User:Allenbeth/practice

Shinkeishitsu is a Japanese term that widely applies to a condition that in the Western society would be diagnosed as an anxiety disorder. The condition, also called constitutional neurasthenia, is a specific type of neurasthenia. Neurasthenia is a term specific diagnostic category. The subcategory of shinkeishitsu is taijinkofusho, which has received much more attention in Japan as a culture-bound syndrome. Although Shinkeishitsu has gained Western attention, the references to the syndrome are usually from the standpoint of association with Morita psychotherapy, which reveals the influence of the Moritist school. Although the influence is important, it is also important to note that it represents only one of many perspectives among Japanese psychiatrists.

Shinkeishitsu is a cluster of neuroses with socially phobic features as well as hypersensitivity and pervasive hypochondiriacal concerns. The Western textbook of psychiatry describes the disorder as a cross-cultural syndrome. “Morita (1960), a pioneer in the study of shinkeishitsu, postulated that there is a shinkeishitsu-prone innate temperament that he called ‘hypochondriacal temperament.’” People born with the temperament are said to be self-reflective, overly sensitive, and notice the smallest changes in their physical and mental states.

The neurosis was divided into the shinkeishitsu type, later called Morita shinkeishitsu, and the hysteria type. The shinkeishitsu is the subject of Morita therapy.