrounds the problem (Eron & Lund, 1993).

Therapeutic dialogical conversation is defined as a generative process in which new meanings emerge and are mutually constructed between client and therapist (H. Anderson, 1997).

Postmodern Constructivist, Empowerment, and Narrative Theories

Focus on how group members create and maintain their realities through life stories and subjective experiences.

Are based on the premise: humans attach unique meanings to life experiences (subjective realties) based on their social experiences and dialogue with the world around them

Transformational and interactional leadership approaches can be used to reframe stories, to empower members, and to bring out their strengths, resiliencies, and capacities.

Members can be helped by the leader/other group members to create new life stories, viewing their oppressive and negative life stories with more positive frames of reference that build on the opportunities, capacities, and strengths available to them.

Other narrative therapy techniques are journaling, letter writing, mutual aid, visualization, cognitive imagery, and mindfulness mediation

The notion of liberating members from externally imposed constraints, helping those who are oppressed to come to terms with socially imposed restrictions, and reframing and redefining their lives through empowerment and strengths-based approaches.

The following describes the postmodern philosophical framework, which provides the theoretical perspective for practice with culturally and linguistically diverse people. The major concepts are social construction theory, hermeneutic theory (both interpretive perspectives), and narrative theory. H. Anderson and Goolishian’s theory of therapy as a collaborative systems approach is also discussed.

Social Construction Theory

Social construction theory (SCT) is “the idea that reality is not independently ‘out there’ but construed through collective meaning making” (H. Anderson, 1997, p. xiii). SCT describes perceptions of the world and human experiences as follows:

Supplementation

Gergen (1994) offers the concept of supplementation as a descriptor for the ways in which utterances and actions coordinate to produce meaning. Supplementation is a reciprocal process in which a person supplements or responds to another person’s utterances or actions. The potential for meaning in such a dyad develops through the supplementation process. Each person in a dyad has embedded a range of other relationships—previous, present, and future—and the multiple contexts of those relationships influence the supplementation and meaning developed within the current dyad (H. Anderson, 1997).

Joint Action

Similar to Gergen’s analysis of social construction are the ideas of Shotter (1993), who refers to his account as “rhetorical-responsive.” He suggests that common to all social constructionism is “the dialectical emphasis upon both the contingency and the creativity of human interaction—on our making of, and being made by, our social realities” (1993, p. 13). Shotter, who is influenced by the later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and also by that of Michael Billig, Mikhail Bakhtin (Holquist, 1994), L.S. Vygotsky (Crain, 2000), and V.N. Volosinov, is particularly occupied with the self-other relationship and the ways in which people spontaneously coordinate their everyday mutual activities. Shotter (1993) is also interested in “how speakers and listeners seem to be able to create and maintain between themselves…an extensive background context of living and lived (sensuously structured) relations, within which they are sustained as the kind of human beings they are” (p. 12). According to Shotter (1984) “all actions by human beings involved with others in a social group in this fashion are dialogically or responsively linked in some way. Both already executed actions and anticipated next possible actions” (p. 52-53).

Social Constructionism and Constructivism

Both social constructionism and constructivism are two sources of the postmodern paradigm (Nichols & Schwartz, 1998). Social constructionism and constructivism reject the notion that the mind reflects reality, but rather advance the idea that reality is a human construct. Both perspectives agree with philosopher Richard Palmer’s assertion that “one’s view of man (a person) is a function of one’s assumptions about reality” (p. 16). Although there are similarities, there is a primary difference in how each theory arrives at and views this construction (H. Anderson, 1997). Constructivism and social constructivism (Rosen, 1991) arose from different intellectual traditions. Early constructivism was associated with the works of the developmentalist Piaget (1954) and the personal construct psychologist Kelly (1955). Later constructivism, often called radical constructivism

In contrast, social constructionism emphasizes the interactional and communicative context as the meaning maker—the mind is relational and the development of meaning is discursive (H. Anderson, 1997). Constructivism, Gergen (1994) warned, is “lodged within the tradition of Western individualism” (1994, p. 68). H. Anderson (1997) also notes that:

Social constructionism moves away from the individual constructing mind and challenges the notion of the autonomous individual. The individual is no longer the discrete object of understanding nor the creator of meaning. Mind does not create of meaning; instead, mind is meaning. (1997, p. 43)

This emphasis is what Shotter (1993) referred to as “conversational realities.” Social constructionism moves beyond the social contextualization of behavior and simple relativity. Context is thought of as a multi-relational and linguistic domain in which behavior, feelings, emotions, and understandings are communal. They occur within a plurality of ever-changing, complex webs of relationships and social processes, and within local and broader linguistic domains-practices-discourses (H. Anderson, 1997).

Thus, social constructionist ideas may be helpful in implementing recommendations that consider ethnic, linguistic, and cultural factors in the provision of appropriate social work interactions with Korean-American families experiencing physical child abuse. Social constructionism is compatible with social workers’ thinking that takes a multicultural perspective (Laird, 1995). Gonzalez, Biever, and Gardner (1994) note that social constructionism and multiculturalism are similar in many ways, yet the ideas of the former have not been extensively applied to the latter. Social constructivism can provide a framework for examining and understanding social and cultural influences that blend well with the multicultural perspective. This postmodern approach lends support to the efforts of the multicultural perspective to respect the merits of multiple belief systems and multiple understandings as legitimate considerations in therapy.

Hermeneutic Theory

“Hermeneutic theory is the art of interpretation, newly excavated from the past” (H Anderson, 1997, p. xiii). Hermeneutics is one of the earliest questionings of the Cartesian theory of the dualistic nature of knowledge, of the separation between the observer and the observed. Hermeneutics dates to the 17th century, when it emerged originally as an approach to analyze and ensure appropriate interpretation of the Bible and later literary texts (H. Anderson, 1997).

H. Anderson (1997) describes that “by the late 18th century, and largely under the influence of philosophers Friedrich Wilhelm Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey in the 19th century, hermeneutics had broken from this text-based tradition and become an approach to interpreting and understanding human behavior, emerging as” (p. 38) [a] “genuine philosophical discipline and general theory of the social and human sciences” (Mueller-Vollmer, 1989, p. ix).

In the 20th century, philosophical hermeneutics was usually associated with the views of thinkers such as Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jurgen Habermas, Martin Heidegger, and Paul Ricoeur, and hermeneutics began to take a postmodern turn (Madison, 1988; Palmer, 1987). Broadly speaking, hermeneutics concerns itself with understanding and interpretation: understanding meaning derived from a text or discourse, including human emotion and behavior, and understanding as a process that is influenced by the beliefs, assumptions, and intentions of the interpreter. If from a hermeneutic perspective all understanding is interpretive, then one can never reach a true understanding; a speaker’s meaning cannot be fully understood, much less duplicated, by another. The truth is not revealed; there is no single right account of an event; and there is no single correct interpretation. Each account, each interpretation is only one version of the truth. Truth is constructed through the interaction of the participants and it is contextual. Meaning is informed by the interpreter’s fore-structure of understanding, and what Gadamer (1975) termed as “prejudices”, as well as the fusion of horizons (p. 272) between reader and text (in the therapy domain, substitute “people involved” “for reader and text”) (p. 338).

From this hermeneutic perspective, understanding is linguistically, historically, and culturally situated; that is, “language and history are always both conditions and limits of understanding (Wachterhauser, 1986, p. 6). Understanding is circular, because it always involves reference to the known; the part (the local) always refers to the whole (the global) and conversely the whole always refers to the part—what Heidegger (1962) termed the hermeneutic circle. The process of understanding is the process of immersing one’s self into the context of the other, and vice versa, each being open to the other. Hermeneutics “assumes that problems in understanding are problems of a temporary failure to understand a person’s or group’s intentions, a failure which can be overcome by continuing the dialogue, interpretive process” (Warneke, 1987, p. 120). H. Anderson (1997) resonates with Chessick’s (1990) opinion that hermeneutics suggests “meaning in a dyadic relationship is generated by language and resides not in the mind of individual speakers or writers but in the dialogue itself” (p. 269); in Gergen’s (1994) phrase, this becomes a “relational theory of human meaning” (p. 264).

Narrative Theory

“Narrative theory is implying that human events only become intelligible by being storied” (H. Anderson, 1997, p. xiii). Conversation and dialogue assume a narrative form, and narrative is a way we use language

to relate to others. It is a discursive schema with culturally-driven rules and conventions that provide structure and coherence to the fragments of our life events and experiences. We organize, account for, and make sense of our experiences through narratives or stories (H. Anderson, 1997). From a narrative analogy, a therapist participates with a client in the telling, the retelling, the hearing, and the creating of the client’s narratives concerning his or her well-being and/or problems.

Narratives and stories involve both content and process: the facts of, telling of, listening to, and interacting with the narrative. From a postmodern perspective, both content and process are critical. Much of the successful use of a professional’s content expertise depends upon process expertise. The aim of the latter is to connect, collaborate, and construct a mutually acceptable reality with the client, what psychologist Sylvia London (personal communication, July 1995) described as the creation of “a community of shared resources.” The relationship becomes less hierarchical, less authoritative, more egalitarian, and more mutual. It emphasizes a shared selection of topics, mutual control of the interview, less client uncertainty, and less interference with a client’s conceptualization of the problem (H. Anderson, 1997).

Collaborative Language Systems Approach to Therapy with Culturally and Linguistically Marginalized Clients

Both H. Anderson’s and Goolishian’s recent theories of therapy are rapidly moving toward a more hermeneutic and interpretive position. This trend leans heavily on the view that human action takes place in a reality of understanding that is created through social construction and dialogue (Anderson, Goolishian, Pulliam, & Winderman, 1986).

Goolishian’s current narrative position relies on the following premises about the postmodern philosophy underlying the theories used in the study (H. Anderson & Goolishian, 1988, 1992; Goolishian & Anderson, 1987, 1990):

Human systems are language generating and, simultaneously, meaning-generating systems.

Communication and discourse define social organization.

A sociocultural system is the product of social communication, rather than communication being a product of structural organization.

The therapeutic system is such a linguistic system.

Meaning and understanding are socially constructed.

We do not arrive at, or have, meaning and understanding until we take communicative action, some meaning generating discourse, or dialogue within the system for which the communication has relevance. A therapeutic system is a system for which the communication has a relevance specific to its dialogical exchange.

Any system in therapy is one that has dialogically coalesced around some “problem.” In this sense, therapy is a system distinguished by the evolving co-created meaning, the “problem,” rather than an arbitrary social structure, such as family. The therapeutic system thus is a problem-organizing, problem “dissolving” system.

Therapy is a linguistic event that takes place in what is known as a therapeutic conversation through dialogue, a crisscrossing of ideas in which new meanings are continually evolving toward the “dissolving” of problems, and thus the dissolving of the therapy system. Thus, this becomes a problem-organizing, problem dissolving system.

The role of the therapist is that of a conversational artist whose expertise is in the arena of creating a space for, and facilitating, a dialogical conversation as a participant-observer and a participant-facilitator.

The therapist exercises this art through the use of conversational or therapeutic questions. The therapeutic question is the primary instrument to facilitate the development of conversational space and the dialogical process. It originates from a position or narrative posture of “not-knowing,” rather than a knowing position or paradigmatic posture that is informed by method and that demands specific answers based on the therapist’s pre-held theoretical narratives.

Problems dealt with in therapy are actions that express human narratives in such a way that they diminish one’s sense of agency and personal liberation. A problem situation is one that produces a concerned or alarmed objection to a state of affairs for which we are unable to define competent action (agency) for ourselves. In this sense, problems exist in language and problems are unique to the narrative context from which they derive their meaning.

Change in therapy is the dialogical creation of new narrative, and, therefore, the opening of an opportunity for new agency. The transformational power of narrative rests in its capacity to re-relate the events of our lives in the context of new and different meanings. We live in and through the narrative identities that we develop in conversation with one another. Therapy simply provides the expertise to participate in this process.

These premises place heavy emphasis on the role of language, conversation, self, and story as they influence clinical theory and work. This position assumes that human action takes place in a reality that is created through social construction and dialogue (T. Anderson, 1987; H. Anderson & Goolishian, 1988; H. Anderson, Goolishian, Pulliam et al., 1986; H. Anderson, Goolishian, & Winterman, 1986; Goolishian & Anderson, 1987, 1990). This is the world of human language and discourse. Goolishian and Anderson discussed these ideas about systems of meaning under the rubric of problem-determined systems, problem-organizing dissolving systems, and language systems (H. Anderson & Goolishian, 1988, 1990, 1992; H. Anderson, Goolishian, Pulliam et al., 1986; H. Anderson, Goolishian, & Winterman, 1986).

Not-Knowing Therapeutic Questions

Therapeutic questions from a not-knowing position are in many ways similar to the Socratic method of questioning. Not-knowing questions bring things that are unknown or unforeseen into the realm of possibility. Therapeutic questions are impelled by differences in understanding and are drawn from the future by the as-yet-unrealized possibility of a community of knowledge. In asking from this position, the therapist is able to move with the “not-yet-said” (H. Anderson & Goolishian, 1988, 1992). It is a conversational movement based on the sense of what had just been said. It moves with the narrative truth of the client’s story rather than through challenges to it, and remains within the locally developed and locally negotiated meaning system. It is in this local and continuing process of question and answer that a particular understanding or narrative becomes a starting point for the new and “not-yet-said” (H. Anderson & Goolishian, 1992).

Not-knowing Position

The concept of not-knowing stands in contrast to an understanding by the therapist that is based on existing theoretical narratives. Not-knowing requires that our understandings, explanations, and interpretations in therapy not be limited by prior experiences, theoretically formed truths, and knowledge. This description of the not-knowing position is influenced by hermeneutic and interpretive theories and the related concepts of social constructionism, language, and narrative (Gergen, 1985; Shapiro & Sica, 1984; Shotter & Gergen, 1989; Wachterhauser, 1986). Thus, achieving this therapeutic conversation requires that the therapist adopt a not-knowing position. The not-knowing position entails a general attitude or stance in which the therapist’s actions communicate an abundant, genuine curiosity with a need to know more about what has been said, rather than conveying preconceived opinions and expectations about the client, the problem, or what must be changed. The therapist, therefore, positions herself or himself in such a way as always to be in the state of being informed by the client. The therapist, therefore, positions herself or himself in such a way as always to be in the state of being informed by the client. In not-knowing, the therapist adopts an interpretive stance that relies on the continuous analysis of experience as it occurs in a particular context. Such a position allows the therapist to always maintain continuity with the client’s position and to grant primary importance to the client’s worldview, meanings, and understandings. The therapist simply becomes part of the circle of meaning or the hermeneutic circle (for discussions of the circle of meaning or the hermeneutic circle, see Wachterhauser, 1986, pp. 23-24; Warneke, 1987, pp. 83-87).

To “not-know” is not to have an unfounded judgment, but instead refers more widely to the set of assumptions and meanings that the therapist brings to the clinical interview, which is cultivated by listening to the full meanings of clients’ description of their experience (H. Anderson & Goolishian, 1992).

Table 2: Paradigm Shift from Modernism to Postmodernism in Therapy

Therapeutic Process of Dialogical-Conversation/Collaborative-Narrative Relationships

Maintain curiosity: In keeping with the role of therapist-as-learner, the therapist should maintain a strong sense of curiosity about the client’s story or problem description (Cecchin, 1987). H. Anderson and Goolishian (1988) suggest that “the more quickly a therapist understands people, the less opportunity there is for dialogue, and the more opportunity for misunderstanding” (p. 382). Therapy, then, can become merely a validation of the therapist’s views, rather than an expansion of possibilities for the client.

Maintain coherence and create dialogic space for the client’s story: Clients say they want a chance to tell their complete stories. This involves working within a client’s reality—his or her language, vocabulary, and metaphors—about the problem and its imagined solutions in a familiar way. This also helps lessen the likelihood that the therapist’s voice, instead of the client’s, dominates and shapes the story told and hinders the development of future versions with helpful nuances (H. Anderson, 1997).

Collaboration between client and therapist: Therapy relies on finding new ways to dialogue about those parts of clients’ stories that concern or alarm them. The therapy emphasizes collaboration between client and therapist, rather than a one-up/one-down relationship. This dialogical conversation in therapy is distinguished by shared inquiry—the coordinated action of continually responding to and interacting; of exchanging and discussing ideas, opinions, biases, memories, observations, feelings, and emotions. In this shared process, participants are in a fluid mode characterized by being in language together (H. Anderson & Goolishian, 1988) or an in-there-together, two-way, give-and-take exchange with each other. This, instead of searching for dysfunctional aspects of each client’s responses (H. Anderson, 1997; Seikkula, 1995).

Conceptualizing Four Stages of Han Transformation

For the purpose of Han transformation treatment process, a stage is a differentiable period or a discernible degree in the process of personal growth and development. The four transformative stages include: (1) the first stage of fermenting (Sak-hee-gi); (2) the second of reflecting anguished (Neuk-deul-l); (3) the third stage of disentangling or “Han-pul-li”; and (4) the last stage of freeing self-centered misconceptions or “Ma-eum-bi-eun-da” (KuiHee Song, 1999, 2004, 2016). According to Choi (1994), the concept of Han is an example of “shim-chung” psychology from an indigenous Korean perspective. “Shim-jung” psychology is used as an interpersonal schema to promote positive interpersonal relationships, providing empathy and sympathy to another person and to resolve interpersonal conflicts. In general, “shim-jung” episodes attempt to affirm the feelings of oneness and wooriness (“we-ness”) in interpersonal relations. “Shim-chung” episodes are not cognitive communications propagated through the verbal medium, but they are mind-to-mind (i.e., shim to shim) communication in which emotional feelings are used as the medium (e.g., “Chung,” affection). Choi and Kim (1995) have developed a conceptual framework to analyze “Han” episodes that involve five different stages: the reactive phase, internalization phase, transformation phase, reflective phase, and transcendental phase. But for this analysis, the first stage was not included for it was extraneous for the core client, the mother. The four transformative stages of Han are as follows:

First Stage: Fermenting (Sak-hee-k)

“Chung” (affection) is an emotional state of being paralyzed. Client is transforming the raw emotions of “Won”원寃(grudge), anger, fury, frustration, vengeance, and outrage that cannot be overtly expressed or resolved and evolve into acceptable expression of emotions. Client ultimately accepts his or her tragic events or situations. Client evaluates the tragic experiences of the past life negatively; she expresses a complex emotional and cognitive conditions, including helplessness, hopelessness, loneliness, sorrow, emptiness, suffering or bitterness, hurt, sadness, pity or self-pity, empathy, hate, deprivation, and remorse; she comes to understand that she is to blame for her fate and for her personal tragedies or understands the depth of her personal suffering. For example: Now I cannot speak about how much I was in the conflict with myself … [silence] [voice changes to low and slow] [continuing tears].

Second Stage: Reflecting (Neuk-deul-l)

Client’s raw emotions are now transformed to culturally or socially acceptable expressions. On one hand client accepts his or her tragic fate, but on the other hand, the client refuses to accept the cruel fact that he or she alone must bear the burden of the tragedy, by speaking on behalf of herself; protests against fate; individually client tries to reflect upon her personal tragedy and develop a detached view of herself and his or her life; in particular, the emotional venom of “Won” 원寃(grudge) which is transformed into the detached tears of “Han”; in such a situation, both crying and/or laughing are expressed. For example: the mother came to eight individual therapy sessions and the father came to two. The client read aloud the letter she wrote before her family and therapist during a family therapy session.

Third Stage: Disentangling (Han-pul-li)

Now the client’s personal entangled feelings of “Han” become public, released, communicated, shared, and accepted. Other people who similarly experienced “Han” personally, can empathize with the client; the clients who realize that they share a common fate with each other are bound together in full “Chung” (affection); sorrow and grief are turned into “Shin-pa-ram” (excitement) or “Sin-myung” (euphoria); “Chung” (affection) is overflowing. The client distances herself from her own tragedy; the client can be released from unspeakable mental anguish or grief from her self-imposed prison by letting her clotted emotions evaporate; the client has companions who can provide consolation and help to enhance his or her self-dignity. There is joy in sharing and accepting each other’s “Han” emotions and as a result, a sense of communion is fostered; thus, an optimistic theme evolves in the experience of “Han”; client can easily relate to the sorrows or suffering of others and easily forgive the mistakes of others. For example: The subject family, including mother, father, and two daughters, gathered together in a family meeting session; client read aloud the letter she wrote while other listened silently, replied with applause, shared and discussed significant suffering experiences with each other, including the husband, children, and therapist in the therapy.

Fourth Stage: Freeing Self-centered Misconceptions (Ma-eum-bi-eun-da)

Client now represents a leap from the previous reflective processes. Client realizes the meaning of her suffering; reaches a level of enlightenment; becomes calm, and serene or finds peace in herself and in her life; disengages from the web of life and her life is put into the family’s universal perspective known as the love of God or mother; goes beyond her desires of being the rich and/or vengful; embraces both positive and negative aspects of life. For example, by the sixth session, the client told therapist that brightness and shadow always exist side by side; and explained, “I don’t blame anyone else for my life suffering.” This category also includes non-verbal behavior in observational notes by therapist. For example, client as a mother appeared to be very cheerful and calm since the beginning of session 12.

An Actual Case Analysis of Han Transformation Treatment: A Korean American Woman

The actual case of a Korean American woman was from the author’s clinical practice at the Family Service Center in a northwestern suburb of Chicago, Illinois in the late 1990s. The author engaged in a dissertation research study of this case as a doctoral student. The author took a role of researcher–practitioner in a qualitative case study method.

Background Information Korean first-generation immigrant family, the Kim family, is composed of five family members. Mrs. Kim was born in South Korea in the late 1950s. She married Mr. Kim in Seoul, Korea, in the early 1980s. In the mid-1980s, she immigrated to the United States, and began her married life in Chicago, Illinois. Her husband, Mr. Kim, was born in South Korea in the early 1950s. In the early 1980s, he came to the United States, where his parents and siblings had already lived for one year. Their three children were born in the U.S. : Lisa, 13 (seventh grade); Christina, 7 (first grade); and Allen, six months.

A school counselor referred the Kim family for family counseling at the Family Service Center on June of the late 1990s. At that time, the school began to be concerned about continued complaints from Christina about beatings at home; and the school teacher proceeded to make a child abuse report to the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Several weeks later, after a family therapist received a call from the school counselor, Mrs. Kim finally decided to see a therapist there at the Family Service Center. During this time, there were two additional short conversations on the phone for an appointment, as the therapist responded to Mrs. Kim’s request to call her back later. At that point, Mrs. Kim appeared interested in family counseling, but had trouble finding time in her busy schedule, due to the fact that she just opened a new grocery store business and had to work until 8: 30 p.m. Client and therapist agreed upon a late time for the first meeting—9:00 p.m. in late June in the late 1990s. The Kim family came to the therapeutic conversation for 12 sessions of therapy and for a follow-up appointment one month later. Mrs. Kim was the core client and was seen for 9 sessions out of a total of 12, including 8 individual sessions (sessions 1 to 7) and one final family session (session 12) with her husband and two daughters, who were seen in sessions 8, 9, and 11. For the one month follow-up session, Mrs. Kim was seen alone, which was initially scheduled as a whole family session. Each family member signed and kept a copy of an informed consent form to participate in this study.

Mrs. Kim, as a Korean-born adult client, showed the four levels of “Han” transformative experience through the dialogical processes during therapy. From Mrs. Kim’s case, these processes represented a version of a Korean’s shared cultural-social-historical reality. “Han” transformation processes encompassed the shifting from fermenting one’s entangled emotions of suffering through the stages of reflecting and disentangling to the transforming in emptying one’s mind.

In analysis of the first stage experience of fermenting, Mrs. Kim realized her multiple helpless predicaments. The complex tragic events and situations of her story were as follows:She was born and lived in poverty, and suffered from her deprived existence, lacking opportunities and enjoyment in her early life. For example, she made irrevocable mistakes that led to tragic consequences. Apparently, her decision to get married without knowing more about her husband’s background was done to escape from adversity. Later she felt betrayed and was not able to “turn back the clock” and rectify her situation. Her husband’s mental illness acted as a turning point in her marital life. Moreover, as a daughter-in-law and wife, she was powerless to confront the authoritarian parents-in-law and her husband. Being exploited, she was not able to direct her anger, frustration, and vengeance toward her oppressors for fear of being further suppressed. As she was powerless to change her situation, she had to accept her fate and live with it. Experiences such as these of tragic events and situations provoke raw emotions of anger and frustration. She was culturally expressed to ferment these raw emotions and transform them into socially acceptable emotions. She ultimately accepted her tragic situation, and her emotions of hatred or “Won” were transformed into pity or self-pity, suffering, helplessness, and hopelessness, as well as grief.

In analysis of the second phase, reflecting indicates Mrs. Kim was able to transform the raw emotions of personal tragedy as expressed to socially and culturally acceptable forms. She accepted her fate, but, on the other hand, refused to accept the cruel fact that she alone must bear the burden of the tragedy. The one way she tried to escape this conundrum was to find a release from her own predicament. Dealing with “Han” on the individual level, she tried to reflect upon her “Han” experiences and was able to develop a detached view, known as “neuk-deul-li.” She also tried to deal with “Han” through passive acceptance of her fate, known as “seung-hwa” which originates from Buddhism. Overtime, she calmed and cried frequently during the therapy, sometimes laughing and smiling.

The third stage, disentangling was seen as a way of releasing her entangled emotions as it took place in the context of social and collective fulfillment. Examples included reflective listening to music, writing and reading letters, and collective family dialogue (which occurred during session 12) all of which were previously absent in their home life. Through all these sessions, she was able to distance herself from her own self, as well as, from her own tragedy (this is known as “Han-pul-li”). As “Han” emotions were released, a light-headed queasiness emerged for Mrs. Kim. At this stage, the personal “Han” became public, communicated, shared, and accepted. Family members, including her husband and two daughters were able to empathize, and began to realize a shared common fate, as they appeared to bond together in full affection, “Chung.” Mrs. Kim then had companions who could provide consolation and enhance her self-dignity. As a result, suffering and grief were now turned into excitement and exaltation or “shin-pa-ram.” In this context, “Han-pul-li” was a celebration of her tragedy. Even in the fate of her tragedy, Mrs. Kim, as a Korean, showed a lasting resulting optimism. This could be regarded as the power and beauty of “Han.”

In the last, the fourth stage of freeing self-centered misconceptions, Mrs. Kim displayed completion from the reflecting phase. Due to the multiple construction of religious activities cultivated in her life, Mrs. Kim reached the highest pinnacle of self-development within the Buddhism and Christian framework. Freeing self-centered misconceptions at this stage is closely tied with enlightenment, the philosophy of Buddhism and Jeung San Do. For example, she realized that life is pain and suffering during session 12 while reflecting upon her painful childhood experiences and projected them into her children’s future life. The mind emptying also occurred through love of Christian spirituality. The supreme law of divine Love now governed her whole life and everything within it. For instance, during sessions 6 and particularly in 12, when she clearly understood and consciously affirmed that this law was always operative, she experienced the omnipotent power of God, the very expression of divine love in her life. In this “spiritual knowing” about her relation to divine love and in her exercising of God-ordained freedom from evil thought and behavior, she became more confident. Healing any discordant condition triumphed over the bitterness of hatred, distrust, and grief in her relationships with her husband, children, parents, and parents-in-law.

Table 3 contains the four levels of the “Han” transforming processes in sessions 1, 6, and 12. The four levels of “Han” transformation processes are presented below along with sample descriptive narratives.

First Stage: Sak-hee-gi—Fermenting

From the very beginning of the therapeutic conversation at the first session, Mrs. Kim mostly displayed fermenting (“Sak-hee-gi”) processes along with reflecting. But the following sessions 6 and 12 did not provide further data on fermenting at all. Thus the following data present only evidence of fermenting entangled emotions of her suffering life, “Sak-hee-gi,” and the elaboration of her emotions which appeared during session 1. In this study, fermenting was coded when the client internalized suffering experiences significant to her life that related to four categories of live events and situations: unjust deprivation (poverty and lack of opportunity for success), a tragic life-event (the accidental death of her younger brother), the personal failures that were beyond her control (lack of knowledge about mental illness and professional job failings related to her husband, resulting in handling consequent marital conflict), and systematic discrimination (class and sex discrimination or exploitation) with a low status position in the family as a first daughter-in-law and wife.

Sample Narratives of Session 1

Initially, in her murmuring manner at session 1, Mrs. Kim began fermenting by evaluating both unjust deprivations and a tragic event in her life as follows:

“In fact, I … came here today because of family problem … uhm … there is no special problem that I see. Uhm … my husband is … I got married … I would like to begin with telling you about the marriage. I got married in Korea … When I was young … my situation was … Before marriage … my family was … so difficult financially. And I grew old enough to get married … uh … and in such a situation, my younger brother died in a car accident [voice change to lower tone]. In the very difficult … situation … [silence]. He died in a car accident. He died … and I was in a very difficult situation; I quit my job … As I grew older, people around me often asked me to get married and I met a man who came from America.”

Table 3: Quality of Mother’s “Han” Transformation Processes

Eventually, acknowledging her personal failure at not knowing more about her husband’s mental problem and job situation, Mrs. Kim evaluated the mistake that acted as a turning point in her life in this way:

“I got married to him … but I haven’t thought of him as strange because there was no one around me like the kind of people who are hot-tempered, impatient, and too anxious … Because I grew up in Choongchung-Do [name of a village in a rural area in the south west site of Seoul, Korea], I was very innocent and didn’t know about men and how to relate to them.”

On another occasion when asked about her intention or motivation in marriage, Mrs. Kim evaluated her negative feelings of hurt and remorse resulting from betrayal by her in-laws:

“Well, I, I, uhu … when I decided to marry him, I never decided it because I liked him. And they were lying to me. How they were lying … I mean my husband’s family members … All the sisters-in-laws and parents-in-laws who were in America at that time had sent letters … Well, during the time when he was with me in Korea … During a week he was in Korea, all of them wrote letters … From America, the parents-in-law wrote a letter to me. They said in the letters that my husband had been working in America. So, I believed that he had had a job … Well … as a dental … a dental technician, you know … Well, they said it in a way so that while being in Korea, I just trusted them and thought that he might have been okay. By the way, although in Korea he seemed to be very anxious, I never imagined that he had such a disease …”

Evaluating personal failure in handling her marital conflict, Mrs. Kim began to tear up and recognized a deep root of personal suffering in her life as follows. [C=client; T=therapist]

C: [Beginning of topic segment 13] After that … uh, after the two years passed … I became pregnant … became pregnant. Well, during that time … T: Was that your first pregnancy?

C: I had the first pregnancy … and then I felt conflict in my mind. Now I forgot all about that and I can’t tell the entire story in detail [tears beginning to fall].

T: [giving tissues from a tissue box to the client beside her] Yeah …

C: [wiping falling tears] Well, anyways, at that time I couldn’t have imagined the conflict in my mind. Really…

T: You mean that you had to be pregnant?

C: I was wondering whether I had to be pregnant …

T: Or you had to have a baby? Or you had to stop living with …?

C: [simultaneously] Or I had to have a baby or I had to stop living with him and separate …

T: Uha.

C: Anyway, at that time, I was struggling deeply in my mind.

T: Uhmm.

C: [Beginning of topic segment 19] Then he took the medication, 7 mg …

T: Yeah.

C: I didn’t remember even the name of the medication he took.

T: Remember …

C: I don’t like to remember …

T: Ahu!

C: [beginning of topic segment 20] Now, he takes 1 mg. Now …

T: 1 mg?

C: 1 mg.

T: Uhu, Ah!

C: Now he takes 1 mg … [pause]. you know, now what sort of person my husband is? He is very, very hot-tempered … because he is very unstable and he is always anxious.

T: Uhu.

C: And if something happened, then that should be done immediately. Immediately that should be done … But who can do that? I am not even that competent to do that …

T: For example, what would you need to do immediately?

C: I mean well …

T: As a wife what would you need to do immediately? …

C: That was why I as, a wife, had to always have lived in oppression. I mean that I have tolerated his any irritation all the time.

On another occasion after almost completing the evaluation of her past suffering in the marital relationship, she also further commented on her present marital conflict, by saying:

“Now he trusts me but it is a problem for him to depend on me too much. And I had made him in the sense that I have raised him like a cub to be a tiger who kills his owner. In the past, I have been very strong and I had fight physically against him. For when he got suddenly crazy I had no choice except.”

Finally, for the example of structural discrimination, she stated:

“And also, my father-in-law … hasn’t allowed me to touch the money in the store. Neither has my husband. Because he lacks self-confidence, he distrusts me … I mean. And so, he hasn’t allowed me to touch the cash register … He doubts me. Not allowing me to touch the cash box, but he hasn’t done it directly, but … I mean he has done so indirectly. Anyways … I don’t know all the things very well … As I see now … my father-in-law had doubted me so much. In terms of money, anyway … nevertheless, during the very hard time, I passed through it well moment by moment. And also my mother-in-law took me to church at her will. Although I didn’t like to go to church, I had to go there due to circumstances. Now as I look back, my mother-in-law had paid attention to me so much because she thought that I was still young and beautiful. And so did my father-in-law, too. They didn’t take care of me. Instead they gave me hard times … so ‘harshly’ [strongly voicing]. I mean that well, well, how can I say it … if I would have been like a Seoul woman, I might have done something differently. But I was not that kind of character. I mean when my mother-in-law had asked me to do something, then I had thought it was so and like a fool I always have lived a life in oppression.”

Second Stage: Neuk-deul-li—Reflecting

The second stage is reflecting, mainly personally. This was coded when the client spoke of her paralyzed mind or spirit in several ways, protesting against fate; refusing to accept that she alone must bear the burden of her tragedy, transforming the emotional venom of “Won” (grudge) into detached tears of “Han” by expressing both tears and smiles/laughers; and developing individually detached views of self and life. This reflecting, “Neuk-deul-li,” mostly took place during sessions both 1 and 6. But by session 6, she appeared to make a move toward further stages such as disentangling and initial mind emptying (see Table 12).

Sample Narratives of Sessions 1 and 6 In session 1, she began to protest against her fate by saying:

“Because my life was so difficult, I wanted to escape from the situation. Because it was so hard for my family to make a living … So to speak, I wanted to get away from the situation, from my family’s poor economic condition.”

She also continued:

“At that time, my mother-in-law might have thought that I couldn’t have lived a long life with her son and both she … and all the other family members have treated me very harshly. So while living with in-laws, I kept searching for a chance many times [to run away] at the beginning of the marriage….”

She then refused to accept the cruel fact that she alone must bear the burden of her tragedy. During session 1, when reflecting her difficult relationship with husband, she said:

“I couldn’t put up with him … [husband] … and I also couldn’t live with my mother-in-law anymore because she didn’t even emotionally support me as her son made it so difficult in the maintaining marriage. Now as I think back, she was so smart that she treated me so harshly.”

By session 6, when addressing her strong sense of self-responsibility and work ethic, she stated:

“I guess the motivation came from my childhood in the course of growing up. I saw the hardships of my mom while she was young and living with my father … because my father lived as he pleased and didn’t take care of the family; the children became the final victim of the consequences. Of course, so was mom but it was different. She was a mother after all. When parents don’t really accomplish the duty as parents. The children suffer. I felt it from my childhood ….”

Then, Mrs. Kim transformed the emotional venom of “Won” (grudge) into detached tears of “Han” with both crying and laughter. During session 1, she expressed:

“[smiling] A-i-go-cham! [lamenting sound in laugh]. Yeah. And so … anyways, my husband did so, my husband did so … I don’t need to … talk about all the stories that I have lived until now, do I? And so well … while being pregnant … well … ‘Cham!’ [smiling in a way of lamenting]. I had believed God so much. Anyway, I began to make up my mind that I had to believe God. I had to believe God. And then I thought constantly that my husband was a miserable man [tears in eyes]. My husband is … and I began to think that if I had turned away from him and left him, then would this man have lived another married life? What would have happened to this man? For I had kept thinking this kind of thought in my mind, I could hardly have left him [laughing and tears].”

Mrs. Kim detached from her view of self and life of tragic experiences. At session 1, Mrs. Kim stated:

“Then … I thought I was going to like him because he came from America, but I did not like him at all when I met him first. So anyway, I felt like going to America with him because my family was so economically poor. Then to put it bluntly, I was thinking that even if I get separated from him in America, I will still go there. That is how I married him. While being pregnant, I prayed to God a lot. I prayed a lot like, ‘Through the baby I will have, please don’t let me get separated from my husband.’ Like that, I prayed a lot. In such a way, well, I had lived a life with him. Until now, I still have lived with him in that way. Can’t you imagine how terribly we were fighting against each other in the store for two years? I never had thought of my husband as a husband until now. I always had thought of him as a son in me. It is just like a mother who always had embraced a son and lived to make him comfortable.”

Third Stage: Han-pul-li—Disentangling

Disentangling was coded when the client demonstrated the releasing of tangled emotions in several ways: (1) the client’s personal entangled feelings of “Han” became public, communicated, shared, and accepted; (2) she had companions to provide consolation and to assist enhancing her self-dignity; (3) she was bound up with all participants in full of ‘Chung’ (affection); and (4) developed strong optimistic themes in the experience of ‘Han’; and she was able to easily relate to other’s suffering and forgave the mistakes of the others.

Sample Narratives of Sessions 1, 6, and 12

First, client’s personal entangled feelings of “Han” became public, communicated, shared, and accepted. At session 12, releasing unspoken mental anguish or grief from her self-imposed prison by letting it “evaporate”, she read the letter to her mother before family members in a joyful manner as follows:

[T= therapist; F= father; M=mother; D1=first daughter; D2=second daughter]

T: Did you listen to what your mother read? [toward two daughters].

D1/D2: Uhmm. Yeah [smiling].

T: Did you listen well? [toward father].

F: [smiling].

M: [smiling].

T: Okay. So let’s share some ideas about what your mom experienced as a very young girl, Mr. Kim, what do you think about this?

F: I don’t know [smiling].

T: Now she talks about her suffering with her mother when she was a child.

F: Yeah.

T: Particularly, what do you understand?

F: Well. It seems that her situation was a little bit different from mine.

T: How?

F: … Because I was born a first son in a rich family … I was told that when I was born, there was a double birthday party in two different houses, one is my father’s hometown and the other in my parents’s home. And yet … I don’t remember whether they did that or not.

M: Because you were too little …

T: You may not remember that [smiling].

F: It was told that my first birthday party was held very big …

T: Uhmmm. Your family situation was …

F: Well, well …

T: In your case, you were born in a wealthy family …

F: Well in a rich family … In my case there was more opportunities in the family situation. At that time, my father’s business was very successful. Without any worries, without any worries about food to eat … I lived a materially rich life.

Next, the client had companions to provide consolation and to help enhancing her self-dignity. By session 12, Mrs. Kim and family members present in a cheerful manner sharing personal painful life stories and showing empathy with her as follows:

T: Christina, so you have anything to share? What do you think of your mom?

D2: I don’t know [smiling]. Uhmm.

T: We know that your mom had very hard time in her childhood, don’t we?

D2: Yeah.

T: And your mom suffered from a lot of poverty.

D2: Right.

T: Right.

D2: Uhmm.

T: The lack of something that she had to have, gave your mom hopelessness … in her life. So can we feel that way? The way your mom felt? Can we feel that way? …

F/M/D1/D2: [momentarily silent and calm].

T: Do you have any experience with suffering from hunger?

F: Uh, I hadn’t had the long periods of time like my wife, but most of my suffering time was in high school … when I was at high school … All of a sudden, my parents came to do business for us. In order to make money, they had to work hard … nevertheless they didn’t make big money and when I came to see them, my father and my mother looked so bad … And I couldn’t even speak to them when I needed some money for food. I had to pay tuition … I couldn’t speak to them. So I had a little better situation related to the sorrow of hunger than my wife had

As a result, the client was in full of ‘Chung’ (affection) with all participants in therapy. By session 12 it was observed that Mrs. Kim appeared to be most excited. She kept smiling and was very attentive toward all family members and the therapist. After the interview, when she emerged from the family therapy room, she could be seen walking hand in hand with her second daughter (Christina) who was also smiling. The client developed then strong optimistic themes in the experience of “Han” in three ways: (1) faith in God and love of God (Christian values); (2) love of mother (a Korean cherished cultural family value); and (3) “Ob-bo”—retribution”—(Buddhism teaching). In session 1, the client stated:

“While being pregnant, I prayed to God a lot. I prayed a lot like, ‘Through the baby I will have, please don’t let me get separated from my husband.’ Like that, I prayed a lot. In such a way, well, I had lived a life with him. Until now, still I have lived with him in that way. I never had thought of my husband as a husband until now. I always had thought of him as a son in me. It is just like a mother who always had embraced a son and lived to make him comfortable. I had depended on my first child to help her younger sister with school work, and the older pushed the younger one and the younger got stressed. Then I decided not to do that and sent the younger to an extra school study program. Right now she can read books although it takes her a little time. And I might have made her foolish if I hadn’t taught her a little bit more. So now she seems to be so bright. Before she might have felt isolated, but now she is confident … She seems to feel proud of herself. So I praised her by saying ‘You really are doing a great job.” Right now I am not concerned about my daughter as much [joyfully].”

At session 6, the client stated:

“I remember my mother tried hard to teach me about life rather than just spank me … I recall her that way … I feel really good … when I hear the Gospel. I just feel good. Every word is good for my life. Truly trusting God and believing Him is good. And then I feel very peaceful. I learned to believe in God and to pray when I was frustrated, as the Bible says so. When I pray, I feel peace that I haven’t felt before. Now I don’t have fear anymore … When I pray for something that I am troubled with … Although I don’t always kneel down to pray, I pray in my mind hoping for God to resolve things, and thinking like that … But I don’t rush at all. I always endure hoping … without rushing until things work out. I just endure and endure … Then when I feel like I cannot stand it anymore … I think to myself I should tolerate a little bit more and I do. Then problems are resolved after all the endurance. I always tell my mother that after she goes to heaven … she deserves praise by the Lord to think back on her life. She lived that well … Frankly speaking, I really don’t want to live with my husband. But I think that sometimes it’s my cross to bear what God gives … Or it was given “Ob-bo” [a transitory leading and guiding principle in tragic fate in Buddhism] in my life. So that is the way to Heaven ….”

Finally, the client was able to easily relate to other’s suffering and forgive the mistakes of the others. By session 12:

“I was really surprised to hear what Christina said because I didn’t know what she thought about. Although I always tell her to clean up and read books, I had no idea about whether she really thinks it is important or if she really wants to do it or not. But when I was told that way, I feel reassured, okay, and one more thing, I am so surprised at that. Aha! She is concerned about it. I hated my father so much. I really was so angry with my father that I couldn’t forgive him … Now when I think of him, I really thank my father just for his living a healthy life. And also, I am so thankful to him only because he can live by himself without others’ help ….”

Fourth Stage: Ma-eum-bi-eun-da—Freeing Self-Centered Misconceptions

The last stage, mind emptying, is a leap from the reflecting phase. This was coded when the client appeared in these ways: she embraced both positive and negative aspects of life as it was; she realized the meaning of her suffering; she was able to reconcile her life meaning into a more universal perspective regarding themes of human dignity/rights of women/children and compassion/love; and she found peace in her life with others. The mind emptying occurred at sessions 6 and 12. By session 6, she began to appear to take a small step toward transformation, and she reached out by the last session 12 (see Table 12).

Sample Narratives from Sessions 6 and 12

First, the client viewed herself and others and situations in both positive and negative aspects of characteristics. At session 6, looking back on her suffering experience in early childhood due to poverty, she stated:

“I don’t have to blame anyone else that I was made mannish, like an untamed pony galloping everywhere. I believe that I have to do what I can do and I was able to do anything when I did my best. I have a feeling of accomplishment in the process rather than difficulty. I enjoyed it. I was really active when I was young, Active. Anyway, I think that both bright and gloomy sides of people’s lives always exist simultaneously….”

When the therapist asked how her mother spanked her when necessary, Mrs. Kim immediately replied in retelling the story of her mother in both negative and positive aspects:

“I remember my mother as a mother who tried hard to live rather than just one who spanked me. I felt really happy to see my parents get along well together at my wedding. Of course, my father gave my mother a very hard time, but seeing both of my parents living along. I felt really happy. My brother married for love. When he married, my mother didn’t like the marriage. If a couple had support from wealthy parents and they had to have a wedding in a proper manner that would consider seriously each others’ family background, it would be hard, wouldn’t it? But when you marry for love instead of an arranged marriage, the kind of background checking would be diminished. So thinking back on the situation, I am very thankful for his getting married for love.”

Next, the client realized the meaning of her suffering. At session 6:

“And another thing is that I myself often had thought … what I often told my mother … sometimes my mother still laments her life and so I always comfort her by saying, ‘Mother, your life is truly worthy.’ I always said it that way. Because if she had married someone else, yielding to that adversity. Then she would have been sorry for the rest of her life. And she brought up her children well and now they all are on the right track of their lives … And when she lived with us, even when she was really dealing with hardships living with her father at a young age, she tried hard to do her best, no matter what. She really did.”

By session 12, the client shared a letter before the family and therapist:

“Mother! It seems like a very old story but I think that it was a painful and difficult childhood for me … and yet I imagine how I would have been different if I had been born in a very rich family. It is told that people need to go through adversity at an early age. Now I am so thankful for the hardships although it was given to me against my will. Because of the sheer strength, at the present time I am doing my best while thinking back on the tough days … and also, I always appreciate your love deep in my heart ….”

Finally, the client was able to place her life meaning into a universal perspective with consideration of human dignity/rights of women and children, and compassion/love that enhanced her feeling of belonging to all humanity. In session 6, when addressing a core issue of conflict with her mother-in-law, Mrs. Kim stated:

“Another burden to me is … my mother-in-law. I am still not comfortable with her … The day before yesterday, my mother told me that she got a phone call from my mother-in-law … Because my mother felt pity for me, she talked about me, saying how I worked hard all by myself and what my mother-in-law said was … that money … that I borrowed so much money last time and I hadn’t paid it back yet … She said it like that. She was stopping my mother’s mouth like that. But my mother may have something to say … like, ‘If your son is smart enough … why would your daughter-in-law have to suffer so much?’ … If my mother-in-law had considered how important of a person I was to her son, how dare she speak to my mother like that … My precious mother came from far way. My father stays alone in Korea ….”

By session 12:

“I was really surprised to hear what Christina said because I didn’t know what she thought about. Although I always tell her to clean up and read books, I had no idea whether she really thinks it is important or if she really wants to do it or not. But when I was told that way, I feel reassured, Okay, and one more thing, I am so surprised at that. Aha! She is concerned about it. I have tried hard to practice a life with the love God gives us. In a large way, that’s why I have been able to stay married with my husband so far. Although I cannot follow the great way through which God loves us, I am trying to do my best with a will … to model on His love … this is what I thought, what I think, and what I will think. If I would think about how … I as a mother, lead my family better; I think that if all of us see each other with love, then we could never yell at one other; although it is given to hit children we need to have our mind made up to hit our children with love in mind; and my daughters, Susan and Christina, love each other, knowing that their sisters are very special and the only one in the world.”

Finally, the client had achieved more of a calm resolution. By session 12, when sharing her childhood experience, she stated very calmly:

“Right now I think that when I was even in sixth grade … my mother picked up a pumpkin and peeled the skins like a circle to dry them out. In those days, they were so bountiful. And in the fall when my mother did dry them so much under the hot sunshine, I did so too even though my mother was not home and didn’t tell me to do that; when looking back on her tragic experience at an early age, in effect, right now what concerns me is that my children live in such comfort that they might not have the same feelings for adversity because it needs to keep in mind for a rainy day in the future.”

Summary

A Korean American client, Mrs. Kim experienced four levels of “Han” transformation through therapeutic conversational dialogue. Han transformation processes indicated gradual shifts from fermenting one’s entangled emotions of suffering through reflecting and disentangling to transforming by emptying one’s mind.

Won, Han, integration, therapy

공유(greatcorea)

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