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This book, written in Japanese, is intended for a wide range of psychoanalytically oriented clinicians, from aspiring graduate students to more seasoned clinicians. While written in easily accessible wording, it conveys to readers an intriguing amalgam of two strains of thought. Although primarily grounded in traditional Western psychoanalytic ideas, the influence of the Japanese way of thinking is tangible throughout. Reflecting the contemporary landscape of Japanese psychoanalysis, this book offers readers outside Japan who are capable of reading the Japanese language a valuable opportunity to glimpse the current state of psychoanalytic practice in Japan, especially from a technical point of view.
The first feature of Matsuki's approach represents a direction that many Japanese clinicians seem to be leaning towards – a direction that strives to remain firmly committed to the traditional Western psychoanalytic methodology. Central to his approach is the theory of object relations, which is embraced by many psychoanalytic practitioners in Japan.
This introduction might be a bit of a surprise to the readers who are not at all familiar with psychoanalysis in Japan. Those expecting a uniquely Japanese psychoanalysis, centred around specifically Japanese concepts, such as amae, a concept describing the need to be accepted and loved, as conceptualized by Takeo Doi (1971, 1973), or the Ajase complex, a complex consisting of love, resentment and guilt toward one's mother as described by Kosawa (1954), might even feel somewhat disappointed.
However, in my view, this sense of disappointment is only a surface aspect of what the book evokes. Another feature of the book is how in certain places, references to Eastern ideas emerge from the depth beneath the surface, eventually blossoming into Matsuki's original conceptualization of the art of listening. Matsuki begins with traditional Western psychoanalysis and, while seemingly adhering to it, the author naturally incorporates Japa