Under the ebullient and easy cultural jokes of Kevin Nadal, a sad and grim story about the Filipino American psyche emerges. Dr. Nadal, an Assistant Professor of psychology at City University of New York College of Criminal Justice,  grew up and went to school in the East Bay.  He is therefore familiar and accustomed to the difficulties of growing up Pinoy in the Bay Area. Later as a student and then as a Ph.D, he vowed that he would aspire and dedicate his scholarship and academic life towards educating and exposing to the Filipinos in America the basis for their uneasy existence in the United States. An existence that is statistically disturbing in proportion and in relation to fellow minorities and people of color.  The Filipino American earns a dubious distinction  of  having the  “highest” in almost any category of concern and potential areas of social intervention: highest number of men with HIV, highest number of high school dropouts, highest number of incidence of diabetes in women, highest number of teenage pregnancy, highest number of cases in breast cancer, and other litanies of health and social ills that Dr. Nadal enumerated at a talk at Stanford last night.  What is ironic about this revelation of numbers is that despite these recognized ills, Filipino Americans are the least to take advantage of either counseling, health assistance, or to seek intervention.  Dr. Nadal cites many reasons for this among them, the complicated cultural baggage that carry over to the U.S. — colonialism, utang ng loob, bahala na, hiya, kapwa, etc., he named a few,  that serve as a barrier to taking the first step towards accessing  the assistance of friends, services, or mental health practitioners to resolve these inner conflicts. The talk served as an occasion to promote his newly published book: Kevin Nadal. Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research and Clinical Practice. Authorhouse: Indiana, 2009 (a full review follows later).  Aimed as a guide for mental health practitioners, it is a timely contribution to a  professional practice  not widely accepted within the Filipino community and the reasons for it Dr. Nadal illustrates and analyzes. It also would serve as a guide for parents and  school guidance counselors in dealing with psycho-cultural issues that ensue at home and at school. Buy it. Read it.