ABSTRACT
Despite the early introduction of psychoanalysis from the 1900s, psychotherapy in Japan has had a troubling history, characterized by critiques and dismissal from dominant neurobiological psychiatrists, internal battles among psychotherapists, and prevailing suspicion among the public toward intrusions into the deeply private realm of the individual. In a 2014 book on basic principles of psychotherapy, Shozo Aoki and Kayoko Murase, discuss the importance of not pushing patients to psychological insights through verbalization. They write that therapists have to be wary of the implicit ideal that exposing one’s hidden thoughts and desires is a sign of having established a trusting relationship. Hisao Nakai psychotherapeutic sensibility largely comes from his ability to historically contextualize patients’ illness experiences. Nakai has also actively combined Western biomedicine with traditional medicine, generating “dialogic psychotherapy through antipsychotic medication.” Another psychotherapist who is widely read, along with Nakai, is Joji Kandabashi. Though two are often in dialogue with and deeply respect each other, their styles are radically different.
