Donnerstag, 07. Januar 2021, 18:30 - 20:00 iCal

u:japan lectures - 09 - Sarah Terrail Lormel

The fear of others – Taijinkyōfu: Emergence, development and demise of a psychiatric diagnosis

 

Our ninth virtual u:japan lecture this fall by Sarah Terrail Lormel explores the theoretical, institutional and intellectual factors underlying the fortune of pathological shyness in Japanese psychiatry, from its first becoming the object of medical scrutiny in the 1930s until its slow demise from the 1990s.


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Online Event


Abstract

During a period that roughly coincides with the Shōwa era, taijinkyōfu or “interpersonal phobia”, has been a common diagnosis for Japanese psychiatrists, defined as a form of anxiety that develops in the presence of other people and leads to the avoidance of interpersonal relationships. Although it closely resembles what contemporary international classifications call “social anxiety disorder” and “social phobia”, taijinkyōfu has attracted much attention in Japan at a time when this condition was virtually absent of psychiatric and psychological literature elsewhere. How is taijinkyōfu different from mere shyness? Can it be cured or does one have to learn to live with it? Are there delusional forms of shyness? Is Japanese society a particularly fertile ground for this condition? These are the questions that have driven Japanese psychiatrists for decades. Proposing a clinical deconstruction of this diagnosis, this lecture will analyze the theoretical, institutional and intellectual factors underlying the fortune of pathological shyness in Japanese psychiatry, from its first becoming the object of medical scrutiny in the 1930s, through its success during the high economic growth era as a typically Japanese neurosis, until its slow demise from the 1990s.

 

Bio

Sarah Terrail Lormel is lecturer in Japanese studies at INALCO (Paris) since 2019. She holds a PhD in Epistemology & History of Science from INALCO with a dissertation on A Japanese History of neurosis - Interpersonal phobia (taijinkyōfu) 1930-1970 (2018). She was Junior Fellow of the Japan Foundation in 2012-2013 at Keio University. Her field of research is the history of psy disciplines in modern and contemporary Japan, focusing on the evolution of nosology and therapies, and the global circulation of concepts and practices.

 

Date & Time:

Thursday 2021-01-07, 18:30~20:00

max. 100 participants

Zur Webseite der Veranstaltung


Veranstalter

Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften/Japanologie und AAJ (Akademischer Arbeitskreis Japan)


Kontakt

Florian Purkarthofer
Department of East Asian Studies
Japanologie
+43-1-4277-43814
florian.purkarthofer@univie.ac.at