External influences on indigenous cultures

INTRODUCTION In the early days of psychiatry there used to be a tendency towards homogenization. People were thought to be same everywhere quite disregarding the effect of culture on their character. Culture never had a precise definition; lately it has become more diffuse. However as far as our generation understands culture the way people in groups live and think, have particular mores, customs and values constituted psychological make-up of people and gave him his identity (or character/personality). Such self-construction comes under the purview of ‘selfpsychology’, a comparative new line of thought, which is being followed by the author1.