Chapter 10: Pbichim—a Culturally Patterned form of Subjectified Communication:

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce a cultural example of subjectified communication. Subjectification, as a psychological process that allows constructing one’s inner experiences is, essentially, not only individual but also universal. However, culture generates patterns (Benedict, 1934). For example, people in a society need to educate the younger generation to maintain their society. Through the processes of education, certain types of individuals are preferred and certain kinds of actions are encouraged, whereas the others are not. So, there could be culturally patterned form in a specific culture. We would like to introduce here a cultural form of subjectified communication with an example drawn from the Korean psychological experience, Pbichim. Especially, we applied Grounded theory to this phenomenon in order to reveal the processes and functions of Pbichim. The procedures of Grounded theory will also be discussed here from a methodological perspective for advancing further studies on subjectified experiences.