Abstracts and Reviews: 2 Far East:NIHON NO SEISHIN IGAKU, SEISHIN EISEI O MITE (IM PRESSIONS OF PSYCHIATRY AND MENTAL HEALTH IN JAPAN) by TSUNG-YI LIN. Seishin Igaku (Psychological Medicine, Tokyo) 24 (1982): 1389-98
Abstract
Abstracts and Reviews2 Far EastNIHON NO SEISHIN IGAKU, SEISHIN EISEI O MITE (IM PRESSIONS OF PSYCHIATRY AND MENTAL HEALTH IN JAPAN) by TSUNG-YI LIN. Seishin Igaku (Psychological Medicine, Tokyo) 24 (1982): 1389-98 SAGE Publications, Inc.1983DOI: 10.1177/136346158302000305 S.C. Chang This article helps understand the relatively unknown world of psychiatry in Japan. It is based on an extended observation of the field and is impressionistic but instructive. In attempting to communicate with Japanese psychiatrists, Lin found that where he would normally have expected openness, there was an invisible wall, and when he anticipated certain information, it was not forthcoming. Eventually, however, he concluded that the problems were largely "cultural"-he lacked the common, but unspoken, basic assumptions of the Japanese about the nature of things. The author notes that there is a palpable sense of dissatisfaction among Japanese psychiatrists. It is unclear from the paper whether this dissatisfaction is with the state of the art or with the politics of psychiatry and whether it is confined to a particular group or is more widespread. More than a decade ago, Japanese psychiatry was torn by conflict which resembled a combination of the civil rights and anti-war movements occurring in the U.S. about