최순옥 여사의 생애와 사상

A Psychobiographical Approach to Mrs. Sun Ok Choi’s Life and Personal Beliefs

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Mrs. Sun Ok Choi’s life and personal beliefs using a psychobiographical model. Mrs. Choi was born in 1904, which was a critical period in Korean history as it was just prior to the Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula. She was raised in a Christian household and was educated within both the Russian and Korean schooling system. She completed her primary education in Russia, and it was only when she entered Chungshin High School in Seoul that she was exposed to Korea’s education system. She married Rev. Min Soo Pai, who was a leader of the Korean independence movement during Japan’s occupation. He became a very influential leader in the educational and religious fields after Korea gained independence. As Rev. Pai’s wife, Mrs. Choi devoted and sacrificed much of her adult life to the cause of promoting education in Korea’s rural areas, which were predominantly populated by the poor and peasant class at that time. In this paper I researched Mrs. Choi’s life using McAdam’s theory of narrative formation of people’s lives as my framework. I discovered that her life story was indicative of a mature generative script in her mid–life. Several inquiries arose through the course of my research: How was Mrs. Choi’s life narrative able to display such love and charity whilst living through arguably the most difficult time in Korean history? What were the important qualities in her life in the context of developmental task and crisis? What about her life was unique in terms of a biographical process? These questions are particularly poignant when considering that she donated her entire estate to Yonsei University to further advance her educational causes. Studying her life story reveals that a healthy life story is a by product of having a positive family background and maintaining a faith discipline throughout one’s life time. In conclusion, Mrs. Choi’s life story is very relevant in today’s social climate, which is characterized by a focus on individuality and self–interest rather than concern for the poorer segments of society.