Psychopathology and Psychotherapy Lab

Overview

"How do the situations called 'mental disorders' occur and how are they resolved?" this is the fundamental theme of our laboratory. The mainstream of recent psychiatric research comes to be occupied by that of biological and natural scientific styles, e.g. research in organic factors of mental diseases or intervention research that judges the effectiveness by using various rating scales and statistical processing. And as for the diagnosis criteria on which that kind of research is based, nowadays it is generally based on operational criteria e.g. DSM. However, the operational criteria are no more than agreements based on surface symptoms resulting from the internal process of patients, and they overlook the invisible internal process itself. Hence, to give operational diagnosis to a certain mental disorder is never to answer the question what the nature of the disorder is. Recent current in the psychiatric field takes on such aspect that as if mental activities are able to be resolved to elements on concrete level or numerical values, and such attitude should be critically called "medical materialism." Although to quantify means to abstract unquantifiable factors, such cases are often seen that the data, which are no more than the result of quantification, are called "evidence" and spread abroad as if they are the very truth, but with that alone we cannot close in on the nature that could not be quantified or exteriorized. The reason that psychiatric field exceeds the category of brain internal medicine is that human mind has profundity that cannot be resolved to concrete elements or numerical values. The very role of our laboratory is to investigate such profundity itself with honesty.

Main projects

1. Case studies which bear closely on each treatment process

Since this position does not fit the method of natural science, it tends to be disregarded in recent psychiatric research. However, each case is regarded not as an irreplaceable individual but as a set of data in research of natural science, and there we can easily find the problem of human alienation. Each individual is not only separative being but also the being who individually embodies human universality, hence the process found out in a certain case may also be regarded to be able to take place in general. That is the very significance of case study, and it is the viewpoint that psychiatry, which ought to aim at deepening of understanding of human mind, must not disregard.

2. Development of psychiatric concepts

We aim at contributing development of psychiatry, sometimes by reconsidering existing concepts, or sometimes by creating new concepts, referring knowledge of studies such as psychopathology, psychoanalysis, psychology, philosophy or religions that investigate human nature.

3. Suicide prevention

In Japan, suicide has been one of serious problems in these twenty years. We examine the problem by paying attention not only to the surface level such as mere measures against depression or to life support, but also to the existential crisis, which lies in the depth of human mind.

4. Psychological tests (mainly projective methods)

Our laboratory has long history of more than half century to handle psychological tests, mainly projective methods such as Rorschach test, and the tradition has been handed down to today. As for Rorschach test, our laboratory is the centre of Osaka University Method, in which the secretariat of Kansai Rorschach Society is situated.

Research activities

In our laboratory, each psychotherapeutic clinical practice itself has close relationship to our study. We attend to treatment or study not taking the diagnosis as given, but regarding the forming process of the clinical situation. Our laboratory meetings are held on first and third Wednesday evening of every month at our laboratory or Osaka University Nakanoshima Centre.

Members

• Ichiro Mizuta M.D. Ph.D. (Health and Counselling Centre)
• Masayuki Ogasawara M.D. (Kansai University of Welfare Sciences)
• Koji Kanai M.D. (Health and Counseling Centre)
• Noriko MIyoshi M.D.
• Yuko Kawaguchi M.E. (Clinical Psychologist)
• Megumi Matsumoto M.A. (Clinical Psychologist)
• Wakana Moriguchi M.A. (Clinical Psychologist)

Selected publications

"Prayer" as the nature of psychotherapy.
Ogasawara M.
Clinical Journal of Spirituality and Mental Health, 2(1):173-183, 2016.

Roles of clinical psychologists in psychological assessment.
Kawaguchi Y.
Japanese Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 45(6):781-786, 2016.

What causes the suicidal behaviour? ─a consideration from the viewpoint of the symbolization.
Ogasawara M.
Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention, 34(1):60-66, 2014.

Consideration on the despair of those who attempts suicide.
Ogasawara M.
Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention, 33(1):27-33, 2013.

Beyond the "bonds of humanity". The limitations of the Community Model and the Medical Model in suicide prevention.
Ogasawara M, Inoue Y, Takeda M.
Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention, 32(1):25-33, 2012.

A case of an adolescent male lost in the labyrinth of his life: Psychotherapy as an indicator of "the fulcrum" of psychological order
Ogasawara M.
Japanese Journal of Adolescent Psychotherapy, 9(1):80-92, 2012.

Exitential Model: a new perspective for suicide prevention.
Ogasawara M, Inoue Y, Takeda M.
Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention, 30(1):41-48, 2010.

A case of depression whose symptoms cured by setting her psychological base on the transcendent level.
Ogasawara M, Tagami S, Inoue Y, Takeda M.
Psychiatria et Neurologia Japonica, 111(10):1203-1211, 2009.