For much of my twenties and thirties, I may have suffered a form of hikikomori, a uniquely Japanese form of sociopathy with a risk for violence due to social isolation.
Here's a full description of the disorder, and roots to its origins. The concept of hone (inner voice) and tatamae (outer voice) may be unique to the Japanese, but the terms I use for each of them relates to the inner voice that when inappropriately expressed may lead to social isolation and the outer voice that is appropriately expressed which leads to social integration into the group.
Thus, one only expresses the inner voice to become individualistic, while the outer voice leads one to become at one with the group, be it one's friends or society at large.
April 19, 2007: Perhaps this explains Cho Seung-Hui's early life until age 16, the year before 9/11.
The following is a quote from Mark Zielenziger's first chapter of his book, SHUTTING OUT THE SUN, which may explain Cho's first 17 years of his life (until 9/11 shocked him and the rest of us out of our sense of isolation from the horrors of terrorism).
Bluntly put, Cho's murder-suicide is another of a long blood trail of domestic terrorism, but then again so is any form of violence when it brings a chill of terror to even one heart.
A SYNDROME KNOWN AS HIKIKOMORI, IN which the outside world is shunned, is wreaking havoc on young people in Japan, a country known for its communal values. And an older generation--the very bastion of those old-fashioned values--may be to blame, according to a controversial new theory.
Hikikomori (the term refers to the behavior itself and to those who suffer from it) was first recognized in the early 1990s. One million Japanese, or almost 1 percent of the population, are estimated to suffer from hikikomori, defined as a withdrawal from friends and family for months or even years. Some 40 percent of hikikomori are below the age of 21, according to a 2001 government report.
Western psychologists compare hikikomori with social anxiety and agoraphobia, a fear of open places. The affliction has also been likened to Asperger's syndrome, a mild variant of autism. But these theories carry little weight in Japan, where the disorder is considered culturally unique and is linked to violence.
Yuichi Hattori, M.A., a psychologist currently treating 18 patients with the disorder, believes that hikikomori is caused by emotionally neglectful parenting. Hattori argues that none of his patients had been sexually or physically abused, yet they all show signs of posttraumatic stress disorder.
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As the cultural gap between Japan's youth and elders widens, some young Japanese may view their parents as too stony-faced and reserved. Hattori speaks of Japanese society's deep-rooted division between hone and tatemae--one's true feelings and one's actions--to illustrate the frustration his patients express toward aloof parents.
"Patients tell me their mothers have no emotions," says Hattori. "Six patients have called their parents zombies."
Hattori's findings, presented in November to the International Society for the Study of Dissociation, are reminiscent of the now-discredited theory of the "refrigerator mother," which attributed autism to a detached style of parenting.
"Hikikomori looks more to me like an extreme case of social anxiety," says David Kupfer, Ph.D., a psychologist with a private practice in Virginia. Emotionally unresponsive parents are only one of the factors involved in the development of this disorder, says Kupfer, who points out that "in Japan, the pressure to succeed is a unique cultural source of trauma."
For now, Eastern and Western psychologists agree only that hikikomori is unique to Japan and has serious ramifications for both generations.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Sussex Publishers, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query hikikomori. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query hikikomori. Sort by date Show all posts
20070419
20121017
Be A Vigilante For the People, By the People, and Of the People (satire)
A common reaction to hyper-vigilance by the State is to stay at home.
It's more prudent to be vigilant of the State by observing what they do when they take down anyone who they suspect of terrorist activity.
Remember: agents of the State are State-sponsored terrorists when they terrorize the People. Agents of State terrorism light the fuse of tomorrow's global terrorists.
Choosing to stay home will lead to hikikomori.
People who never leave home tend to become so neurotic they think they have an anxiety disorder, or even a personality disorder.
Looking at four walls all day leads to cabin fever.
Get out and be vigilant of the State. It is not vigilanté-ism; it is the right of the People. So carefully observe the State.
Be a vigilanté for the People, by the People and of the People! Non-violent confrontation is allowable.
When the sheep look up, the wolves are already among us. When the wolves in sheep's clothing are exposed, stop being sheep and confront the wolves.
Or, you could stay at home and end up becoming hikikomori only to suddenly see your parents and/or loved ones hurt by your cowardice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori
It's more prudent to be vigilant of the State by observing what they do when they take down anyone who they suspect of terrorist activity.
Remember: agents of the State are State-sponsored terrorists when they terrorize the People. Agents of State terrorism light the fuse of tomorrow's global terrorists.
Choosing to stay home will lead to hikikomori.
People who never leave home tend to become so neurotic they think they have an anxiety disorder, or even a personality disorder.
Looking at four walls all day leads to cabin fever.
Get out and be vigilant of the State. It is not vigilanté-ism; it is the right of the People. So carefully observe the State.
Be a vigilanté for the People, by the People and of the People! Non-violent confrontation is allowable.
When the sheep look up, the wolves are already among us. When the wolves in sheep's clothing are exposed, stop being sheep and confront the wolves.
Or, you could stay at home and end up becoming hikikomori only to suddenly see your parents and/or loved ones hurt by your cowardice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori
20070526
Mad Props to Azia Kim & Elizabeth Okazaki
Please read Google on Azia Kim and Elizabeth Okazaki before reading further to get a sense of this American form of hikikomori. Also search for "hikikomori" here.
The recent departure of Azia Kim, who hung out at Stanford University for 8 months brought into focus another freeloader who had been at the university for 4 years.
Apparently Elizabeth Okazaki lived at Varian for all those years while administrators there tolerated her presence.
It seems that about four years Okazaki couldn't scam students at apartment buildings as their "property manager". So, in a sense she is homeless.
Kim's ability to lie and still fake being a student also makes her slightly off, but probably with less social isolation than experienced by Okazaki.
Both women may have had a form of hikikomori, given that neither of them actually took classes.
IMHO both women must feel it to be nice to be near intelligent people at university, given how tolerant university students are about such a thing.
To now isolate and thus stigmatize them further by creating doubts about their mental stability is to threaten their ability to integrate into society without hardship.
In a sense, the media frenzy over both women may expose both of them to future victimization, both by the State and other people.
The recent departure of Azia Kim, who hung out at Stanford University for 8 months brought into focus another freeloader who had been at the university for 4 years.
Apparently Elizabeth Okazaki lived at Varian for all those years while administrators there tolerated her presence.
It seems that about four years Okazaki couldn't scam students at apartment buildings as their "property manager". So, in a sense she is homeless.
Kim's ability to lie and still fake being a student also makes her slightly off, but probably with less social isolation than experienced by Okazaki.
Both women may have had a form of hikikomori, given that neither of them actually took classes.
IMHO both women must feel it to be nice to be near intelligent people at university, given how tolerant university students are about such a thing.
To now isolate and thus stigmatize them further by creating doubts about their mental stability is to threaten their ability to integrate into society without hardship.
In a sense, the media frenzy over both women may expose both of them to future victimization, both by the State and other people.
20080617
Hikikomori who act out their violent fantasies may be influenced by a continuum of horror films
One significent factor in social isolation is the amount of time devoted to obsession about a single interest. Usually for males, it may consist of pornography, and for sociopathic predation, it has to be violent pornography. Horror films can be considered soft-corn "porn" since sometimes gratuitous sex and sexualization of gratuitous violence occurs. Thus it is not abnormal for breasts to be exposed in certain horror films. As well, violent pornography is merely hardcore adult horror.
Therefore, the continuum of horror ranges from classical to adult violent i.e. classical to violent pornography.
The viewer may fantasize revenge on his former oppressers, who may have bullied or teased him in childhood. Both horror films and violent pornography may fuel this obsession.
What this indicates is that such viewing of violent films need to be monitored since a fan who is social isolated may mistake fantasy for reality, and try to act out what he sees on the screen.
IMHO video rental places who refuse to monitor their creepier clients' viewing habits are as morally reprehensible as drinking establishments who pickle the gills of their patrons to the point of alcohlism.
As well, hikikomori is not unique to Japan.
The etiology for some serial killers consists of the triad of bedwetting, torture of pets and small animals, and arson. As well, in the case of socially isolated individuals, which is often a given for this class of serial killer, it also includes collecting violent pornography - both movies and anime - and classic horror films.
As well, social isolation and the violent porn, including that in some classical horror films, are symptoms of an underlying personality disorder which has its roots in childhood, possibly due to bullying and teasing in childhood, isolation from one or both parents due to their depression or other psychiatric condition (alcoholism, drug abuse, or personality disorder).
No culture is immune to hikikomori-like symptoms of an underlying personality disorder and its comorbidity with a mood disorder. In certain cultures, a culture of shame implies depression to be inherent. As well, depression may have some types of psychoses present. When depression becomes chronic, bipolar disorder may arise with schizotypal impact on the personality.
However, it does not follow that mental illness will result in acting out of violent fantasies. Psychoses with physical acting out requires some indication of child abuse to be present, whether that is by beatings by a parent or a school mate.
A person with a psychosis will only use violence if violence has been used against it. No one spontaneously harms another person without someone previously harming that person.
Thus, a serial killer "learns" to use violence to meet his perverse needs.
In most cases of violence by socially isolated people, child abuse is a significent factor in the etiology of their personality disorder which always has asocial personality disorder as the predominant disorder. The antisocial personality disorder becomes comorbid when they act hostile (antisocial) towards other people, and some schizotypies are present, but not enough to confirm schizophrenia.
And yes, it is possible to have difficulty communicating, have confused thinking, and some psychotic symptoms without schizophrenia since it is the social isolation that is both symptom and causal agent of these dysfunctions.
So, if you look at the serial murderers of Japan and the recent stabbing incidents, both in March and the beginning of June, one of the factors in the etiology of all the perpetrators is child abuse, be it by parents or even classmate bullying and teasing.
Violence also tends to occur first during the teenaged years.
Therefore, bullying and teasing in school, child abuse and disrespectful behavior of parents towards their children, are all roots of future violence in adolescence and adulthood.
Therefore, the continuum of horror ranges from classical to adult violent i.e. classical to violent pornography.
The viewer may fantasize revenge on his former oppressers, who may have bullied or teased him in childhood. Both horror films and violent pornography may fuel this obsession.
What this indicates is that such viewing of violent films need to be monitored since a fan who is social isolated may mistake fantasy for reality, and try to act out what he sees on the screen.
IMHO video rental places who refuse to monitor their creepier clients' viewing habits are as morally reprehensible as drinking establishments who pickle the gills of their patrons to the point of alcohlism.
As well, hikikomori is not unique to Japan.
The etiology for some serial killers consists of the triad of bedwetting, torture of pets and small animals, and arson. As well, in the case of socially isolated individuals, which is often a given for this class of serial killer, it also includes collecting violent pornography - both movies and anime - and classic horror films.
As well, social isolation and the violent porn, including that in some classical horror films, are symptoms of an underlying personality disorder which has its roots in childhood, possibly due to bullying and teasing in childhood, isolation from one or both parents due to their depression or other psychiatric condition (alcoholism, drug abuse, or personality disorder).
No culture is immune to hikikomori-like symptoms of an underlying personality disorder and its comorbidity with a mood disorder. In certain cultures, a culture of shame implies depression to be inherent. As well, depression may have some types of psychoses present. When depression becomes chronic, bipolar disorder may arise with schizotypal impact on the personality.
However, it does not follow that mental illness will result in acting out of violent fantasies. Psychoses with physical acting out requires some indication of child abuse to be present, whether that is by beatings by a parent or a school mate.
A person with a psychosis will only use violence if violence has been used against it. No one spontaneously harms another person without someone previously harming that person.
Thus, a serial killer "learns" to use violence to meet his perverse needs.
In most cases of violence by socially isolated people, child abuse is a significent factor in the etiology of their personality disorder which always has asocial personality disorder as the predominant disorder. The antisocial personality disorder becomes comorbid when they act hostile (antisocial) towards other people, and some schizotypies are present, but not enough to confirm schizophrenia.
And yes, it is possible to have difficulty communicating, have confused thinking, and some psychotic symptoms without schizophrenia since it is the social isolation that is both symptom and causal agent of these dysfunctions.
So, if you look at the serial murderers of Japan and the recent stabbing incidents, both in March and the beginning of June, one of the factors in the etiology of all the perpetrators is child abuse, be it by parents or even classmate bullying and teasing.
Violence also tends to occur first during the teenaged years.
Therefore, bullying and teasing in school, child abuse and disrespectful behavior of parents towards their children, are all roots of future violence in adolescence and adulthood.
20100616
Corruption as Metaphor for Urbanization
Corruption is difficult to hide in the country than in a city.
For one of the reasons for urbanization is to mask corruption such that the most successful urban citizens are often called "city fathers", even though their current philanthropy is based on years of socializing with the "right crowd".
We can also see this in how people watch TV. In the city setting, usually people watch TV in their apartment buildings with their family.
Most people in rural India do not watch TV like we do, but as a group in a rural setting. For not all people own TVs.
So their corruption only happens when they move to the city during the struggle involved in earning a living whilst keeping a roof over their heads.
Thus, the New Left's critique of the State is actually a critique of urban life i.e. "Smash the State" actually means "Humanize the Process of Urbanization" and actually is a critique of rapid urbanization ("fast urbanization").
Most people involved in the counterculture movement tried to form communes in a rural setting. However, because public education does not include any education on raising livestock but instead focuses on academics, most of these communes failed.
More than likely, recreational drug use associated with the counterculture movement was a sign of corruption which was not heeded by the movement's advocates. It diverted attention from learning how to raise livestock and how to get along with rural society.
Corruption in India is a metaphor for the corruption of urbanization. Actually, the yogis represent resistance to urbanization on a rapid scale.
Tokyo gives us an example of the side effects of massive urbanization: the hikikomori kids are similar to the mentally ill in the West with regard to their social isolation, which is seen as reaction to being bullied for not fitting in with society. This isolation results in mental health issues.
Thus, the hikikomori effect is due to "fast urbanization" i.e. urbanization on a massive scale.
In order to reduce urbanization's effect on its citizens, concerned members of cities around the world have demanded "slow urbanization" i.e. urbanization that is held in check by red tape and bureaucracy with the city obtaining input from concerned citizens and nearby rural areas that supply food helping to slow down urban growth in cities using agricultural laws to limit what rural areas are used for housing.
Reform in city governments which allows for chickens and rooftop gardens is a step in the right direction, but must be accompanied by a "slow urbanization" manifesto.
So far, the spirituality community has given no such manifesto but a smörgåsbord of spiritual materialism.
Population and human well-being: http://www.wri.org/publication/content/8479
Urbanization benefits Asia but not Africa: http://www.aviewfromthecave.com/2012/10/urbanization-is-great-not-so-fast.html
Explanation of slow and limited urbanization of the Americas: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100810212943AAbyLcW
For one of the reasons for urbanization is to mask corruption such that the most successful urban citizens are often called "city fathers", even though their current philanthropy is based on years of socializing with the "right crowd".
We can also see this in how people watch TV. In the city setting, usually people watch TV in their apartment buildings with their family.
Most people in rural India do not watch TV like we do, but as a group in a rural setting. For not all people own TVs.
So their corruption only happens when they move to the city during the struggle involved in earning a living whilst keeping a roof over their heads.
Thus, the New Left's critique of the State is actually a critique of urban life i.e. "Smash the State" actually means "Humanize the Process of Urbanization" and actually is a critique of rapid urbanization ("fast urbanization").
Most people involved in the counterculture movement tried to form communes in a rural setting. However, because public education does not include any education on raising livestock but instead focuses on academics, most of these communes failed.
More than likely, recreational drug use associated with the counterculture movement was a sign of corruption which was not heeded by the movement's advocates. It diverted attention from learning how to raise livestock and how to get along with rural society.
Corruption in India is a metaphor for the corruption of urbanization. Actually, the yogis represent resistance to urbanization on a rapid scale.
Tokyo gives us an example of the side effects of massive urbanization: the hikikomori kids are similar to the mentally ill in the West with regard to their social isolation, which is seen as reaction to being bullied for not fitting in with society. This isolation results in mental health issues.
Thus, the hikikomori effect is due to "fast urbanization" i.e. urbanization on a massive scale.
In order to reduce urbanization's effect on its citizens, concerned members of cities around the world have demanded "slow urbanization" i.e. urbanization that is held in check by red tape and bureaucracy with the city obtaining input from concerned citizens and nearby rural areas that supply food helping to slow down urban growth in cities using agricultural laws to limit what rural areas are used for housing.
Reform in city governments which allows for chickens and rooftop gardens is a step in the right direction, but must be accompanied by a "slow urbanization" manifesto.
So far, the spirituality community has given no such manifesto but a smörgåsbord of spiritual materialism.
Population and human well-being: http://www.wri.org/publication/content/8479
Urbanization benefits Asia but not Africa: http://www.aviewfromthecave.com/2012/10/urbanization-is-great-not-so-fast.html
Explanation of slow and limited urbanization of the Americas: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100810212943AAbyLcW
20101116
My Story as Hikikomori / ひきこもり物語 (humor)
Like many people in denial about their mental health, I have been deluded both by social consensus — and especially by my ego — that I was born sane and lived a sane life until school age.
It wasn't until the unhealthy reaction by my father and my father's mother — and especially my mother — that I realized how sensitive I was to the stress caused by embarrassment and shame.
To call Asian culture anything but a culture of shame is to deny all the rare occurrences of maladaptive behaviors which has made us unique on a global skill and in many cases a productive culture, each according to one's respective ancestral nation and home village.
In all honesty, we only pretend that we share common traits with peoples of European ancestry.
We like to believe it, both to fit in in Western society and to promote the ego-delusion of racial superiority, despite the fact that, unlike people of European descent, as we age, we cannot tolerate cowsmilk or even some of the alternates to it such as goats milk due to an age-related lactose intolerance.
This lactose tolerance may also be indirectly related to the Asian intolerance to alcohol at any amount, though in some Asians who practice social drinking, their tolerance to this metabolic poison is comparable to their non-Asian friend.
Even so, the culture of shame tends to lead the deluded individual to believe he is alone in the world and to thus live a life of relative social isolation.
The term used in new thought circles in Japan is "hikikomori". What it means is different from what I'd like it to mean. So the curious could Google for the official meaning while I state what it means to me: "the psychological state of mind where one is too ashamed to leave the home lest the world embarrass her, or worse, she embarrasses herself."
That this is a ego-delusion is obvious, though the term "ego" refers not only to what Freud describes in his psychiatric description of the three parts of the mind but mainly the whole mind.
What is not obvious is that psychiatric intervention is rarely necessary. Instead, what is necessary is to develop coping strategies through education from an early age. The recommended cure is to get exercise in the outdoors.
I have no real rationale for not doing so, other than the maladaptive behavior (through defence mechanisms such as rationalization and justification). This reinforces the desire to be what is called a "homebody", where the body stays at home while the mind wanders the whole world within itself.
Perhaps my willingness to become confirmed as a Christian may also be a strategy with risks of ego-delusion. Yet here, social rejection has been noticed because of my social status.
However, only the psychiatric professional would be consulting the DSM-IV without following up with sometimes expensive and potentially dangerous tests, one of which consists of extracting cerebral spinal fluid and closely examining it for endogenous retrovirus 'ERV sequences in "junk" DNA. Human ERV has been speculated by a handful of scientists to be a causal agent in bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.
日本語訳:
子供たちの精神的健康についての否定に多くの人々と同様に、私は社会的なコンセンサスの両方を惑わされている - 私のエゴ特にで - 私は正気を生まれ、高校時代まではまともな生活を送っていた。
それは私の父と父の母で不健全な反応を待たなければなりませんでした - 特に私の母 - 私は恥ずかしさと恥に起因するストレスにされたかを区別を実現します。
アジアの文化の何かを呼び出すには恥の文化は世界的なスキルに、多くの場合、生産文化私たちはユニークなものが不適応行動、自分のそれぞれの先祖の国と故郷の村によると、それぞれのすべてのまれな出現を拒否することです。
正直なところ、我々は我々はヨーロッパ系の人々と共通の特徴をしなければならないことをふりをする。
我々は両方と西洋社会に合うように人種的優越の自我妄想を促進するために、ヨーロッパ系の人々とは異なり、加齢とともに、私たちはいくつかのcowsmilkあるいはを容認することができないという事実にもかかわらず、それを信じて好きに交互にそれは、このようなヤギが加齢に伴う乳糖不耐症のために牛乳として。
この乳糖耐性も練習の社会的飲酒が、この代謝毒への耐性が自分以外のアジアの友人に匹敵するいくつかのアジア人もの、間接的に任意の量でアルコール、アジア不耐症に関連する可能性があります。
たとえそうだとしても、恥の文化は、彼が世界で一人であるため、相対的な社会的孤立の生活を信じて裏切られた個人をリードする傾向がある。
日本では新しい思考界で使用される用語は、"ひきこもり"です。それは何を意味私はそれが意味するものとしたいのですが違っている。好奇心は、私はそれは私に何を意味するか状態の間を意味する公式のGoogleでしただから："ものも、彼女を困らせるか、悪いことに、彼女は困る世界しないように家を出ようとして恥じている心の心理状態"
つまり、この用語は"自我"はフロイトが主に思い入れはなく、心の3つの部分の彼の精神の説明で説明ものだけではなく、意味が自我妄想は明らかです。
どのような明白されていないことを精神医学的介入はほとんど必要です。代わりに、何が必要です幼い頃から教育を通じた対処戦略を開発することである。推奨される治療法は、屋外での運動を取得することです。
私はそうしないと本当の理由は、（合理化、正当化などの防衛メカニズムを介して）不適応行動以外ている。これは心が自分自身の中に全世界を放浪しながら体は自宅でご利用いただけます"オタク族"と呼ばれるものになりたいを強化しています。
クリスチャンはまた、自我妄想のリスクとの戦略かもしれないのでおそらく私の意思が確認さになる。しかし、ここでは、社会的排除は、私の社会的地位のために注目されている。
*** ただし、精神科専門そのうちの1つは、脳脊髄液を抽出密接に"ジャンク"DNAに内在性レトロウイルス'概要シーケンスのためにそれを調べることで構成されても、潜在的に危険な高価なテストとフォローアップなしDSM - IVのコンサルティングになります。人間の概要は、双極性障害、多発性硬化症や統合失調症の原因物質であると科学者の一握りの推測されている。
ローマ字音訳:
Kodomo-tachi no seishin-teki kenkō nitsuite no hitei ni ōku no hitobito to dōyō ni, watashi wa shakai-tekina konsensasu no ryōhō o madowasa rete iru - watashi no ego tokuni de - watashi wa shōki o umare, kōkō jidai made wa matomona seikatsu o okutte ita.
Sore wa watashi no chichi to chichi no haha de fukenzen'na han'nō o matanakereba narimasendeshita - tokuni watashi no haha - watashi wa hazukashi-sa to haji ni kiin suru sutoresu ni sa reta ka o kubetsu o jitsugen shimasu.
Ajia no bunka no nani ka o yobidasu ni wa haji no bunka wa sekai-tekina sukiru ni, ōku no baai, seisan bunka watashi-tachi wa yunīkuna mono ga fu tekiō kōdō, jibun no sorezore no senzo no kuni to kokyō no mura ni yoru to, sorezore no subete no marena shutsugen o kyohi suru kotodesu.
Shōjikina tokoro, wareware wa wareware wa yōroppa-kei no hitobito to kyōtsū no tokuchō o shinakereba naranai koto o furi o suru.
Wareware wa ryōhō to seiyō shakai ni au yō ni jinshu-teki yūetsu no jiga mōsō o sokushin suru tame ni, yōroppa-kei no hitobito to wa kotonari, ka yowai totomoni, watashi-tachi wa ikutsu ka no cowsmilk aruiwa o yōnin suru koto ga dekinai toyuu jijitsu ni mo kakawarazu, sore o shinjite suki ni kōgo ni sore wa, kono yōna yagi ga Ka yowai ni tomonau nyūtō fu intolerance no tame ni gyūnyū toshite.
Kono nyūtō taisei mo renshū no shakai-teki inshu ga, kono taisha doku e no taisei ga jibun igai no ajia no yūjin ni hitteki suru ikutsu ka no ajia-jin mo no, kansetsu-teki ni nin'i no ryō de arukōru, ajia fu intolerance ni kanren suru kanō-sei ga arimasu.
Tatoe-sōda toshite mo, haji no bunka wa, kare ga sekai de ichi-nindearu tame, sōtai-tekina shakai-teki koritsu no seikatsu o shinjite uragira reta kojin o rīdo suru keikō ga aru.
Nippon de wa atarashii shikō-kai de shiyō sa reru yōgo wa," hikikomori"desu.
Sore wa nani o imi watashi wa sore ga imi suru mono to shitai nodesuga chigatte iru. Kōki-shin wa, watashi wa sore wa watashi ni nani o imi suru ka jōtai no ma o imi suru kōshiki no Googledeshita dakara:"-Mono mo, kanojo o komara seru ka, warui koto ni, kanojo wa komaru sekai shinai yō ni ie o deyou toshite hajite iru kokoro no shinri jōtai".
Tsumari, kono yōgo wa" jiga" wa furoito ga omo ni omoiire wa naku,-shin no betsu no bubun no kare no seishin no setsumei de setsumei-mono dakede wa naku, imi ga jiga mōsō wa akirakadesu.
Dono yōna meihaku sa rete inai koto o seishin igaku-teki kainyū wa hotondo hitsuyōdesu.
Kawari ni, nani ga hitsuyōdesu osanai koro kara kyōiku o tsūjita taisho senryaku o kaihatsu suru kotodearu.
Suishō sa reru chiryō-hō wa, okugai de no undō o shutoku suru kotodesu. Watashi wa sō shinaito hontō no riyū wa,(gōri-ka, seitō-ka nado no bōei mekanizumu o kaishite) fu tekiō kōdō igaite iru.
Kore wa kokoro ga jibun jishin no naka ni zen sekai o hōrō shinagara karada wa jitaku de go riyō itadakemasu" otaku-zoku" to yoba reru mono ni naritai o kyōka shite imasu.
Kurisuchan wa mata, jiga mōsō no risuku to no senryaku kamo shirenainode osoraku watashi no ishi ga kakunin-sa ni naru.
Shikashi, koko de wa, shakai-teki haijo wa, watashi no shakai-teki chii no tame ni chūmoku sa rete iru.
Tadashi, seishin-ka senmon sono uchi no 1tsu wa, nō sekizui-eki o chūshutsu missetsu ni" janku" DNA ni naizai-sei retorouirusu' gaiyō shīkensu no tame ni sore o shiraberu koto de kōsei sa rete mo, senzai-teki ni kiken'na kōkana tesuto to forōappu nashi DSM - IV no konsarutingu ni narimasu. Ningen no gaiyō wa, sōkyoku-sei shōgai, tahatsu-sei kōka-shō ya tōgō shitchō-shō no gen'in busshitsudearu to kagaku-sha no ichi-nigiri no suisoku sa rete iru.
All translations are courtesy of Google Translate
It wasn't until the unhealthy reaction by my father and my father's mother — and especially my mother — that I realized how sensitive I was to the stress caused by embarrassment and shame.
To call Asian culture anything but a culture of shame is to deny all the rare occurrences of maladaptive behaviors which has made us unique on a global skill and in many cases a productive culture, each according to one's respective ancestral nation and home village.
In all honesty, we only pretend that we share common traits with peoples of European ancestry.
We like to believe it, both to fit in in Western society and to promote the ego-delusion of racial superiority, despite the fact that, unlike people of European descent, as we age, we cannot tolerate cowsmilk or even some of the alternates to it such as goats milk due to an age-related lactose intolerance.
This lactose tolerance may also be indirectly related to the Asian intolerance to alcohol at any amount, though in some Asians who practice social drinking, their tolerance to this metabolic poison is comparable to their non-Asian friend.
Even so, the culture of shame tends to lead the deluded individual to believe he is alone in the world and to thus live a life of relative social isolation.
The term used in new thought circles in Japan is "hikikomori". What it means is different from what I'd like it to mean. So the curious could Google for the official meaning while I state what it means to me: "the psychological state of mind where one is too ashamed to leave the home lest the world embarrass her, or worse, she embarrasses herself."
That this is a ego-delusion is obvious, though the term "ego" refers not only to what Freud describes in his psychiatric description of the three parts of the mind but mainly the whole mind.
What is not obvious is that psychiatric intervention is rarely necessary. Instead, what is necessary is to develop coping strategies through education from an early age. The recommended cure is to get exercise in the outdoors.
I have no real rationale for not doing so, other than the maladaptive behavior (through defence mechanisms such as rationalization and justification). This reinforces the desire to be what is called a "homebody", where the body stays at home while the mind wanders the whole world within itself.
Perhaps my willingness to become confirmed as a Christian may also be a strategy with risks of ego-delusion. Yet here, social rejection has been noticed because of my social status.
However, only the psychiatric professional would be consulting the DSM-IV without following up with sometimes expensive and potentially dangerous tests, one of which consists of extracting cerebral spinal fluid and closely examining it for endogenous retrovirus 'ERV sequences in "junk" DNA. Human ERV has been speculated by a handful of scientists to be a causal agent in bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.
日本語訳:
子供たちの精神的健康についての否定に多くの人々と同様に、私は社会的なコンセンサスの両方を惑わされている - 私のエゴ特にで - 私は正気を生まれ、高校時代まではまともな生活を送っていた。
それは私の父と父の母で不健全な反応を待たなければなりませんでした - 特に私の母 - 私は恥ずかしさと恥に起因するストレスにされたかを区別を実現します。
アジアの文化の何かを呼び出すには恥の文化は世界的なスキルに、多くの場合、生産文化私たちはユニークなものが不適応行動、自分のそれぞれの先祖の国と故郷の村によると、それぞれのすべてのまれな出現を拒否することです。
正直なところ、我々は我々はヨーロッパ系の人々と共通の特徴をしなければならないことをふりをする。
我々は両方と西洋社会に合うように人種的優越の自我妄想を促進するために、ヨーロッパ系の人々とは異なり、加齢とともに、私たちはいくつかのcowsmilkあるいはを容認することができないという事実にもかかわらず、それを信じて好きに交互にそれは、このようなヤギが加齢に伴う乳糖不耐症のために牛乳として。
この乳糖耐性も練習の社会的飲酒が、この代謝毒への耐性が自分以外のアジアの友人に匹敵するいくつかのアジア人もの、間接的に任意の量でアルコール、アジア不耐症に関連する可能性があります。
たとえそうだとしても、恥の文化は、彼が世界で一人であるため、相対的な社会的孤立の生活を信じて裏切られた個人をリードする傾向がある。
日本では新しい思考界で使用される用語は、"ひきこもり"です。それは何を意味私はそれが意味するものとしたいのですが違っている。好奇心は、私はそれは私に何を意味するか状態の間を意味する公式のGoogleでしただから："ものも、彼女を困らせるか、悪いことに、彼女は困る世界しないように家を出ようとして恥じている心の心理状態"
つまり、この用語は"自我"はフロイトが主に思い入れはなく、心の3つの部分の彼の精神の説明で説明ものだけではなく、意味が自我妄想は明らかです。
どのような明白されていないことを精神医学的介入はほとんど必要です。代わりに、何が必要です幼い頃から教育を通じた対処戦略を開発することである。推奨される治療法は、屋外での運動を取得することです。
私はそうしないと本当の理由は、（合理化、正当化などの防衛メカニズムを介して）不適応行動以外ている。これは心が自分自身の中に全世界を放浪しながら体は自宅でご利用いただけます"オタク族"と呼ばれるものになりたいを強化しています。
クリスチャンはまた、自我妄想のリスクとの戦略かもしれないのでおそらく私の意思が確認さになる。しかし、ここでは、社会的排除は、私の社会的地位のために注目されている。
*** ただし、精神科専門そのうちの1つは、脳脊髄液を抽出密接に"ジャンク"DNAに内在性レトロウイルス'概要シーケンスのためにそれを調べることで構成されても、潜在的に危険な高価なテストとフォローアップなしDSM - IVのコンサルティングになります。人間の概要は、双極性障害、多発性硬化症や統合失調症の原因物質であると科学者の一握りの推測されている。
ローマ字音訳:
Kodomo-tachi no seishin-teki kenkō nitsuite no hitei ni ōku no hitobito to dōyō ni, watashi wa shakai-tekina konsensasu no ryōhō o madowasa rete iru - watashi no ego tokuni de - watashi wa shōki o umare, kōkō jidai made wa matomona seikatsu o okutte ita.
Sore wa watashi no chichi to chichi no haha de fukenzen'na han'nō o matanakereba narimasendeshita - tokuni watashi no haha - watashi wa hazukashi-sa to haji ni kiin suru sutoresu ni sa reta ka o kubetsu o jitsugen shimasu.
Ajia no bunka no nani ka o yobidasu ni wa haji no bunka wa sekai-tekina sukiru ni, ōku no baai, seisan bunka watashi-tachi wa yunīkuna mono ga fu tekiō kōdō, jibun no sorezore no senzo no kuni to kokyō no mura ni yoru to, sorezore no subete no marena shutsugen o kyohi suru kotodesu.
Shōjikina tokoro, wareware wa wareware wa yōroppa-kei no hitobito to kyōtsū no tokuchō o shinakereba naranai koto o furi o suru.
Wareware wa ryōhō to seiyō shakai ni au yō ni jinshu-teki yūetsu no jiga mōsō o sokushin suru tame ni, yōroppa-kei no hitobito to wa kotonari, ka yowai totomoni, watashi-tachi wa ikutsu ka no cowsmilk aruiwa o yōnin suru koto ga dekinai toyuu jijitsu ni mo kakawarazu, sore o shinjite suki ni kōgo ni sore wa, kono yōna yagi ga Ka yowai ni tomonau nyūtō fu intolerance no tame ni gyūnyū toshite.
Kono nyūtō taisei mo renshū no shakai-teki inshu ga, kono taisha doku e no taisei ga jibun igai no ajia no yūjin ni hitteki suru ikutsu ka no ajia-jin mo no, kansetsu-teki ni nin'i no ryō de arukōru, ajia fu intolerance ni kanren suru kanō-sei ga arimasu.
Tatoe-sōda toshite mo, haji no bunka wa, kare ga sekai de ichi-nindearu tame, sōtai-tekina shakai-teki koritsu no seikatsu o shinjite uragira reta kojin o rīdo suru keikō ga aru.
Nippon de wa atarashii shikō-kai de shiyō sa reru yōgo wa," hikikomori"desu.
Sore wa nani o imi watashi wa sore ga imi suru mono to shitai nodesuga chigatte iru. Kōki-shin wa, watashi wa sore wa watashi ni nani o imi suru ka jōtai no ma o imi suru kōshiki no Googledeshita dakara:"-Mono mo, kanojo o komara seru ka, warui koto ni, kanojo wa komaru sekai shinai yō ni ie o deyou toshite hajite iru kokoro no shinri jōtai".
Tsumari, kono yōgo wa" jiga" wa furoito ga omo ni omoiire wa naku,-shin no betsu no bubun no kare no seishin no setsumei de setsumei-mono dakede wa naku, imi ga jiga mōsō wa akirakadesu.
Dono yōna meihaku sa rete inai koto o seishin igaku-teki kainyū wa hotondo hitsuyōdesu.
Kawari ni, nani ga hitsuyōdesu osanai koro kara kyōiku o tsūjita taisho senryaku o kaihatsu suru kotodearu.
Suishō sa reru chiryō-hō wa, okugai de no undō o shutoku suru kotodesu. Watashi wa sō shinaito hontō no riyū wa,(gōri-ka, seitō-ka nado no bōei mekanizumu o kaishite) fu tekiō kōdō igaite iru.
Kore wa kokoro ga jibun jishin no naka ni zen sekai o hōrō shinagara karada wa jitaku de go riyō itadakemasu" otaku-zoku" to yoba reru mono ni naritai o kyōka shite imasu.
Kurisuchan wa mata, jiga mōsō no risuku to no senryaku kamo shirenainode osoraku watashi no ishi ga kakunin-sa ni naru.
Shikashi, koko de wa, shakai-teki haijo wa, watashi no shakai-teki chii no tame ni chūmoku sa rete iru.
Tadashi, seishin-ka senmon sono uchi no 1tsu wa, nō sekizui-eki o chūshutsu missetsu ni" janku" DNA ni naizai-sei retorouirusu' gaiyō shīkensu no tame ni sore o shiraberu koto de kōsei sa rete mo, senzai-teki ni kiken'na kōkana tesuto to forōappu nashi DSM - IV no konsarutingu ni narimasu. Ningen no gaiyō wa, sōkyoku-sei shōgai, tahatsu-sei kōka-shō ya tōgō shitchō-shō no gen'in busshitsudearu to kagaku-sha no ichi-nigiri no suisoku sa rete iru.
All translations are courtesy of Google Translate
20070417
"You caused me to do this!"
The two guns Cho carried on him when found by police:
Glock 19
Walther P22
30 people were shot by a lone gunman at two campus locations before the gunman died.
Unknown at this time is motive for shooting and how the gunman died.
Campus authorities waited two hours before issuing a warning to students, just as an engineering building was targeted by the lone gunman.
Originally, the gunman had opened fired on the fourth floor of a dormitory about 1/2 mile from his final standoff.
In addition, 26 people were wounded.
See what happens when a gun nut believes strongly in his right to bear arms?
UPDATE: 2:32 PM April 17, 2007:
According to recent reports, the following is a good picture of the gunman.
Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean permanent resident, had apparently bought a gun, a Glock 19, in a gun shop back in March. Five weeks later, he bought a second gun, a Walther P22.
In his rambling letter, all three pages of it, he blamed others for his rampage, writing, "You caused me to do this."
As well, he ranted about debauchery, deceitful charlatans, and rich kids. So in a sense, the possible reason for his rampage was the apparent immorality of his peers on campus.
So let's call this shooting what sometimes happens when hikikomori happens on American soil.
Maybe it's time to befriend a loner before he turns evil and identifies with a Qutbian terrorist.
Glock 19
Walther P22
30 people were shot by a lone gunman at two campus locations before the gunman died.
Unknown at this time is motive for shooting and how the gunman died.
Campus authorities waited two hours before issuing a warning to students, just as an engineering building was targeted by the lone gunman.
Originally, the gunman had opened fired on the fourth floor of a dormitory about 1/2 mile from his final standoff.
In addition, 26 people were wounded.
See what happens when a gun nut believes strongly in his right to bear arms?
UPDATE: 2:32 PM April 17, 2007:
According to recent reports, the following is a good picture of the gunman.
Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean permanent resident, had apparently bought a gun, a Glock 19, in a gun shop back in March. Five weeks later, he bought a second gun, a Walther P22.
In his rambling letter, all three pages of it, he blamed others for his rampage, writing, "You caused me to do this."
As well, he ranted about debauchery, deceitful charlatans, and rich kids. So in a sense, the possible reason for his rampage was the apparent immorality of his peers on campus.
So let's call this shooting what sometimes happens when hikikomori happens on American soil.
Maybe it's time to befriend a loner before he turns evil and identifies with a Qutbian terrorist.
20070419
The Three Faces of Cho Seung-Hui
Who's this man the news calls Cho Seung-Hui? Obvious this creep outcreeps me.
Oh, and listen to his views! They are more weird than my words!
What's with his brother QuestionMark? He spent all off 2006 creeping out his roomies on campus.
As for the new persona Ax Ishmael, he shot 30 people.
But never forget, Ax Ishmael and QuestionMark are merely personas Cho used to handle first loss of face over being put in a psychward, and later, the fact he had just killed 2 people and needed to kill as many people before he committed suicide.
Oh, and if this guy is so easy for an armchair psychologist like me to figure out, then how come the hikikomori explanation isn't popular?
Boy, am I glad this asshole went out in a "blaze of glory." Not.
Oh, and listen to his views! They are more weird than my words!
What's with his brother QuestionMark? He spent all off 2006 creeping out his roomies on campus.
As for the new persona Ax Ishmael, he shot 30 people.
But never forget, Ax Ishmael and QuestionMark are merely personas Cho used to handle first loss of face over being put in a psychward, and later, the fact he had just killed 2 people and needed to kill as many people before he committed suicide.
Oh, and if this guy is so easy for an armchair psychologist like me to figure out, then how come the hikikomori explanation isn't popular?
Boy, am I glad this asshole went out in a "blaze of glory." Not.
20121229
Media Fabrication of War Not New
In 1898, Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal were arguing for American intervention in Cuba. Hearst is reported to have dispatched a photographer to Cuba to photograph the coming war with Spain. When the photographer asked just what war that might be, Hearst is reported to have replied, "You take the photographs, and I will provide the war". Hearst was true to his word, as his newspaper published stories of great atrocities being committed against the Cuban people, most of which turned out to be complete fabrications.
On the night of February 15, 1898, the USS Maine, lying in Havana harbor in a show of US resolve to protect her interests, exploded violently. Captain Sigsbee, the commander of the Maine, urged that no assumptions of enemy attack be made until there was a full investigation of the cause of the explosion. For this, Captain Sigsbee was excoriated in the press for "refusing to see the obvious". The Atlantic Monthly declared flat out that to suppose the explosion to be anything other than a deliberate act by Spain was "completely at defiance of the laws of probability".
Under the slogan "Remember the Maine", Americans went to war with Spain, eventually winning the Philippines (and annexing Hawaii along the way). -- http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ARTICLE5/
2001-2002: America and the UK collaborate to "prove" that weapons of mass destruction were being produced by Iraq, including fabricated reports, denials by investigators, a possible assassination of an investigator in the UK, and media hype.
By 2003, the Americans and British people were almost unanimous in their support of an invasion of Iraq. Anyone who tried to point out the economic reason of the war (oil) were dismissed as conspiracy crackpots.
In fact, the media had much to do with propagandizing for war in both Afghanistan and Iraq, much as they had done during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Even the Kosovo War was heavily propagandized, with Roma Gypsies being decimated by both the Kosovo militants, who were supported by young Albanian males from America, and the Serbians, who were supported by Communists, drug dealers and thugs.
Today, even recent mass murders are propagandized. The Cho Seung-hui case is a prime example. Very few people are picking up on the slogan "Ismail Ax" in red ink on Cho's arm.
Instead, they are playing up on the "weird and creepy loner" angle.
Another example is the recent Newtown shootings. It's my contention that Adam Lanza had behavior similar to "hikikomori" especially social isolation.
In light of revelations made about him, Lanza's actions remind me more of an angry child, in a fit of jealous rage, than a killer who coldly calculated the deaths of innocent children.
Even despite carrying two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle, he shot himself before using all his ammunition precisely because of same reasons Marc Lepine, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Kimveer Gill, and Seung-hui Cho did so: to prevent the hell of a murder trial.
Just as the mass media fabricates the weird and creepy loner to explain these mass school killings, so too did it fabricate weapons of mass destruction (WMD) before invading Iraq.
In doing so, mass media is but a propaganda tool of the State.
On the night of February 15, 1898, the USS Maine, lying in Havana harbor in a show of US resolve to protect her interests, exploded violently. Captain Sigsbee, the commander of the Maine, urged that no assumptions of enemy attack be made until there was a full investigation of the cause of the explosion. For this, Captain Sigsbee was excoriated in the press for "refusing to see the obvious". The Atlantic Monthly declared flat out that to suppose the explosion to be anything other than a deliberate act by Spain was "completely at defiance of the laws of probability".
Under the slogan "Remember the Maine", Americans went to war with Spain, eventually winning the Philippines (and annexing Hawaii along the way). -- http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ARTICLE5/
2001-2002: America and the UK collaborate to "prove" that weapons of mass destruction were being produced by Iraq, including fabricated reports, denials by investigators, a possible assassination of an investigator in the UK, and media hype.
By 2003, the Americans and British people were almost unanimous in their support of an invasion of Iraq. Anyone who tried to point out the economic reason of the war (oil) were dismissed as conspiracy crackpots.
In fact, the media had much to do with propagandizing for war in both Afghanistan and Iraq, much as they had done during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Even the Kosovo War was heavily propagandized, with Roma Gypsies being decimated by both the Kosovo militants, who were supported by young Albanian males from America, and the Serbians, who were supported by Communists, drug dealers and thugs.
Today, even recent mass murders are propagandized. The Cho Seung-hui case is a prime example. Very few people are picking up on the slogan "Ismail Ax" in red ink on Cho's arm.
Instead, they are playing up on the "weird and creepy loner" angle.
Another example is the recent Newtown shootings. It's my contention that Adam Lanza had behavior similar to "hikikomori" especially social isolation.
In light of revelations made about him, Lanza's actions remind me more of an angry child, in a fit of jealous rage, than a killer who coldly calculated the deaths of innocent children.
Even despite carrying two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle, he shot himself before using all his ammunition precisely because of same reasons Marc Lepine, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Kimveer Gill, and Seung-hui Cho did so: to prevent the hell of a murder trial.
Just as the mass media fabricates the weird and creepy loner to explain these mass school killings, so too did it fabricate weapons of mass destruction (WMD) before invading Iraq.
In doing so, mass media is but a propaganda tool of the State.
20131204
The Craziness of Culture (satire)
One common misconception is that all mentally ill people are unpredictable and violent. Our society has an insatiable appetite for real-life horror stories about rapists, serial killers, and pedophiles, and the media is happy to provide us with them. As a result, we tend to put everyone with psychiatric problems under one label: crazy.
However, different cultures have different concepts of what constitutes a mental illness. Take suicide, for example. In Japan, suicide is, in most cases, not considered problematic, rather it can be an honorable act committed to save face or for a noble cause. Similarly, while the Koran prohibits suicide, "suicide bombers" are not generally considered "suicides" by their zealous supporters – they are martyrs for their cause. But in North America, someone who attempts suicide will likely be diagnosed with some form of psychological problem.
Some cultures are more susceptible to certain types of illness than others. Anorexia and bulimia are largely afflictions of the western world, while Japan has a whole separate set of disorders, many of which stem from their cultural expectation of hard work. One commonly documented Japanese condition called hikikomori (similar to agoraphobia) is characterized by a withdrawal from society due to stress and is said to affect large numbers of teenaged boys.
What about addictions? In North America, we believe in possession of a different kind: drugs, gambling, alcohol, or food are thought of as diseases that take over the victim and are difficult to expel. Again, we remove blame, but is it accurate to put a gambling addiction on par with, say, schizophrenia?
— Samantha Shepard, They're Possessed?, Medhunters dot com
Then again, is it accurate to use a manual of disorders decided by committee to diagnose what might be cultural eccentricities?
The social stigma of mental illness reflect a phobia of the mentally ill, a fear of psychosis which, instead of being relieved by education, is usually left to fester and sometime harm people who are themselves more harmless than the people who fear them.
Even people who are emotionally disturbed are loathe to admit that they might be going off the deep end, sometimes until it's too late. They minimize their suicide attempts and grow fearful that any outside inquiry might expose their suffering to the world.
Some of them even grow to fear strangers who often are concerned for their well-being, mainly due to the stigmatizing of their life.
Even though my own labelling of culture and society as the hotbed of mental illness is reactive, I also admit that both culture and society can be the source of mental health.
For eccentricity is merely an abnormal focus on behaviours that were once fulfilling but may have now become obsessions, like one has become possessed by some demon.
The ironic thing is, in ancient Greek society, it was once believed that each of us was born with a guardian angel which were called "daimons" - yes, the same modern-day demons that ignorant religious people pretend exist.
Sometimes, in respecting the expert's advice, we take it too far and reify his opinion, making it like a talisman. We do this with the advice of doctors when we interpret the directions on the label of medication — "take 1 capsule twice daily" — as meaning once in the morning and once at night when it could also mean taking two capsules at bedtime.
Likewise, it seems like psychiatry is turned into religion when psychiatrist rely too much on the DSM rather than on gut instinct.
From my perspective, the DSM is like a "Bible", the disorders being "deities" similar to "daimons." I feel they originate in behaviours used by people "diagnosed" with a "disorder" which soon stopped working to "protect" them from the suffering caused by "facing reality."
In short, the DSM descriptions interpret "daimons" which "possess" people as symptoms which involve fear, anxiety, insomnia, hypomania, mania, and sometimes psychoses.
This makes psychiatrists "exorcists".
Think about it: your doctor or psychiatrist replaces the priest. Your medications are the means to "exorcise" demons with names like influenza, chronic fatigue syndrome, cardiovascular disease and so on, as well as mental disorders such as schizo-affective, bipolar and so on.
For all the medications are for are to control and manage disease or behaviour so it doesn't annoy the neighbours.
Cultures which have a place for mental illness are the shamanic ones. If you have depression and aren't out harvesting the grain by hand like everyone else, then you could trade your produce for a special ritual that helps get rid of the "evil spirits". After a few hours, you are cured and ready to get up and help harvest the crops.
Today, civilized society waits until simple depression morphs into a mental illness sometimes needing a trip to the hospital and 48 hours in the psychiatric ward.
A person could cling all they want to the false belief that their childhood experiences are more important than making new ones that help us get over the trauma and transform the negativity into positive benefit.
If he were to tell any psychiatric doctor or nurse of that trauma, they will react out of fear to hospitalize him. This is because the telling of the long-lost trauma results in traumatizing the caregiver.
So, the mental health consumer learns quickly to deny the symptoms that are manageable, and tries hard not to perpetuate that trauma in her daily life. She does so by complying with medication and therapy.
In due time, mental health is maintained when the consumer is able to be crisis-free for more than six months.
Originally written: April 19, 2007 at 4:15 PM
Updated: February 1 at 9:50 PM
However, different cultures have different concepts of what constitutes a mental illness. Take suicide, for example. In Japan, suicide is, in most cases, not considered problematic, rather it can be an honorable act committed to save face or for a noble cause. Similarly, while the Koran prohibits suicide, "suicide bombers" are not generally considered "suicides" by their zealous supporters – they are martyrs for their cause. But in North America, someone who attempts suicide will likely be diagnosed with some form of psychological problem.
Some cultures are more susceptible to certain types of illness than others. Anorexia and bulimia are largely afflictions of the western world, while Japan has a whole separate set of disorders, many of which stem from their cultural expectation of hard work. One commonly documented Japanese condition called hikikomori (similar to agoraphobia) is characterized by a withdrawal from society due to stress and is said to affect large numbers of teenaged boys.
What about addictions? In North America, we believe in possession of a different kind: drugs, gambling, alcohol, or food are thought of as diseases that take over the victim and are difficult to expel. Again, we remove blame, but is it accurate to put a gambling addiction on par with, say, schizophrenia?
— Samantha Shepard, They're Possessed?, Medhunters dot com
Then again, is it accurate to use a manual of disorders decided by committee to diagnose what might be cultural eccentricities?
The social stigma of mental illness reflect a phobia of the mentally ill, a fear of psychosis which, instead of being relieved by education, is usually left to fester and sometime harm people who are themselves more harmless than the people who fear them.
Even people who are emotionally disturbed are loathe to admit that they might be going off the deep end, sometimes until it's too late. They minimize their suicide attempts and grow fearful that any outside inquiry might expose their suffering to the world.
Some of them even grow to fear strangers who often are concerned for their well-being, mainly due to the stigmatizing of their life.
Even though my own labelling of culture and society as the hotbed of mental illness is reactive, I also admit that both culture and society can be the source of mental health.
For eccentricity is merely an abnormal focus on behaviours that were once fulfilling but may have now become obsessions, like one has become possessed by some demon.
The ironic thing is, in ancient Greek society, it was once believed that each of us was born with a guardian angel which were called "daimons" - yes, the same modern-day demons that ignorant religious people pretend exist.
Sometimes, in respecting the expert's advice, we take it too far and reify his opinion, making it like a talisman. We do this with the advice of doctors when we interpret the directions on the label of medication — "take 1 capsule twice daily" — as meaning once in the morning and once at night when it could also mean taking two capsules at bedtime.
Likewise, it seems like psychiatry is turned into religion when psychiatrist rely too much on the DSM rather than on gut instinct.
From my perspective, the DSM is like a "Bible", the disorders being "deities" similar to "daimons." I feel they originate in behaviours used by people "diagnosed" with a "disorder" which soon stopped working to "protect" them from the suffering caused by "facing reality."
In short, the DSM descriptions interpret "daimons" which "possess" people as symptoms which involve fear, anxiety, insomnia, hypomania, mania, and sometimes psychoses.
This makes psychiatrists "exorcists".
Think about it: your doctor or psychiatrist replaces the priest. Your medications are the means to "exorcise" demons with names like influenza, chronic fatigue syndrome, cardiovascular disease and so on, as well as mental disorders such as schizo-affective, bipolar and so on.
For all the medications are for are to control and manage disease or behaviour so it doesn't annoy the neighbours.
Cultures which have a place for mental illness are the shamanic ones. If you have depression and aren't out harvesting the grain by hand like everyone else, then you could trade your produce for a special ritual that helps get rid of the "evil spirits". After a few hours, you are cured and ready to get up and help harvest the crops.
Today, civilized society waits until simple depression morphs into a mental illness sometimes needing a trip to the hospital and 48 hours in the psychiatric ward.
A person could cling all they want to the false belief that their childhood experiences are more important than making new ones that help us get over the trauma and transform the negativity into positive benefit.
If he were to tell any psychiatric doctor or nurse of that trauma, they will react out of fear to hospitalize him. This is because the telling of the long-lost trauma results in traumatizing the caregiver.
So, the mental health consumer learns quickly to deny the symptoms that are manageable, and tries hard not to perpetuate that trauma in her daily life. She does so by complying with medication and therapy.
In due time, mental health is maintained when the consumer is able to be crisis-free for more than six months.
Originally written: April 19, 2007 at 4:15 PM
Updated: February 1 at 9:50 PM
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