The white man's tendency to indulge in narcissistic self analysis makes ethnographic research in europe very difficult. there is not one psychological or social phenomenon that has not been examined in scores of books. As soon as europeans have written up their theories, they start to believe in them. If you read these works of egocentric self justification, you risk being taken in by the elaborate style in which they are written, and by the seemingly logical arguments....If you want to keep a clear head, avoid all white self-interpretation and rely on your own common sense.