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The Method of Clinical Psychiatry was written by Takeo Doi, a psychoanalyst who introduced amae, or indulgent dependency — a concept he identified and explored — to the international psychoanalytic community (Doi, 1989). As the first original concept released from Japan, amae had a considerable
impact on Western psychiatric thought. Doi passed away on 5 July 2009, making it his last book dedicated to this field.
Doi had long served as president of the Japan Psychoanalytic Society. It is thus somewhat surprising that the book he ventured to publish during this period, The Method of Clinical Psychiatry, centres on psychiatry, not psychoanalysis. It is true that Doi started out as a psychiatrist. However, his major accomplishments to date focused on amae, a psychoanalytic concept, and the issues related to it. Some people may therefore wonder why he returned to psychiatry upon reaching the final years of his life.
Doi once told me: “You have become a psychoanalyst. But I think I am, after all, a psychiatrist.” I realize now that I did not fully understand what he truly meant to say at that time, especially the latter half of his remark. My feeling at the time was simply that of joy that Dr Doi was happy to see that I, a member of the younger generation, had become a fully-fledged analyst. When I read this book, though, I can see that his remarks are not that simple. It was also that, as a person who started his career in psychiatry and psychiatric treatment, he was throwing a question at me, about how I viewed the area between psychoanalysis and psychiatry. As is the case with most outstanding analysts, Doi's remarks — intentional or not — almost always have the implicit effect of evoking an essential question in the mind of the person to whom he is talking.
The Method of Clinical Psychiatry provides his own solutions to that question. I assume that, during this period, he felt impelled to give shape to his solutions in his own way. He was aware that his 17-year battle