History of Japanese psychopathology: Portraits of the second‐generation psychopathologists (Takeo Doi, Yomishi Kasahara, Hiroshi Yasunaga, Tadao Miyamoto, Bin Kimura, and Hisao Nakai) and their relationship to psychiatric reform movement in Japan

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide an overview of the history of Japanese psychopathology by presenting concise portraits of the second generation of Japanese psychopathologists, whose era is considered to be the heyday of Japanese psychopathology. Meanwhile, we also consider the historical background of the psychiatric reform movement in Japan that influenced many second-generation psychopathologists. First, the paper briefly discusses the emergence of the first-generation of psychopathologists through the adoption of German-centered psychiatry after the Meiji era. In general, the first-generation can be said to have laid the foundation for the independent development of psychopathology in Japan.Then came the second generation, at a time when the psychiatric reform movement was gaining momentum, with the Academic Chair System of the Faculty of Medicine (Ikyoku Kōzasei) heavily criticized, and psychiatric research itself halted temporarily. In order to continue the hampered academic research, workshops on "Psychopathology of Schizophrenia" were organized by the second-generation psychopathologists, whose major figures include Takeo Doi, Yomishi Kasahara, Hiroshi Yasunaga, Tadao Miyamoto, Bin Kimura, and Hisao Nakai. The invaluable contributions of the second-generation psychopathologists are essential to the development of Japanese psychopathology, and their close relationship with the psychiatric reform movement is worth reexamining, as it could be argued that the political tensions generated by the movement were the driving force behind their high-quality work.

Pathography in Japan: Exploring the relationship between creativity and the psyche

“…32 Miyamoto, referring to the second thesis, demonstrated Edvard Munch's hallucinatory conscious in the spatial expression of his works such as “ The Scream ” (1893), “ The Voice/Summer Night ” (1893), and “ Anxiety ” (1894), which he had painted before experiencing psychotic symptoms. 4 , 11 …”

“…Takuya Matsumoto, 11 , 46 a brilliant psychoanalyst in the Lacanian tradition, has lucidly summarized how the issues of creation and madness have been dealt with in a sweeping historical survey encompassing the past 2500 years. 46 Matsumoto's study was highly praised by the hikikomori expert and pathographer Tamaki Saitō, who called it “an achievement of meta‐pathography that addresses the paradigm of pathography itself.” 47…”

“…Since that time, pathography in Japan has developed in various ways, keeping pace with current advances in psychopathological research that were mainly achieved by second‐generation psychopathologists. 10 , 11 Satoshi Katō, a third‐generation psychopathologist and pathographer, 10 , 12 points out the importance of pathography's existence as a discipline, stating that “the uniqueness of pathography, which is situated at the intersection of several disciplines and seeks to explore the relationship between creativity and mental deviance, is sought through a problem framework that illuminates human creativity from perspectives established by psychiatry, such as those of the concept of illness and the understanding of the patient's condition, as well as that of healing” (first published in 2001). 12…”

The anthropological method for diagnosing mental diseases: On the theory of time structure of Bin Kimura

“…Kimura created his original theory of time structure, in which he insisted that patients with schizophrenia, depression, and epilepsy lived different time structures, which we can identify to diagnose mental diseases. This article is one of a series of papers [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] introducing secondgeneration psychopathology in Japan and aims to introduce Kimura's theory of time structure, and to induce the possibility of this theory to complement the defects of the operational criteria.…”

“…This article is one of a series of papers 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 introducing second‐generation psychopathology in Japan and aims to introduce Kimura's theory of time structure, and to induce the possibility of this theory to complement the defects of the operational criteria.…”