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Constructive Living is a Western approach to mental health
education based in large part on adaptations of two Japanese
psychotherapies, Morita therapy and Naikan therapy. Constructive
Living (CL) presents an educational method of approaching life
realistically and thoughtfully. The action aspect of CL emphasizes
accepting reality (including feelings), focusing on purposes, and
doing what needs doing. The reflection aspect of CL enables us to
understand the present and past more clearly and to live in
recognition of the support we receive from the world.
Japanese society is frequently held up to the Western world as a
model of harmony and efficiency, but the price it pays tends to be
overlooked. In a searching analysis that will fascinate students
and admirers of Japan as much as it will inform psychologists and
suicidologists, Mamoru Iga discusses the precise nature of the
"thorn in the chrysanthemum," a thorn that may hurt both the
Japanese and the outsider who conducts business with them. The
author, who was reared and educated in Japan, is uniquely qualified
to interpret the value orientations of a society in which suicide
is all too common. He finds that the traits leading to homogeneity
and extreme adaptability in that society as a whole are the very
traits that can produce painful reactions in the individual. Those
traits are described as monism, groupism, authoritarianism,
familism, and accommodationism, and together they comprise the
Japanese "social character." Because the individual's behavior is
based on the images, assumptions, and ideas about the world that
make up his or her culture, conformism in the individual is one
major manifestation of Japan's social character. In Japan, the need
to fill one's socially prescribed role may make it doubly difficult
to think independently and creatively and to find solutions for the
resulting stress. Suicide notes and other personal documents reveal
the painful cost of modern Japan's success story, as the
examination of individual suicides is related both to the
theoretical framework of Durkheim's types of suicide and to the
sociological patterns that characterize suicide in Japan. It is in
personal value orientations, however, that Iga finds the common
ground between suicide and economic success. American readers will
find especially interesting the contrast between value orientations
in Japan and in the United States. Nearly the opposite of the
Japanese traits described above, American values of rationalism,
individualism, competition, and change create their own problems.
There is much to be learned from this expert analysis of the
problem of suicide in Japan. This title is part of UC Press's
Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California
Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and
give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to
1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship
accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title
was originally published in 1986.
Here, in plain language, is the definitive guide for taking control
of your life and imbuing it with greater meaning and productivity.
Constructive Living is an action-based way of looking at the world
that combines good, old-fashioned straight talk and the celebrated
Japanese psychotherapies Morita and Naikan. David Reynolds, the
father of this brilliantly simple and effective therapy, shows us
how to live thoughtfully and economically, to regard our actions as
if they were divine rituals, and to perform them with the utmost
care. He contends that contentment is achieved, not
bestowed--attaining peace and satisfaction takes daily practice and
learning. With user-friendly anecdotes, practical exercises, and a
sense of humor, he refreshes the experienced student and takes the
novice to the beginning, laying out the essence of Constructive
Living.
Here, in plain language, is the definitive guide for taking control
of your life and imbuing it with greater meaning and productivity.
Constructive Living is an action-based way of looking at the world
that combines good, old-fashioned straight talk and the celebrated
Japanese psychotherapies Morita and Naikan. David Reynolds, the
father of this brilliantly simple and effective therapy, shows us
how to live thoughtfully and economically, to regard our actions as
if they were divine rituals, and to perform them with the utmost
care. He contends that contentment is achieved, not bestowed -
attaining peace and satisfaction takes daily practice and learning.
With user-friendly anecdotes, practical exercises, and a sense of
humor, he refreshes the experienced student and takes the novice to
the beginning, laying out the essence of Constructive Living.
The "Quiet Therapies" are a group of five Buddhist-based
psychotherapies from Japan, so named by the author because they all
require the client to spend time in some form of isolated
introspection. To call them "psychotherapies" in the Western sense
of that term, however, is somewhat misleading, since the purpose of
these procedures is not to cure or ameliorate symptoms but rather
to inculcate an uncomplaining acceptance so that a family and
social contribution can be made by the sufferer in spite of
symptomatic disability.
“You can’t be happy all the time. You can’t feel comfortable
all the time. You can’t have the feelings you want when you want
them for as long as you want them. Life just doesn’t operate like
that. Maybe you have tried counseling or therapy or diets or
meditation or chemicals or some sort of esoteric magic to work on
your feelings, to fix your life or make it perfect. Nothing worked
as well as you had hoped. Reading this book won’t solve your life
problems either. But it will give you some suggestions that are
sensible, practical and doable—suggestions about how to work on
your life. Work is the key word here. Sitting and talking with
someone is not enough. Venting your feelings is not enough. Putting
your mind in some quiet inner place is not enough. Working on your
life involves moving your body, doing your life purposefully and
constructively. This book offers you concrete assignments for such
activity.” Adapting ideas from Japanese psychotherapies and
Eastern thought, Constructive Living (CL) offers a sensible way of
living. Across cultures and generations, CL ideas make sound,
practical sense. Water, Snow, Water presents the current state of
CL in its application to the West. Using a variety of
materials—including essays, tales, maxims, detailed behavioural
advice, case studies—David Reynolds, the founder of CL, presents
fresh perspectives on everything from worrying to love, from
psychotherapy to death.
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