Psychotherapy and Religion in Japan : The Japanese Introspection Practice of Naikan

ISBN-13: 9780415336758 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 210 str.

Chikako Ozawa-De Silva

Opis

Can merely changing one's perspective on one's past lead to the alleviation of mental and physical suffering? Are our personal pasts an inviolable terrain, or are they capable of reinterpretation and revision? This book explores the Japanese practice of Naikan, a psychotherapeutic method which combines meditation-like body engagement with the recovery of memory and the reconstruction of one's autobiography in order to bring about healing and a changed notion of the self. Although it arose out of a Shin Buddhist self-cultivation practice, Naikan has achieved success in Japan, in both hospitals and dedicated centers, as a therapy for addiction and physical and mental illnesses, and has spread abroad to both Europe and the USA. The Naikan method operates along the borders of religion and therapy, inviting an investigation into the distinctiveness and interpenetration of these two domains. Drawing upon the author's personal experiences of participation in Naikan, this book situates an ethnography of Naikan, its setting, practices, and the roles played by practitioners and clients, within the context of both Japanese society and the Buddhist tradition. It is an important resource for those interested in the roles of memory, autobiography and narrative in health and recovery, the dialogue between western psychotherapies and Buddhist thought, and the practice of Naikan and its place in Japanese culture and society.

Spis treści

Part 1: Naikan  1. Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Introspection  2. The Expansion of Naikan  3. Personal Accounts of Naikan  Part 2: Therapy  4. A Confessed Therapy  5. Embodies Memory and the Reconstruction of Autobiography  6. Naikan as an Alternative to Western Therapies  Part 3: Religion  7. Naikan's Shin Buddhist Legacy  8. Enclosed Silence, Sacred Space: Death in the Naikan Environment  9. Using the Body: The Role of Meditation  10. Elements of Christianity in Naikan?  11. From Salvation to Healing: Ties between Religion and Therapy  Part 4: Health & Society  12. The Place of Culture in Health and Illness  13. Conclusion: Questioning the Categories of Religion and Psychotherapy

O autorze

Chikako Ozawa-de Silva is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Emory University. Her work focuses on cross-cultural understandings of health and illness, mind and body, religious healing practices, medicine and therapy in the fields of medical anthropology, psychological anthropology and the anthropology of religion by bringing together Western and Asian (particularly Japanese and Tibetan) methodologies and epistemologies.