Smooth interpersonal relations

Frank Lynch, S.J., of the Ateneo Institute of Philippine Culture, proposed that Filipinos place a higher value than Americans do on getting along without friction, and defined pakikisama as maintaining that smoothness by going along with the majority.

It is worth being precise about what Lynch was and was not. He was a careful researcher, working from what a visiting scholar can actually observe, and he did not set out to produce a portrait of a weak people. The portrait came out of the frame, not out of malice.

Enriquez called the findings partial and inadequate. His counter-claim is specific: what Filipinos are protecting is not smoothness but pakikipagkapwa, dealing with the other person as an equal and with regard for their dignity and being. Smoothness is what that looks like from a chair on the other side of the room.

The term stays in the course because it is the position everything in Lesson 2.1 is arguing against, and because you cannot judge the argument without meeting the other side at full strength.

Source: Frank Lynch, S.J. (1962), “Social Acceptance,” in Four Readings on Philippine Values, IPC Papers No. 2, Ateneo de Manila University Press. Free PDF of the full collection at pssc.org.ph. Enriquez’s objection is carried in Rogelia Pe-Pua and Elizabeth Protacio-Marcelino (2000), “Sikolohiyang Pilipino: A legacy of Virgilio G. Enriquez,” Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 3(1), 49 to 71, free PDF.

First used in: 2.1 · There is no line where you end and they begin