Psyco Nautica

210 mm x 148 mm
484 pages
JPY 5,800
ISBN 9784790716259
Pub date July 2014

A Recommendation from Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Ken Matsushima’s book presents a powerful line of thought woven from his fieldwork on regional mental health care in Italy. It was through this book that I first learned of Franco Basaglia, the reformer of Italian psychiatric care, and I was quietly and deeply moved. This experience directly became the subject of the play-within-a-play in All of a Sudden. Moreover, as we wove the film’s narrative—which takes a significant leap from the original novel set in a nursing home—the phrase “animism toward ‘human beings’” presented in this book served as a major guiding principle. Does our society, in the first place, treat human beings as beings with souls?

Overview
Why were psychiatric hospitals abolished? What has emerged from the transition from psychiatric hospitals to community-based care? What is currently taking place on the front lines of community mental health services? By examining the history and current state of mental health care in Italy, this book explores forms of collective life in the community that place the “human person” at the center.

Key Highlights
1) The definitive source of inspiration for Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film All of a Sudden.
2) A cross-cultural phenomenon: Franco Basaglia’s legacy revived through Japanese anthropology
3) A universal manifesto: treating human beings as “beings with souls”

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Experience of “Having Things”
Prologue: An Anthropology of “Life” in Mental Health Care
 
Part I: The History and Philosophy of Mental Health Care in Italy
Chapter 1: The Development of Mental Health Care in Italy
Chapter 2: Franco Basaglia’s Philosophy and Practice 

Part II: Fieldwork in Italian Mental Health Care
Chapter 3: Moving Out of Hospitals and Working in the Community
Chapter 4: Restoring Agency
Chapter 5: Living Alone Together
Chapter 6: The “Theater Laboratory” and the Middle Voice
Chapter 7: “I” and “Community” as Spaces of Hospitality

Conclusion: A Place for the Living
Notes
Bibliography
Index 

Review
“It feels refreshing to witness the image of a ‘normal’ person—one who is easy to count and control—crumble to pieces.” — Tatsushi Fujihara (Professor, Kyoto University; humanities scholar), Asahi Shimbun, April 3, 2021

“I recommend this to everyone—whether inside or outside the ‘institution-as-system’—who is trying to live together on their own.” — Koji Hirose (Professor, University of Tsukuba; philosopher), Misuzu, January–February 2015 issue 

Author Information
Takeshii Matsusima
Completed the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University. Ph.D. in Human and Environmental Studies. Professor at the Graduate School of Human Sciences, Hiroshima University. Specializes in cultural anthropology.