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Historically, modern Japanese have been identifying with the spirit of Europeans and Americans, while being involved in the difficult task of maintaining their uniqueness. To understand the motivation of psychiatrists becoming psychoanalysts in Japan, one must consider the era they live in and their new way of life.
The editor of Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Melvin Bornstein, invited a group of Japanese analysts to write articles on how they became psychoanalysts. The task was difficult. It took three years to achieve. It touched on deep emotions and ideas, yet their spirit was present, as seen in this issue that has taken three years to complete.
Dr. Toyoaki Ogawa’s article is revealing and proactive. He writes in a lively and young spirit that, no doubt, reflects qualities of his personality, a strength to learn and investigate, especially about life itself.
Dr. Takayuki Kinugasa was born in Hiroshima after the Pacific War was over. But as he grew older, Dr. Kinugasa began to realize how the A-bomb was boundlessly devastating on human beings, both physically and emotionally. When he was 10 years old, he was involved in a serious accident resulting in a series of traumatic surgeries. This personal incident overlapped the A-bomb tragedy that devastated so many peoples’ lives, including his own father’s, which led to his vocational choice of medicine, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis.
Dr. Kenichiro Okano wrote a very illustrative, illuminating narrative about expectation and goals of psychoanalytic training. He also discusses some important issues around psychoanalytic thinking in modern time.
Dr. Seigen Gon was born as a Korean Japanese. During the period of transition in Japan, Dr. Gon experienced tremendous hardships and agonies. As he was developing his identity of a psychoanalyst, the greater psychoanalytic community itself contributed to addition hardships.
Dr. Akiyoshi Okada’s article describes the history of psychoanalysis in Japan with its transitions during the last hal