The Moral Compatibility of Two Japanese Psychotherapies: An Appraisal of the Ethical Principles of Morita and Naikan Methods

The article expounds and compares two representative contemporary psychotherapeutic approaches which grew out of the Buddhist cultural heritage of Japan and have proved successful in dealing with mental disorders in both Eastern and Western countries. Morita and Naikan therapies are regularly discussed and evaluated together as their compatibility and belongingness are unquestionable facts, even though they appeared at different times and in different milieus. One emerged from the clinical practice of a psychiatric department at a Tōkyō hospital where patients with neurasthenia were being treated, while the other appeared in rural Nara as a transformed version of an ancient ascetic tradition which aimed to assist devoted Buddhists attaining enlightenment. The article investigates the similarities and differences that form the foundations of the metaphysical, ethical, and therapeutic presuppositions of both therapies, pointing out the degree of their compatibility, and the possibility of conceiving a unified ethical framework for them.