==JAPAN: KM== [Psychology]

There is a passionate pair of lovers who live across the river from each other. The man's name is Mr. M and the girl's name is Miss. L, and "L" always has to cross the bridge to meet "M". One day, a storm destroys it and there is, for the present, no prospect of reconstruction. She wants to meet him, and explains her situation to a boatman named "B" and asks him to take her to the other side of the river, but he refuses because she has no money. So she asks another boatman named "S" to do it. He answers that he will carry her across if she spends a whole night with him. She hesitates, but after all, she spends it with him and she is able to get to the other side and meet "M". However, afterwards "M" hears about her night with the boatman and says good-by to her. "L" weeps bitterly. Mr. "F", who has loved her for a long time, knows everything about the situation, but still loves her and proposes marriage to her.
In the story above, arrange the characters [ L, M, F, B, S ] according to how you feel about them, that is, which you like best to which you like least.
[ M, L, F, B, S ] respectively mean Morality, Love, Family, Business, Sex. The order that you choose is the order of things you think much of . About eight years ago, when I tested my friends in my previous university (Before I entered Fukui Medical School, I graduated from Nara Women's University), most girls tended to sympathize with "L". However, nowadays when I do the same test with my new friends, they tend to like "B", and look down on "L". When I asked them why they like "B", they answered, "'B' has done nothing bad." Certainly, he is not bad, but, ...I think girls in the present day make more intellectual decisions. And there are differences according to age. Women who are over 25 have a tendency to like "B" and "M" and they dislike "L". Of course, there is a difference between sexes, races and so on. And as for an individual, his or her situation may change the result. By the way, considering how you arranged the characters, what can you understand about your own personality?
There is another interesting psychological test. "What do you least want to be?" or "What kind of occupation do you hate the worst?" Please think and answer! My sister taught me this test. According to her, this is a test that was used by Freud, the most famous psychologist. According to him, your answer is what you subconsciously most want to be. The following stories are two good examples. When my sister was a high school student (in the 2nd year), she asked her friend this question. She said, "I don't want to be a nurse at all." My sister explained this psychological test to her. Hearing about it, she was surprised, and said, "I had wanted to be a nurse, but I gave up the idea because "to be a nurse" demands hard studying." Immediately she changed her mind and chose a prep school for nursing and studied hard. Now, she has entered a nurse's training school.
I asked the same question to my mother who is a nurse. She said, "Um...I don't want to be a doctor." I didn't explain anything about this test to her. After a while, however, when I entered Fukui Medical College, she was very glad as if her dream had come true. Later when I explained the test to her, she said, "I think it is a probably right, because, deep down in my heart , I may want to be a doctor." Of course, this test is not always right. Someone may answer an occupation that he really hates. Incidentally, as for me, I answered I didn't want to be a homeless beggar, and I really would hate to become one. If you ask a person who works hard in order to have a desired occupation or who has the job s/he wants to do, probably s/he will answer a truly hated occupation.
Psychological tests like these are interesting in that they can help me understand my character or others' personalities, but I don't think these tests are well-grounded and scientific. So, I don't think I can completely judge others from such tests. However, because we human beings want to understand ourselves and others, psychological tests should be studied as a means to construct our own identity.

COMMENT
It was interesting for me to read this writing. When at one time psychological tests were popular among young people, I was quite absorbed in them (especially, women and sex tests...). I did the first test of this writing, and as a result, the order that I chose was [ F, L, S, B, M ] because I think "B" and "M" are cold-hearted and "L" really loves "M". However, my friend's answer is different from mine. I want to give this test to another friend of mine.

Kenichi Takeno