This is an interesting look into the most conservative of the Scandinavian societies. Some of the Finns interviewed for this article liken the conservative nature of the Finnish people to the Japanese, who are notoriously conservative with their emotions.
“Self-control is very important in Finland,” said Dr. Liisa Keltikangas-Jarvinen, a professor of psychology at the University of Helsinki. “You cannot show anger; it means you can’t cope. If a person is very temperamental and alive, expresses emotions like anger and happiness, the person is seen as infantile.”
The article also talks about the modesty of the Finnish, including an inability to boast, which also drives a crisis in self-esteem. That does seem eerily similar to some criticisms of the Japanese psyche, especially after 13+ years of financial depression.
The flip side of this modesty, Dr. Keltikangas-Jarvinen and others say, is that Finns, despite their many advances, particularly in the technological field, seem to suffer from a self-esteem crisis. Theirs is such a consensus-driven, homogenous culture that a free exchange of ideas sometimes proves difficult.
Even among Nordic peoples, the Finns’ stolid nature stands apart.
…
Mr. Herala, the “anger teacher,” said much would be solved if people could just learn to say what they think and express their emotions, be it “I am angry because,”or “I love you because,” he said.
“We are,” he said, “the Finnish version of the Japanese character.”
Helsinki Journal: A Word to Finns: ‘For Your Own Good, Blow Your Top’ [nytimes.com]
The Finns are ethnically very distinct from most other Europeans, apart from Hungarians, and physically very easy to distinguish from other Scandinavians (e.g. dark hair). Their language is not Indo-European, but rather Ural-Altaic, just like Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Hungarian or Turkish. It is agglutinative, for instance. If you believe in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, the structure of your language influences how you think, which could explain some convergence.
Wow…I had no idea.
We have these structures that we use to speak about areas of the globe (Middle East, Scandinavia, South East Asia, etc) but those terms often do us a disservice in terms of simplifying the differences within those geographic areas.
I’ve never been to Finland or any Northern European nation. Would love to visit in the summertime someday. I have all these preconceived notions that I would love to quash
Similarity between Finnish and Japanese
New York Times on the Finnish character and comment about similarity to Japan. So why do these are these two…
I read the article and – despite some truths in it (truths that concern individuals anywhere on earth) – I found it as bullshit. Again one more journalist has written an article about subject she knows too little about.
Only as an example: What can you conclude from the fact that 80 % of Finnish women refuse pain killing during birth giving? That they want to hide (again) from their feelings (and pain) and not willing to express the pain?!!! That taking pain killers is a taboo? Or exactly the opposite? That American women – because of their hunger for pain killing – cope better with their feelings -and the expression of them?
Being a father of two, I’ve been around in maternity hospitals and I can say that Finnish birth givers there are more than ‘blowing their tops’, what the journalist suggest for Finns to do.
And what should we think about this: “Theirs is such a consensus-driven, homogenous culture that a free exchange of ideas sometimes proves difficult.”
Should we for example replace in our understanding the word ‘sometimes’ with ‘often’, or ‘most often’, to reach the point of the article? Show me an individual or a group of individuals who has never – never – experienced some difficulties in the free exchange of ideas! One could start from her/his family/marriage life and then to working life…
Article is a solid example of what and how well you see if you keep your other eye closed.
And yes, yes I’m a Finn, a Finn expressing (still mild but anyway) anger raised by a stupid article.
But you: Be happy!
Olli Valkonen
Helsinki
Finland
Finnish version of the Japanese character
Joi Itoh notices this New York Times article picked up on Gen Kanai’s blog and wonders if there is any link between the lack of expressed emotion in Finnish and Japanese societies and the fact that both countries have been…