Working with social withdrawal, or hikikomori, in Japan: From shame to pride

Abstract

The term hikikomori, or social withdrawal, was first coined in the late 1980s in Japan to describe adolescents and young adults who isolated themselves at home, withdrew from most social engagement, such as work or school, and had almost no relationships with others (except family members and online contacts) for longer than 6 months. Hikikomori often results from emotional injuries such as rejection, or failures that have not been addressed or even noticed. In the current case illustration, the problem of hikikomori is depicted through a client named Ken, a 40‐year‐old single man who, following graduation from university, became lodged in a 15‐year cycle of repeatedly finding employment, quitting within the first year, and going into reclusive isolation. Ken underwent affect‐oriented integrative psychotherapy for 4 years. The importance of processing emotional pain and highlighting positive emotional experiences to build a positive sense of self in working with hikikomori will also be discussed.

Exploring Hikikomori-like idiom of distress a year into the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Oman: Factorial validity of the 25-item Hikikomori Questionnaire, prevalence and associated factors

“…There is a dearth of studies on the relationship between HLID and employability. In an ideographical study, Iwakabe [ 91 ] reported that some people with HLID tend to gain employment but are often prone to quit and that quitting tends to herald reclusive isolation. It is also important to reiterate that this study occurred a year after the SARS-COV-2 outbreak, when ‘working from home’ and remote work became more commonplace and, at times, even encouraged after the lifting of social restrictions.…”

Longitudinal association of mindfulness with aggression and non‐suicidal self‐injury in adolescence: The mediating role of shame‐proneness

“…These findings are consistent with the results of other cross‐sectional studies (Garofalo et al, 2020; Leavitt et al, 2020), revealing that describing, acting with awareness, and nonjudging can act as negative predictors of aggression and NSSI by the shame‐proneness's mediating effects. Shame is considered as one variety of social pain (Boring et al, 2021; Elison et al, 2006, 2014; Iwakabe, 2021). As MacDonald and Leary (2005) hypothesizing that because social pain coopted the physical pain mechanisms, the links extend to physical threat‐defense mechanisms proposed by researchers (Jonas et al, 2014; Park et al, 2023), the results of current study can be explained by the threat‐defense mechanism.…”

Therapeutic comparison in psychological capital

“…Owing to the importance of psychological capital for hikikomori, this study sought to investigate the therapeutic outcomes of psychological capital among three kinds of therapy: cognitive-behavioral, narrative, and play therapies, which were implemented on hikikomori based on their unique needs and situations underlying their social withdrawal state [e.g., ( 3 , 4 , 7 )]. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps deal with hikikomori’s maladaptive thoughts and fosters their adaptive behavioral coping capabilities ( 12 , 13 ); narrative therapy helps enhance hikikomori’s sense of self ( 14 ); play therapy helps enhance hikikomori’s social skills, sense of teamwork, cognitive capabilities, and leadership qualities that equip them with the requisite capabilities to handle issues in their daily lives ( 15 ).…”

“…Reviewed by existing literature, this group of youth experience various negative life events such as parental issues, bullying, difficulty in fitting into society, and stigma related to prolonged social withdrawal [e.g., (3)(4)(5)(6)]. Not being able to deal with these negative experiences, they develop "a strong sense of failure and inadequacy, " disempowerment, a low level of self-confidence, and a sense of hopelessness for the future [ (3,7), p. 1207; (6)]. This contributes to their engagement in social withdrawal behavior as a coping strategy (3,6).…”

“…This contributes to their engagement in social withdrawal behavior as a coping strategy (3,6). This suggests that merely emphasizing the removal of the youth's hidden behavior through the enhancement of social skills and relationships, their re-engagement into society, and resumption of employment to help them become functioning individuals (e.g., (7)(8)(9)) is inadequate. Instead, nurturing their psychological capital (PsyCap), a positive psychological state characterized by self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience (10), is crucial.…”