Aspects of intrapsychic, interpersonal and cross-cultural dynamics in Japanese group psychotherapy.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is not well developed in Japan (Kotani, 1996). Until recently, group psychotherapy in particular has not been well received by patients or clinicians. Cultural difficulties in using group psychotherapy with Japanese patients have now been overcome and a theory of systematic intervention techniques has been developed. The basic dynamic factors of group psychotherapy such as culturally embedded aspects of social and personality structure are analyzed in this article. Culture-bound psychodynamic characteristics of Japanese patients as activated and worked through in the group process are first described with case illustrations. A systemic hypothesis linking cultural and psychodynamic structure is then delineated and the focal points of interventions are explained in terms of the field dynamics of social structure and boundary dynamics of personality structure.
Kotani
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Division of Education at International Christian University in Tokyo.
D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy; D013811:Psychotherapeutic Processes; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group / Q000379:methods*