July 2009 Archives

My tax accountant said that the settlement of accounts of the last year was not good. The reason is that I did not work hard. I watched the account book. Wow, sooner or later, I will starve to death! After two days of depressive mood, I went to a public bath. Admittance fee of 750 yen (about 10 dollars) gave me an idea of 500,000 yen (about 6,500 dollars)! In the bath, I developed a new two-day workshop about encouragement.

After I came back from the bath, I said to my secretary, "Behold! We shall be rich!" She laughed and said, "May raccoons prosper you!" A Japanese proverb: "Don't count the skins of raccoons before you catch them." In English they say, "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched."

The basic idea of the new course is to explain "encouragement" from the concept of "courage". Jane Griffith and Robert Powers wrote in their "Adlerian Lexicon": "Courage is the willingness to act in line with the social interest." In Japan, however, encouragement is often understood as a method to soothe people. I decoded the sentence as follows: "Courage is the willingness to act in line with the social interest, contributing to people and to the world without self attachment, even when mental suffering or physical danger may be expected." I designed a textbook. It was too hard a work to prepare 17 pages in two weeks, but I did it. Anyway, I need raccoons!

Fortunately, many people came to learn. They are satisfied to obtain systematic understanding about encouragement. I am also satisfied not only because I have gotten many raccoons, but also because people in other areas of Japan request me to come to teach. It is indeed true that necessity is the mother of invention.

Akita is in Tôhoku area. Tôhoku literally means "Northeast". Actually it is located in the northeast area of Japan. People there are rather conservative and reluctant to adopt new things. Adlerian Psychology is not an exception. Tôhoku is still a frontier. Fortunately, in Akita, there are active people who manage a study group. Some Adlerians in Tokyo area often visited there to help them.

They invited me for a three-day workshop for Adlerian Psychology and spirituality. At first, I ask participants to draw a picture about their present problems. Next, I ask them to draw another picture about their early memories. Then, I ask them to discuss with each other and find the common structure between the past and the present.

The second day was for individual sessions. After listening to and analyzing a participant's present problem and early memory, I asked him/her, "Who is your god?" Many of them answered, "my ancestors", and some said, "Buddha". No Christian attended this time by chance. Then I asked him/her, "What does your god say about your Life-Style?" Usually, the participant gave me an excellent answer with full Social Interest.

This method is named "Vipassana Counseling". Unfortunately, I do not invent this. I found a paper somebody had written in English, perhaps on an Adlerian journal. Sorry to say, I have faggoten where was the original paper. I must search and find it as I want to write a paper on this method.

I escaped from the meeting of the Adlerian Society and went to Hakone for hiking. Hakone is a dead volcano, which is located at the west end of Kantô plains. In the east foot there is Odawara city, and in the west foot Mishima city. In the middle of the mountain there is a beautiful caldera lake called Lake Ashinoko. Through the mountain there is an old street called Tôkaidô. The street was built in the seventeenth century. It is carefully paved and guarded by the row of cedar trees on the both sides. I wanted to walk on the street.

After the lecture in Yokohama, I went to Odawara and stayed there. In the morning I went to Hatajuku by train and by bus. Hatajuku is a small village in the mountain, where the old street begins. You can see the village and the street on the picture. The street is sometimes very steep, but well maintained. Hydrangeas bloomed here and there. Birds were singing. After three hours of hiking, I reached the lakeside.

I took a classic camera, "Welta Welti I", which had been made in Germany immediately after the W.W. II. On the back of the camera I can find letters, "U.S.S.R. occupied". I feel deep sympathy to the engineer who made the machine. How annoyed would he be! I bought the camera for 12,000 yen that Mr. Asô, the Prime Minister, gave me as "cash handout". The upper picture was took by this camera.

I stayed in a cozy hotel on the lakeshore. This morning, however, terrible rain fell. I had to give up walking on foot to Mishima. As I had a time, I went to an art museum and watched Japanese traditional paintings. After taking lunch, I took a bus and went down to Mishima.

The East Japan Local Congress of the Japanese Society of Adlerian Psychology will be held tomorrow, and, today, I gave a lecture for the Pre-Congress. The topic was "Understanding Adlerian Psychology in the Core Situation". I explained how basic concepts of Adlerian Psychology were formed in the clinical situation. I gave some examples of early recollections from my patients, and explained how to analyze them and how to help patients to recover the mental health.

The Adlerian method of psychotherapy is to develop patients' Social Interest. Adler realized that the process of psychotherapy was useful not only to cure individuals but also to cure the society. Erich Fromm wrote a book, "The Sane Society". The Adlerian philosophy, I believe, is the one of the best method to bring about the sanity into the society.

I showed a slide at the end of my lecture.

To actualize the sane society, it is necessary
To accept the fact that the human beings are imperfect,
To accept the fact that there are something we cannot know,
To accept the fact that there are something we cannot attain.
To accept the differences between people and not to try to be the same,
To accept the necessity to talk with each other to mutually understand,
And to have gratitude to what is beyond the human beings.

150 people came. I was a little bit anxious whether the audiences could understand my story. Half of them were beginners and the technique of Life-Style analysis from early recollections might not be familiar to them. Fortunately they understood my story well and gave me big applause.