Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition – June 26, 1999 A young man from Brazil worked at a high-tech factory, but during work, he suddenly let out strange screams and became delusional. He was taken to a psychiatrist. His great-grandfather had immigrated to South America and succeeded in a coffee plantation, but due to worsening economic conditions, his family returned to Japan. With medication and rest, he recovered significantly and returned to Brazil to continue treatment. However,

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, July 3, 1999 When desires go unfulfilled, anxiety arises; when wealth, love, or health is lost, depression sets in. Human beings experience stress even if just one aspect of worldly happiness is missing. That said, when a young person who had been withdrawn from school and confined to their room suddenly starts speaking about the meaning of life or world peace as if they’ve been liberated, psychiatrists take notice. They may suspect the onset of

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition – July 17, 1999 It seems that the workings of the mind are increasingly exceeding the bounds of common understanding. Dr. Thomas Wehr of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, who proposed the bold theory that winter depression is caused by a lack of light and summer depression by high temperatures, visited Japan for the first time in ten years. We had the opportunity to discuss new treatments, and our conversation shifted to movies, a sha

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, July 10, 1999 "I was born from the depths of the Earth. To save this doomed planet, I became a god."A man in his fifties, long hospitalized for paranoid psychosis, speaks these words. Before his hospitalization, he helped out at his family's ironworks. However, after his father passed away and the factory was closed, he showed no intention of returning to work. "That's not the issue—I'm deeply concerned about the future of humanity," he insists

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, July 24, 1999 Studies on the psychology of people who have experienced the extreme conditions of war have led to the proposal of terms such as "war neurosis" and "shell shock" in Western countries. These were the precursors to today's research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a condition in which the mind is wounded after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening terror, leading to symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, and nig

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, July 31, 1999 The film The Horse Whisperer  (1998), directed by and starring Robert Redford, tells the story of a wounded horse and a young girl on their journey to emotional recovery. Redford plays a -day cowboy known as a "horse whisperer," someone who possesses a unique ability to communicate with and heal troubled horses. Following last week's theme, this article introduces another film that explores post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Th