Conflict Mediation Across Cultures: Pathways and Patterns

Rating:
Summary: Seminal
Review: Augsberger writes of the many different ways that cultures interact with each other, and how cultures approach conflict. There are many ways to approach conflict: different approaches to gender conflict, different beliefs on the nature of shame and "saving face", different ideas on what is effective resolution- and all are equally valid, with both good and evil in the different cultures, and the different methods.

On one level Augsberger is highly readable. He begins each chapter with numerous stories and fables from different cultures on the various conflicts- myths which are highly illuminating, teaching about cultures and about the nature of conflict, as only parables can. Interspersed in each chapter are many other stories and sharings from real life.

However, Augsberger may be one of the most intelligent authors I have ever read. He brings in *so* much, from so many different disciplines, that one feels swamped with information, all integrated in web-like structure, much as most of us feel on reading Finnegan's Wake. It's incredibly well-written, with multi-layers to a Biblical degree, but Augsberger's a lot smarter than I am (and I don't say that often), and this book is *thick*. You'll enjoy it, but read it slowly, and gain the depths and the heights of the change he has to offer.

I'd highly recommend Augsberger's Pastoral Counseling Across Cultures, which explores many of these same themes. And B.J. Prashantham's Indian Case Studies in Therapeutic Counseling as well. B.J. uses his own experiences as an Indian therapist, relating to those within his culture or other cultures in India, providing a very emic perspective on these questions of the nature of conflict and resolution.