The Efficacy of Naikan Therapy on Male Offenders: Changes in Perceived Social Support and Externalized Blame

Abstract

Naikan is a contemplative self-observation practice that originated from Japanese Shin Buddhism and is utilized for rehabilitating prison inmates in many countries. Although some investigations have provided initial evidence for its efficiency in decreasing recidivism, there is still a need for further investigation of the effectiveness of Naikan on other outcomes through more controlled studies. The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of Naikan therapy on male offenders' perceived social support and externalized blame. Ninety-two male offenders were randomly assigned to either the experimental group or to the waiting group. All participants were evaluated by the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and the Externalization subscale of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect before and after Naikan therapy. The results suggested that participants who received Naikan therapy showed higher levels of perceived social support and lower levels of externalized blame after Naikan therapy than before.

Efficacy of combined naikan and morita therapies on psychological distress and posttraumatic growth in Chinese patients with advanced cancer

“…However, interventions for AC patients have been seldom developed, and those developed interventions have rarely focused on psychological distress and assessed these problems as primary outcomes. Because of this situation, we used a combined intervention, including NT and MT derived from the published literature on the respective effects of NT [ 16 , 29 , 35 , 36 ] and MT. [ 37 – 39 ] The present study showed the significant benefits of the combination of NT and MT in AC patients as compared with the control group, particularly in decreasing psychological distress.…”

“…He simplified the method by eliminating the strict physical restrictions and constructing three questions for practitioners. Nowadays, NT has been adapted for use in prisons, [16] detention homes, schools and business training. As a kind of psychotherapy, Naikan method was reported to be an effective method for the treatment of mental disorder patients [17,18] .…”

Cross-Cultural Research on Psychotherapy: The Need for a Change

“…During therapy, clients are asked to reflect on their relationships with their significant others using certain questions (Maeshiro, 2009). Ding et al (2018), in their study on the effect of Naikan therapy with 92 male offenders, found that the therapy had improved perceived social support and decreased externalized blame. Zhang, Li, Zhao, and Zhan (2015) investigated the possible benefits of adjunctive Naikan therapy for the treatment of schizophrenia, and the follow-up study showed that while 20.5% of the control group who had received routine medication and inpatient rehabilitative treatment relapsed after 12 months, only 10.6% of the intervention group relapsed.…”

“…Despite having more detailed descriptions (Brent & Kolko, 1998), psychotherapy can basically be defined as a psychological intervention, as opposed to organic, to emotional/psychological problems (Varma, 1982), or in Winnicott's (1968) witty words, "two people playing together" (p. 571). This kind of broad definition appears theoretically flexible enough to have provided grounds for the more than 400 psychotherapy models developed throughout the world (Corsini & Wedding, 2008). In practice, however, a few theoretical orientations of Western origin among all seem to dominate psychotherapy practice (Orlinsky et al, 1999).…”