2013 年 30 巻 p. 90-97
Psychology as a science of mind and behavior is a product of the Western world. Its theories and concepts contribute to an understanding of man himself. Currently it began to turn to a more societally oriented psychology caused by the social problems imposed by the rapid social change society undergoes. During its course, some objections were raised due to its acontextual and ahistorical stance. What constitute a psychological concept being used is historically and culturally contigent to the respective society and or the people's behavior being studied. This is true for Indonesia, a multicultural society with a long past of western colonization. It is the goal of this paper to state that important aspects of Indonesia's development can only be understood by tracing back its historical past. How often and in what way were we described and categorized by western anthropologist and sociologist using psychological concepts during the period of colonization? How accurate were their interpretation of Javanese cultural values such as sungkan and rukun , pertaining to social life ? On the other hand in what way and how Indonesian scholars and social scientists themselves view their own people. They not only studied social phenomena applying western psychological concepts such as stereotypes and traits but also transliterating indigenous / local wisdom using psychological concepts as a means to bring it into the mainstream of psychology . A comparative analysis and interpretation of the Javanese wejangan with modern psychological concepts show that it was possible to develop a compatible indigenous theory on ‘psychology' that suit and fit the Javanese people. In all, the scientific endeavour for searching truth about man in psychology should not close the door to the understanding of indigenous / local knowledge. In fact its numerous paths may lead us to accept that to reduce man to such concepts in mainstream psychology belittle his sense of being and cultural richness of his life.
