Intercultural Mind

"Exciting new research in neuroscience and cognition is revolutionizing our understanding of human behavior and the mind. The Intercultural Mind is a pioneering look at the new world of cultural neuroscience and how intercultural experiences can change the way we think.It is well known that traveling to a foreign land can teach us as much about ourselves as the culture we're visiting, but we don't really know why this is the case. The Intercultural Mind, with the clarity of thought and intensity of purpose only a rare expert can bring to this subject, tries to find out.Mixing the latest studies of the new science of the mind with the stories of travelers, students, and expatriates, Joseph Shaules explains in straightforward yet passionate language the cultural programming of our unconscious "intuitive mind" and sheds light on the hidden pitfalls of culture shock, bias, ethnocentrism, and cross-cultural misunderstanding. Every traveler, every sojourner, will find the insights in this book to be invaluable.Joseph Shaules, PhD, has been an intercultural trainer and educator for more than twenty-five years and has written several books on intercultural topics. He was a founding member and is a director of the Japan Intercultural Institute and is on the faculty of Keio University in Tokyo"-- "From the premise that foreign experiences can teach us about cultural diversity and also about the workings of our own mind Shaules proposes that cultural learning and self-learning are flip sides of the same coin, and that to understand the people we meet in foreign places we need to understand ourselves"--