Brian J. McVeigh

Brian J. McVeigh (BA, MA, PhD) (born 1959) is a psychological and political anthropologist who received his doctorate in 1991 from Princeton University’s Department of Anthropology. While a graduate student, he studied under Julian Jaynes [ [http://www.julianjaynes.org Julian Jaynes Society: Exploring Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind Theory since 1997 ] ] whose influence is apparent in his research. He now teaches at the University of Arizona. [ [http://eas.web.arizona.edu/people/mcveigh.html Brian McVeigh - East Asian Studies ] ]

Research

Jaynes’s impact is evident in McVeigh’s first project which explored the role of spirit possession in a Japanese religious movement. His findings were published in "Spirits, Selves, and Subjectivity in a Japanese New Religion: The Cultural Psychology of Belief in Sûkyô Mahikari" (1997) and “Spirit Possession in Sûkyô Mahikari: A Variety of Sociopsychological Experience.” [McVeigh, Brian J. "Spirit Possession in Sûkyô Mahikari: A Variety of Sociopsychological Experience." "Japanese Religions" 21(2):283–97, 1996.] His other relevant articles include “Standing Stomachs, Clamoring Chests and Cooling Livers: Metaphors in the Psychological Lexicon of Japanese” [McVeigh, Brian J. “Standing Stomachs, Clamoring Chests and Cooling Livers: Metaphors in the Psychological Lexicon of Japanese.” "Journal of Pragmatics" 26:25–50, 1996.] and “The Self as Interiorized Social Relations: Applying a Jaynesian Approach to Problems of Agency and Volition.” [McVeigh, Brian J. “The Self as Interiorized Social Relations: Applying a Jaynesian Approach to Problems of Agency and Volition.” In "Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes’s Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited". Marcel Kuijsten, ed. Julian Jaynes Society, pp. 203–232, 2006.]

Though McVeigh’s original interests were in Sinology and he studied at Beijing University for one year (1982-1983), his publications have been about Japan. He spent many years teaching in Japan, and from 2002 to 2003 was chair of the Department of Cultural & Women’s Studies at [http://www.tjk.ac.jp/en/index.html Tokyo Jogakkan College] . Evidently his time in Japan significantly shaped his research focus and much of his writing is based on many years of participant observation in Japan’s education system. A fascination with the “staginess of social life” and simulation theory colors his work, and his interest in the intersection of psychology and politics is apparent in his linking of self-presentation with political economy. The theatricalization of gender roles is the topic of "Life in a Japanese Women’s College: Learning to Be Ladylike" (1997). [Reviewed in "The Economist" (“Japanese Women: Serviceable”), June 7, 1997, and by William W. Kelly in "The Journal of Japanese Studies", Vol. 25(2), 1999.] In "Japanese Higher Education as Myth" (2002) he asked “why do so many students pretend-study and so many faculty pretend-teach?” and investigated the disconnect between official policies and actual pedagogical practices. ["International Herald Tribune/Asahi News", September 18, 2002, and in "World Studies in Education", WSE 4(2), 2003; Victor Kobayashi in "Comparative Education Review", Vol. 47(3), p. 338, 2003; Mark Lincicome in "History of Education Quarterly", 645–648, 2003; J.S. Eades in "Journal of Japanese Studies", 30(1), 2004; Anthony Robins in "Japan Society: News and Reviews", Issue 41, 2004; Jeff Kingston in "The Japan Times", April 27, 2003.] He termed the loss of academic value and poor quality schooling “institutional mendacity,” a claim that earned him both criticism and praise in Japan. ["The Chronicle of Higher Education", "Women's Universities Struggle in Japan,” November 14, 2003; "The Chronicle of Higher Education", "Japan's Junior Colleges Face a Grim Future," November 14, 2003; T"he Language Teacher", "An Interview with Dr. Brian J. McVeigh: A leading social anthropologist talks about the culture of the language classroom in Japan," Vol 27, No. 8: 9–12, 2003; Kodomo wo wasureta kyouiku ronsou no shikaku (Missing the Point: An Education Debate that Forgets about the Children). "Newsweek Japan", November 5, 2003. See [http://pegasus.phys.saga-u.ac.jp/znet/sympo030927/McVeighJ.html] and [http://pegasus.phys.saga-u.ac.jp/znet/meibo1.html] ] The book was nominated for the Francis Hsu Book Prize (2004), Society for East Asian Anthropology, American Anthropological Association.

In his third book on Japanese education, "The State Bearing Gifts: Deception and Disaffection in Japanese Higher Education" (2006), the influence of Jean Baudrillard, Umberto Eco, and Guy Debord is evident. By linking the ideas of these simulation theorists to the “gift” as defined by the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss, he charted the “exchange circuitry” that links and transfers value among Japan’s education ministry, universities, instructors, and learners. With elite political and corporate interests determining policy, the purpose of education is lost and the value of grades and diplomas is diluted. The staginess of educational policies results from burdensome “exchange dramatics” among students (always being on one’s best behavior for teachers, preparing for too many exams, etc.). He contends that his arguments about Japanese higher education possess general applicability: the more intense massive bureaucratic forces become, the more we excessively dramatize ourselves for the wrong reasons. The consequence is a “parareality” that breeds self-deception, inauthenticity, and alienation.

His other works have also pursued the theme of how politics shapes the psychology of self-presentation. In "The Nature of the Japanese State: Rationality and Rituality" (1998) he explained how “state guidance” of educational structures and “moral education” are official attempts to ensure the values of hierarchy, centralization, compartmentalization, and standardization in Japan’s political economy and civil society. [Reviews by Jerry Eades in "The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute", Vol. 5(4): 664–65, 1999; Duncan McCargo in "Japan Forum", Vol. 13(1):133–135, 2001; David Williams in "The Japan Times" (“The shaping hand of invisible institutions”), February 24, 1999; Ken Henshall in "Asian Studies Review", Vol. 22(4):545–547, 1998.] In "Wearing Ideology: State, Schooling, and Self-Presentation in Japan" (2000) he turned his attention to the cultural psychology of how we stage our selves and looked at the role of material culture (school uniforms and other accoutrements) in the management of self-appearance. [Reviews by Christine Yano in "Journal of Anthropological Research", Vol. 59(2): 273–75, 2003; John Zitowitz in "The Japan Times" (“Uniformly stylish Japanese”), August 19, 2001; Sophie Woodward in "The Journal of Material Culture", Vol. 7, 3, 2002; Eyal Ben-Ari in "The Journal of Japanese Studies", Vol. 28(1), 2002; Jerry Eades in "The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute", Vol. 8(2): 401–402, 2002; T. Udagawa in "Anthropological Science", Vol. 110(2): 223–27, 2002; Ann Wehmeyer in "Japan Studies Review", Vol. 6, 2002; Jane E. Hegland in "The Journal of Consumer Culture", Vol. 2, Issue 3, 2002; Matthew Allen in "The Australian Journal of Anthropology", Vol. 14, No. 2:289–2290, 2002; Kevin Willoughby in "Journal of Fashion Theory", Vol. 6, Issue 3, 2002.]

In "Nationalisms of Japan: Managing and Mystifying Identity" (2003) he explored the varieties of nationalist expression. [Reviews by Lucian W. Pye in "Foreign Affairs", Vol. 80(3), 2004; Ian McArthur in "Japan Studies", Vol. 24(2), p. 273, 2004; James Joseph Orr in "The Journal of Japanese Studies", 31(2), pp. 498–502, 2005; Elise K. Tipton in "Journal of Asian Studies", Vol. 64(4):1027–1028, 2005; Harumi Befu in "The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute", Vol. 12(2):478–79, 2006.] He stressed that Japanese policies are informed by “renovationism”: the more an ostensible Japanese authentic identity is threatened, the more modernizing national projects are pursued to refurbish Japan’s economic might. These latter policies ironically increase the perception of identity threat since modernization, at least from an idealized “traditional” perspective, makes Japan seem somehow more “foreign.” The result is an ideological positive feedback loop with practical consequences for Japan’s policy-making circles.

In an unpublished book manuscript, "The Propertied Self: Wealth, Progress, and Human Nature", [http://members.cox.net/bjmcveighresearch/index.htm] McVeigh explores the political implications of a Jaynesian psychology, arguing that economic policies must take into account changes in psyche. This is related to his call for a “stratigraphic psychology” that acknowledges radical changes in human psyche by incorporating evolutionary psychology findings while steering clear of simplistic cultural evolutionism.

He is also researching the history of Japanese psychology in an effort to illustrate global shifts in nineteenth-century definitions of human nature that resonate with the emergence of the independent citizen as the building block of national state construction, the autonomous producer and consumer of economic liberalism, the “inward turn” to a privileged protagonist in art, and the individualized subject as the crucial unit of analysis in academic psychology.

References

elect Publications

* McVeigh, Brian J. "Spirits, Selves, and Subjectivity in a Japanese New Religion: The Cultural Psychology of Belief in Sûkyô Mahikari." Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997.
* McVeigh, Brian J. "Life in a Japanese Women’s College: Learning to Be Ladylike." London: Routledge, 1998.
* McVeigh, Brian J. "The Nature of the Japanese State: Rationality and Rituality." London: Routledge, 1998.
* McVeigh, Brian J. "Wearing Ideology: State, Schooling, and Self-Presentation in Japan." Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2000.
* McVeigh, Brian J. "Japanese Higher Education as Myth." Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2002.
* McVeigh, Brian J. "Nationalisms of Japan: Managing and Mystifying Identity." Boulder, Colorado: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
* McVeigh, Brian J. "The State Bearing Gifts: Deception and Disaffection in Japanese Higher Education." Boulder, Colorado: Lexington Books, 2006.

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InI17DmwE4M Brian J. McVeigh on YouTube]
* [http://members.cox.net/bjmcveighresearch/index.htm Brian J. McVeigh’s Homepage]
* [http://www.julianjaynes.org Julian Jaynes Society Website]