Japanese Psychiatrist Research Articles

The Landscape Montage Technique for diagnosing frontotemporal dementia starting as primary progressive aphasia: a case report

BackgroundThe Landscape Montage Technique was originally developed by Hisao Nakai, a Japanese psychiatrist, to pursue the possibility and application of a psychotherapeutic approach using drawing for patients with schizophrenia. Drawing was initially adopted to evaluate patients with an impaired ability for verbal expression, particularly for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with schizophrenia. Since its development, the Landscape Montage Technique has been utilized in various clinical settings throughout Japan. This study aimed to evaluate the psychiatric conditions of a patient diagnosed as having primary progressive aphasia using the Landscape Montage Technique at a 3-year follow-up.Case presentationWe present the case of a 64-year-old, right-handed Japanese woman initially diagnosed as having logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia or logopenic aphasia. At a 3-year follow-up, logopenic aphasia progressed to behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia or frontotemporal dementia. According to her husband, she began to have speech difficulties approximately 5 years before her first visit. The results of neurocognitive tests suggested mild cognitive impairment or early stages of dementia. Her clinical dementia rating score was 0.5, suggesting a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment. She had a Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices score of 31 out of 36, which indicated a nonverbal cognitive ability that was greater than the 90th percentile for her age. The Japanese Standard Language Test of Aphasia, which was performed at two points during the follow-up, indicated the possibility for a diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia given the progression of her aphasia. Based on her clinical symptoms and Japanese Standard Language Test of Aphasia results, a diagnosis of logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia was established. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed severe predominant left frontal and anterior temporal atrophy, as well as bilateral parietal atrophy. Amyloid beta deposition was negative. At the 3-year follow-up, logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia had progressed to behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. However, the Landscape Montage Technique allowed for the diagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia only 2 years after baseline.ConclusionsThe present study showed that the Landscape Montage Technique can be useful for diagnosing behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia that starts as logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia at earlier stages.

The Anonymous Subject of Life—Some Philosophical, Psychological, and Religious Considerations

Abstract One of the hallmarks of the Japanese psychiatrist and philosopher Kimura Bin’s (b. 1931) philosophical approach is the conversion of ordinary words into philosophical concepts. Here we focus on the way he appropriates the Japanese words onozukara and mizukara, ordinary terms associated, respectively, with things that occur naturally, spontaneously, or by themselves, and those that come from oneself. This re-reading of these terms as philosophical concepts furnishes an interpretive frame that brings together and makes sense of large and important concepts in philosophy and psychology such as self and nature, perception and sensation, collective subjectivity and individual subject, schizophrenia and self-realization. His appropriation of these two Japanese terms also uncovers a general and impersonal form of subjectivity that underlies our experience of ourselves as individuated subjects and stands at the center of his philosophical and psychological investigations into these phenomena.

Classic Morita Therapy: Advancing Consciousness in Psychotherapy

This article chronicles “peripheral consciousness” and therapy developed by Japanese psychiatrist Shōma Morita, MD (1874-1938). As a contemporary of Freud, Morita challenged psychoanalysts who sanctioned an unconscious or unconsciousness (collective or otherwise) that resides inside the mind. From a human justice perspective, Morita’s formulation of consciousness releases clients from being solely responsible for their dysfunction. Morita was drawn to the earnest nature of analysts and how they strove to comprehend their patients’ anxieties and developmental histories. In fact, Morita developed his theories and methods with as much rigour as his Euro-American contemporaries, including Sigmund Freud, Wilfred Bion, Melanie Klein, Wilhelm Reich, Jean Charcot, Jacob Levy Moreno, Jacque Lacan, Carl Rogers, and Alfred Adler. In the early 1950s, especially, analyst Karen Horney progressed her grasp of Morita, Zen and psychotherapy while in Japan. Since cognitive science took hold in the 1970s, however, complex consciousness theories have lost footing in psychology and medical science. This article aims to reinstate “consciousness” as the dynamic core of Morita therapy. He advanced a phenomenal connexion between existentialism, Zen, Nature and the therapeutic role of serendipity; his views enhance Freud’s 1919 treatise on “The Uncanny”. The presence or absence of a theory of consciousness sways how, what, and where we practice and conduct research, as well as case formulation and health promotion. Morita is our forerunner of Ecopsychology and pioneer in consciousness studies. Pointedly, he equalised the strength between human-to-human attachment and human-to-Nature bonds by penetrating our anthropomorphic borders.

Hikikomori (ひきこもり): a culture-bound syndrome in the web 2.0 era

In 1998 the Japanese psychiatrist Tamaki Sait¯o invented the term hikikomori, referring to a condition characterised by a state of social withdrawal and avoidance (education, work, friendships) combined with a persistent isolation and confinement in the own home for at least 6 months, due to various factors. Initially it undoubtedly regarded a disorder related to a specific socio-cultural context, however in the last couple of years some cases of hikikomori behaviour have also been observed in other countries far from Japan, both geographically and culturally. By way of hypothesis this diffusion can probably be attributed to the cultural revolution represented by mass communication in the internet era; in particular, it seems to be closely related to the immediateness and diffusion of web 2.0, i.e. of social networks. Therefore, we report a case of hikikomori behaviour, who was referred to our ward. M. is a 28-year-old man, who has lived the last 10 years in a state of almost complete isolation. He has maintained contacts with the outside world almost exclusively via internet. He started several therapies with psychiatrists and psychologists, without achieving significant results. The case of M. represents, to our knowledge, the first case of hikikomori described in Italy.

Features of hybridization in In These Words

In These Words (ITW; in Chinese) is a comic created through a collaboration between writer Kichiku Neko and illustrator TogaQ, issued by Guilt | Pleasure since 2010. The comic presents a Japanese psychiatrist and a Japanese serial killer grappling with their tangled relationship. I argue that ITW significantly exemplifies Boys' Love (BL) comics through its hybridization of cultures, national identities, artistic styles and genres. Using textual analyses and interviews, I study ITW as a case of ‘gloBLization’ (in Dru Pagliassotti's words) and hybridization, by exploring issues such as cross-cultural and transnational representations in the work's characterization, plot, visual representation and use of language, as well as its hybridity between BL and gay comics. The findings indicate that ITW achieves a breakthrough in the conventions of gender and genre. ITW's hybridization and ‘in-between-ness’ makes it a rare and significant work in the global BL market.

Suicide Terrorism as a Socially Approved Form of Suicide

EditorialSuicide Terrorism as a Socially Approved Form of SuicideAdam LankfordAdam Lankford Department of Criminal Justice, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:December 29, 2010https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000073PDFView Full Text ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit SectionsMoreReferences Arnautovska, U. , Grad, O. T. (2010). Attitudes toward suicide in the adolescent population. Crisis, 31, 22–29. First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Beautrais, A. L. (2006). Suicide in Asia. Crisis, 27, 55–57. First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Charny, I. W. (2007). Fighting suicide bombing: A worldwide campaign for life. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar Hjelmeland, H. , Akotia, C. S. , Owens, V. , Knizek, B. L. , Nordvik, H. , Schroeder, R. , Kinyanda, E. (2008). Self-reported suicidal behavior and attitudes toward suicide and suicide prevention among psychology students in Ghana, Uganda, and Norway. Crisis, 29, 20–31. First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Hoffman, B. (2006). Inside terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar Lankford, A. (2010). Do suicide terrorists exhibit clinically suicidal risk factors? A review of initial evidence and call for future research. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 15, 334–340. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar Leenaars, A. A. , Maris, R. W. , Takahashi, Y. (1997). Suicide: Individual, cultural, international perspectives. New York: Guilford. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar Merari, A. , Diamant, I. , Bibi, A. , Broshi, Y. , Zakin, G. (2010). Personality characteristics of “self martyrs”/“suicide bombers,” and organizers of suicide attacks. Terrorism and Political Violence, 22, 87–101. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar Pew Research Center. (2009). Support for suicide bombing. Retrieved from pewglobal.org/database/?indicator=19&survey=10&response=Often/sometimes%20justified. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar Pinguet, M. (1993). Voluntary death in Japan. Cambridge: Polity Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar Post, J. M. , Ali, F. , Henderson, S. , Shanfield, S. , Victoroff, J. , Weine, S. (2009). The psychology of suicide terrorism. Psychiatry, 72, 13–31. First citation in articleCrossref Medline, Google Scholar Robins, A. , & Fiske, A. (2009). Explaining the relation between religiousness and reduced suicidal behavior: Social support rather than specific beliefs. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 39, 386–395. First citation in articleCrossref Medline, Google Scholar Sato, R. , Kawanishi, C. , Yamada, T. , Hasegawa, H. , Ikeda, H. , Kato, D. , ... Hirayasu, Y. (2006). Knowledge and attitude toward suicide among medical students in Japan. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 60, 558–562. First citation in articleCrossref Medline, Google Scholar Stack, S. , & Wasserman, I. (1992). The effect of religion on suicide ideology: An analysis of the networks perspective. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31, 457–466. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar Takahashi, Y. (1997). Culture and suicide: From a Japanese psychiatrist’s perspective. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 27, 137–145. First citation in articleMedline, Google Scholar Townsend, E. (2007). Suicide terrorists: Are they suicidal? Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 37, 35–49. First citation in articleCrossref Medline, Google Scholar World Health Organization. (2003). Suicide rates. Retrieved from www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/. First citation in articleGoogle ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byThe morality of martyrdom and the stigma of suicide27 August 2014 | Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 37, No. 4Evidence that suicide terrorists are suicidal: Challenges and empirical predictions27 August 2014 | Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 37, No. 4A suicide-based typology of suicide terrorists: Conventional, coerced, escapist and indirect21 May 2012 | Security Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1A Psychological Autopsy of 9/11 Ringleader Mohamed Atta3 December 2011 | Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, Vol. 27, No. 2From Columbine to Palestine: A comparative analysis of rampage shooters in the United States and volunteer suicide bombers in the Middle EastAggression and Violent Behavior, Vol. 16, No. 2 Volume 31Issue 6November 2010ISSN: 0227-5910eISSN: 2151-2396 InformationCrisis (2010), 31, pp. 287-289 https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000073.© 2010Hogrefe PublishingPDF download

Japan's Health Care Universal, but M.D.s Cite Flaws

Japan's Health Care Universal, but M.D.s Cite Flaws

Dependency and Japanese Socialization: Psychoanalytic and Anthropological Investigations into Amae

Surprisingly readable and studded with nuggets of insight. The Daily Yomiuri insightful, well-written, fascinating book offers new understandings, not only of Japan, but also of American culture. It is essential for those in anthropology, psychology, sociology, and psychiatry who are interested in culture, as well as those in law and the business community who deal with Japan. Paul Ekman, Ph.D.,Director, Human Interaction Laboratory, Langley Porter Institute, University of California, San Francisco [A] thoughtful cross-cultural study of development...His work can only enhance the still evolving psychoanalytic theory of preoedipal development as it is being derived mostly from psychoanalytic research on child-parent interaction in American families. Calvin F. Settlage, M.D. Johnson's ambitious and exhaustive synthesis of anthropological and psychological treatments of dependency raises interesting questions...Johnson alerts the reader to issues of universalism and relativity and leads us to ask, 'What would psychoanalysis be like, if it had originated in Japan?' Merry I. White, Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University ...Johnson's erudite and critical re-examination of human dependence succeeds to re-profile dependence meaningfully and revives our interest in this major aspect of human experience. Indeed, much food for thought for both psychoanalysts and anthropologists. Henri Parens, M.D., Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute Western ideologies traditionally emphasize the concepts of individualism, privacy, freedom, and independence, while the prevailing ethos relegates dependency to a disparaged status. In Japanese society, the divergence from these western ideals can be found in the concept of amae (perhaps best translated as indulgent dependency) which is part of the Japanese social fiber and pervades their experience. For the Western reader, the concept of amae is somewhat alien and unfamiliar, but in order to understand the Japanese fully, it is essential to acquire a familiarity with the intensity that accompanies interdependent affiliations within their culture. To place amae in the proper context, Johnson critically examines the western attitudes toward dependency from the perspectives of psychoanalysis, psychiatry, developmental psychology, and anthropology. Johnson traces the development of the concept and uses of the term dependency in academic and developmental psychology in the West, including its recent eclipse by more operationally useful terms attachment and interdependency. This timely books makes use of the work of Japanese psychiatrist Takeo Doi, whose book The Anatomy of Dependence introduced the concept of amae to the West. Johnson goes on to illuminate the collective manner in which Japanese think and behave which is central to their socialization and educational practices, especially as seen in the stunning success of Japanese trading practices during the past twenty years. A major emphasis is placed upon the positive aspects of amae, which are compared and contrasted with attitudes toward dependency seen among other nationalities, cultures, and groups in both Western and Asian societies. Complete with a glossary of Japanese terms, Dependency and Japanese Socialization provides a comprehensive investigation into Japanese behavior.

The Best Health Care System in the World?

AMERICANS enjoy the health care system in the world. So says President Bush, and many physicians agree with this claim. But frequent repetition doesn't make it true. What kind of evidence would an objective observer examine to evaluate different systems of health care? Is it possible to determine the system unambiguously, or does the choice depend on the criteria used? The health care system may be like the spouse—it all depends on what one is looking for. Physicians, for instance, may assign values to system characteristics that differ markedly from those assigned by the public. Even within the profession, each specialty may have a different point of view and reach different conclusions about the system, eg, radiologists vs family physicians. Naoki Ikegami, a Japanese psychiatrist, has suggested three criteria for assessing best medical practice: (1) maintenance of technical standards in diagnosis and treatment; (2) preventive measures

1. Far East

According to B. KIMURA, a Japanese psychiatrist, transcultural psychiatry should reconsider old problems in the light of foreign concepts and ways of experiencing. By means of a brief semantic analysis of some fundamental Japanese words, he shows how interhuman relationships are experienced differently in Japan and how this influences the perception of mental disease and psychotherapeutic rela tions. J. R. AVERILL, E. M. OPTON, JR, and R. S. LAZARUS report on psychophysio logical differences found between Japanese and white American groups in their reactions to a silent film considered as highly threatening. According to Y. S. MATSUMOTO, the low rate of coronary disease observed in Japan, even in indus trialized regions, is related not only to low intake of dietary fat but also to such sociocultural factors as the continuing emphasis on group welfare, group consen sus, paternalistic enterprises, frequent opportunities for recreation among men, and a relatively weak sense of individuality. The most detailed description and analysis ever written in English of present-day Morita therapy and theory, by D. K. REYNOLDS, is reviewed. This study concludes with an analysis of Japanese national character in relation to the shinkeishitsu neurosis, for which Morita therapy was developed and in relation to some child-raising practices. W.-S. TSENG, after a brief description of shamanistic curing techniques in Taiwan, gives a good illustration of how a man can become a shaman. Shamanism is the subject of another study by B.-Y. RHI, who compares the therapeutic process of Jungian analytic psychology with that of shamanistic healing in Korea. A shamanistic ceremony called zinoki is described as an equivalent to making the unconscious conscious, to experiencing the archetypal complex for conflictual resolution, and to sending the purifled product of the archetype once again to the collective unconscious. This section ends with J. WESTERMEYER's descrip tion of a new form of amok, called grenade- amok, which recently appeared in Laos.

I. Far East

Little is known to most of us about psychiatric problems in the Mongolian People's Republic. DORZHADAMBA describes in his article a few of the characteristics of psychiatric illness observed in this country giving special emphasis to social factors. NISHIMARU, a Japanese psychiatrist doubts whether Western psychotherapeutic principles can be applied to Eastern patients owing to differences in mental climate (Weltanschauung) between the two cultural areas. NAKA and KAWAKITA deal specifically with the role played by religion in the care of the mentally ill in Japan. They also report on a research project concerning mental health problems of children in a district of Osaka City. RIN studied the relevance of loss of parents early in life, of sibling rank and of parental attitudes to the frequency and course of schizophrenia in Chinese families. Analogously, OH investigated the difference of family etiology of mental disorders between Korean patients and American patients using a control group. A survey of the use and non-use of alcohol and of alcoholism in eight countries of the Far and Middle East is presented by CHAFETZ.