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“Why psychoanalysis? How do Japanese get to know psychoanalysis?” These questions were given at the interview on my applying to Tavistock Clinic, when I introduced myself as already accepted by the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London. It was in 1998. Two years later, our year group, newly progressed to the formal candidate starting the seminars at the Institute, was invited to Freud Museum as a part of the introductory events by the Institute. There, the director told us that Freud himself had an ambition and hope to spread his psychoanalysis into Japan. How can we integrate the discrepancy between those sincere questions and Freud’s ambition? Reflecting on recent prevalence in Psychoanalytic Community in terms of Go to the East, one might say that heading for the East is influenced by the trend in the world economy, which is no more than marketing and politics. Of course, as fellows of psychoanalysis, we would see and could also comprehend that heading for the East is definitely the sincere interest to achieve further understanding of human psyche in depth by relating each other. Because psychoanalysis is a way to understand one’s own, by creating an understanding in depth, through the analytic, i.e., unconscious-oriented mutual communication with a psychoanalyst. Therefore, it is inevitable for both of us, the East and the West, to know each other, so far as pursuing our sincere wish to comprehend what kind of invisible unconscious reservation might be transparent in one’s own cultural context.
As noted in the introduction, psychoanalysis is intellectually introduced to Japan in the 1910s, the era of Imperialism. However, once trying to comprehend and conduct psychoanalysis in terms of the formal clinical practice as well as becoming a psychoanalyst, it has taken several decades to overcome. To illustrate the reality of our struggling, Dr. Ogura and I decided to add articles by Drs. Takeo Doi and Tetsuro Takahashi. Like the other six authors (and me, too, who stu