ABSTRACT
The diverse collection of essays in this book have two things in common: they all discuss some aspect of Japanese culture, and they all do so with the aid of some form or offshoot of Freud’s psychoanalytic method. Depending on the reader’s perspective, we recognize that one or another of these criteria might seem somewhat arbitrary. Why just Japan? some might ask. If the point is to explore the application of psychoanalysis to culture, then why not open the inquiry up to other cultures as well? Or, Why the focus on psychoanalysis? If the point is to produce more knowledge about “Japan” then why not subject it to scrutiny through the lenses of multiple methodologies? These are entirely reasonable questions, and ones that we have asked ourselves many times in the process of editing this book.
