Vol. 34 of Prof. Kawai’s Essay Series in Minerva Correspondence: Kiwameru was Published

A new installment in Professor Toshio Kawai’s essay series, “Kokoro’s Forefront and the Layers of History” was published in the June 2019 issue of Minerva Correspondence: Kiwameru.

The theme of this month’s essay was psychotherapy and the function of communities.

Presently, psychotherapy is offered as a service and as its scope expands, so do the issues that clients bring up. The support provided to them is changing accordingly to these new needs.

The author points out that in recent years, there have many noticeable cases in which a person reared in a poor environment who does not intend to seek psychotherapy has achieved dramatic growth and improvement by going through psychotherapeutic support services. For example, free therapy to support child-rearing or students have improved things such as children’s problematic behavior, delayed development, parent-child relationships, academic grades, and friendships.

The author states that in psychotherapy, a therapist listens to what a client says with a receptive attitude and treats him/her naturally, thereby making psychotherapy a fixed point in the client’s mind. This basic stance of psychotherapy contributes greatly to a client’s change and growth.

In pre-modern times, when parents could not provide sufficient support for their children, their relatives and communities helped. Today, however, families and communities do not have enough resources. In such situations, psychotherapy can provide nurturing support instead.

This article describes the importance of the role of psychotherapy in providing a stable point for kokoro during times of emerging change or shifts in mentality.

(Reported by：Hisae Konakawa, Program-Specific Research Fellow)

2019/08/27