Exploring differences between the french and americans

Drawing from his rich experience, Pascal Baudry offers vivid portraits of the French and American cultures. His approach, which draws on psychoanalysis, suggests that everything begins with the mother-child relationship as expressed, for example, at the playground. As these relations are respectively woven on opposite sides of the Atlantic, they give rise to two contrasting sets of social norms. The particularities of these two cultures can be seen in the difference between an implicit culture and an explicit culture, between obsession with belonging and obsession with action, between the preeminence of relationships and preeminence of the law, between respective ways of perceiving reality. Understanding these differences makes it possible to better understand the love-hate relationship that has long bound these two nations.