NOTA |
()(1.In this sequel to LThe Anatomy of DependenceL, Takeo Doi further develops his theory of the psychology of Lamae [dependent, passive love]L, already a key concept for anyone attempting to understand the Japanese and their unique society. Making use of words from everyday life --LomoteL and LuraL,LtatemaeL and LhonneL,LsotoL and LuchiL-- he explores the complex role of the individual in a society that often appears to have no individuals. LThe Anatomy of SelfL will give pause to those who have disdained the Japanese tendency to think that everything about their culture is unique. Doi quotes widely from an impressive range of references, meticulously comparing his concepts to ideas originating in the Western tradition. He finds evidence for his insights not only in Natsume Soseki, Mori Ogai, and Tanizaki Junichiro, but also in the life of Christ and in the plays of Shakespeare. The wisdom of Kobayashi Hideo, the father of modern Japanese literary criticism, stands side by side with that of Freud, Weber, Max Picard, and George Orwell. Doi is as quick to explode myths the Japanese have about themselves as to defend what he sees as the genius of Japanese society. In a brilliant paper on the Japanese and nature, he points out that the Japanese often feel that their unique experience of nature makes them superior to Westerners, but that what drives them to seek nature is the inevitable pain inherent in the Japanese mode of human relations. LThe Anatomy of SelfL is like a haiku. It is extremely dense, but its insights have universal significance. It is a condensation of Dr. DoiLs work during the period of more than ten years since the publication in Japanese of LThe Anatomy of DependenceL, which established his position as JapanLs foremost clinical psychiatrist and one of its most original thinkers. 2.Takeo Doi graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1942. He has held a number of posts at American institutes and universities, including the Menninger School of Psychiatry and the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, and was visiting scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland. He headed the psychiatric department at St. LukeLs International Hospital in Tokyo for a number of years, and was also a professor in the schools of Health Science and Medicine at the University of Tokyo, and a professor at International Christian University. He now serves as a consultant to St. LukeLs and is also a visiting scholar at the PHP Research Institute in Tokyo. Dr. Doi has published a number of works, including the Japanese bestseller LAmae no Koozoo [The Anatomy of Dependence, Kodansha International]L and LThe Psychological World of Natsume Soseki [Harvard University Press]L.LOmote to UraL, of which LThe Anatomy of SelfL is a translation, was published by Koobundoo in March, 1985, and is another bestseller in Japan.) |