have you ever read Takeo Doi's book,
Anatomy of Dependency? do you know any more up to date books/journals about amae? (so far i've only read dependency and japanese socialization by frank johnson)
although he didn't say it explicitly in his book, and emphasizing the infant-mother relationship, i kinda feel that what Doi actually saying is that human can't live without other human, that we're all connected to one another(?) what do you think?