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Janvi Madhani

Professor Chilson

Buddhism and Psychology – 2184

April 23, 2018

Relationship of Buddhism, Psychology, and Psychotherapy in Japan since the 19th Century

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, most mentally ill patients in Japan

depended on religious therapies rather than psychiatry to cure their mental illness. As modern

medicine developed, traditional remedies were replaced by Western medicine but before this

development, Buddhist-related folk therapy was prominent (Hashimoto 2014, 114). Many people

found psychotherapeutic solutions to their illnesses in the practices of Buddhism. This

strengthened the connections that Japanese intellectuals and psychologists found between

Buddhism and the mind over time, and ultimately led to the creation of Naikan, a Buddhist

inspired psychotherapy.

In Akira Hashimoto’s article Buddhism-Related Folk Therapy of Mental Patients in

Japan before World War II, Hashimoto outlines different Buddhist therapy techniques used in

the 19th and 20th century for the mentally ill. One of the most prevalent techniques used was for

patients to reside with their families at Buddhist temples that had specific accommodations for

rituals of healing. Another common treatment was bathing under a waterfall. Hashimoto

described it as a sort of shock therapy that was also symbolic of water “purifying a corrupted

psyche (Hashimoto 2014, 115)”. This treatment was not always safe nor effective, yet it

remained a common practice in this time period. Traditional remedies also included having

incantations or prayers performed for the patient by priests, known as exorcisms, in Buddhist

temples. The medical outlook on exorcism was that patients who claimed to be possessed, were
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actually being remedied through psychotherapy or hypnotism (Hashimoto 2014, 118). In this

way, traditional Buddhist therapies and approaches to cure mental illness were given medical

meaning by the intellectuals of the time.

During the Meiji Reformation of the late 19th century, Japan absorbed Western science

and technology in an attempt to modernize and protect itself from colonization. In this effort,

Western psychiatry was introduced to Japan and inevitably contributed to the development of

psychology in Japan (Onda 2002, 236). Japanese intellectuals endeavored to understand

psychology in a way that fit the Japanese culture. Enroyo Inoue, one such intellectual, thought

Buddhism had an affinity for modern rationalism, and thus would be compatible with Western

science. Inoue related Yogacara, psychology of Mahayana Buddhism that divides the mind into

eight consciousnesses, to depth psychology, the study of unconsciousness mental processes and

motives. Inoue’s interpretation of Yogacara is that it introspectively understands how people fall

into delusions and are liberated from them. This interpretation is particularly attractive to

contemporary psychotherapists who look to Yogacara psychology, “for helpful insights into the

mechanism of falling mentally ill, and being healed (Onda 2002, 238).”

Tanenari Chiba, in the early 20th century, built upon Yogacara psychology by elaborating

the concept of the unconscious. He introduced the idea of an original consciousness, a new way

of understanding the mind and the consciousness in which the original consciousness is

composed of the “present, and lively functioning, from which it emerges, and to which it returns

(Onda 2002, 240).” This is very complementary to his Western contemporary Carl Jung’s idea of

the collective consciousness. Closer to the 21st century, the focus changed from studying the

relationship between Buddhism and the consciousness to measuring the effects of Buddhist

practices as a form of psychotherapy.

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Christopher Harding in Japanese psychoanalysis and Buddhism: the making of a

relationship discusses the importance of Kosawa Heisaku in the relationship between Buddhism

and psychology in the 20th and 21st century. Heisaku contributed to Japanese Buddhist

psychology in many significant ways, and was thus known as the “father of psychoanalysis” in

Japan. One of his contributions was the development of a psychoanalytic theory, the Ajase

complex, congruous to Freud’s Oedipus complex, but while in Freud’s theory a negative sense of

weakness and guilt erupts in aggression, Heisaku advocates, from a religious state of mind, that it

is in recognizing your weakness and guilt that you can be led to forgiveness. Heisaku used his

Buddhism supported psychoanalytical theories to treat people of their mental illnesses but

attributed his success to his religious background, when he said “without this sort of religious

experience at its heart, psychoanalysis will ultimately fail to progress (Harding 2014, 163).”

Thus, Heisaku is representative of the current understanding that Buddhism can be used as a

form of psychotherapy.

An important example of Buddhism inspired psychotherapy in Japan is the development

of Naikan. Naikan is a meditative practice, that means “method of inner observation (Shimazono

2004, 216),” developed by Yoshimoto Ishin in the late 20th century. Yoshimoto came from a

Pure Land Buddhist background that believed that the Amida Buddha was the only one capable

of providing humans with a path to salvation. Followers who were not fully convinced of

Amida’s salvation powers, undertook mishirabe, ‘self-inspection’ in which one would ponder

one’s sins, the inevitability of death, and the fear of hell, in order to have some sort of mystical

experience that would confirm Amida’s powers. Yoshimoto also practiced mishirabe and later

developed this practice into a more positively focused self-inspection, Naikan. Though Naikan

had its roots in the Buddhist religion, Yoshimoto “stressed that Naikan was not a religion
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(Shimazono 2004, 222).” By not restricting Naikan to a religious practice, Yoshimoto was able

to make it available to all types of people as a psychotherapeutic practice. He took the practice to

detention houses, juvenile reformatories, high schools, and his own employees where he was

able to see the practical effects of Naikan, gratefulness and smooth human relations, irrespective

of people’s religious background.

At the heart of Naikan lie the three questions, “What have others done for me? What have

I done for others? What troubles have I caused others?” Naikan can be done intensively, in a one

week stretch in which one inspects every significant relationship in their life guided by these

questions, or it can be done as a daily practice. The results vary from person to person and from

the motivation behind why one is practicing Naikan. “Some seek a cure from alcoholism, others

want to break the gambling habit…some come simply to make a study of the ‘method’

(Yoshimoto 1974, 167).” Yoshimoto describes the changes in a person after engaging in Naikan

as discovering new gratitude and living a happier life with this feeling, even if they are not cured

of their ailment entirely.

Many scholars argue that the practice of Naikan does not have to be Japan specific

because though, “Naikan appears Japanese …it is firmly grounded in reality and the fundamental

nature of the human condition (Ozawa-de Silva 2010, 151)”and thus, the benefits are universal.

Naikan expands one’s awareness to a fuller perspective of reality that is “shared across cultures

and traditions (Ozawa-de Silva 2010, 151).” The mechanisms of Naikan are as much subjective

as they are measurable. After engaging in Naikan, many practioners claim to have a deeper

insight about the self and the self in relation to reality, other people, and nature. “Most common

of all, they express a profound gratitude toward others (Ozawa-de Silva 2010, 154).” These

sentiments are not religion specific, yet, one cannot deny the influence of traditional Buddhism
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in exploring questions of the self and reality. The relationship of Buddhism, psychology, and

psychotherapy since the 19th century can thus, be thought to culminate in the development of

Naikan by Yoshimoto.
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Works Cited

Harding, Christopher. “Japanese Psychoanalysis and Buddhism: the Making of a Relationship.”

History of Psychiatry, SAGE Publications Ltd, 2014,

www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/japanese-psychoanalysis-and-buddhism-the-

making-of-a-relationship(0717e19b-d32b-4de5-a5bd-ab35a540326e)/export.html.

Hashimoto, Akira. “Psychiatry and Religion in Modern Japan.” Religion and Psychotherapy in

Modern Japan, by Christopher Harding et al., Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

Onda, Akira. “The Development of Buddhist Psychology in Modern Japan.” Awakening and

Insight: Zen Buddhism and Psychotherapy, edited by Polly Young-Eisendrath and Shoji

Muramoto, Taylor and Francis, 2002.

Shimazono, Susumu. “From Religion to Psychotherapy.” From Salvation to Spirituality: Popular

Religious Movements in Modern Japan, by Susumu Shimazono, Trans Pacific Press, 2004.

Silva, B. Ozawa-de. “Secularizing Religious Practices: A Study of Subjectivity and Existential

Transformation in Naikan Therapy.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2010,

www.academia.edu/8841013/Secularizing_Religious_Practices_A_Study_of_Subjectivity_and_

Existential_Transformation_in_Naikan_Therapy.

Yoshimoto, Ishin. The Naikan Introspection Exercise. 1974.