Editorial

Abstract

I value Foulkes' notion that we do not exist in isolation. Foulkes (1990) argues for the recognition that inner processes are not separate or independent from the context of the network of people in an individual's life. At the same time I am wary of trying to fit together that which cannot fit together. Matilda in Mister Pip (Jones, 2006) says, "Some areas of life are not meant to overlap" (p. 200). She is talking about the lack of fit between her love of the work of Dickens and her father, a Bougainvillian who had adapted himself to live in a white-man's world in Townsville. I often feel this lack of fit between Pākehā and Māori. If we want true connection between Māori and Pākehā, we must acknowledge differences; otherwise, we can fall into the trap of noticing only what confirms our cherished habitual ways of seeing and understanding our interpersonal world. We humans tend to simply not notice whatever might challenge our unconscious bias, like Simon and Garfunkel's boxer who "sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest."