Freeter japanese film8/3/2023 ![]() ![]() This type of socialization and reintroduction into greater society seems like a much more productive approach than labeling kids with some mental health condition and drugging them into a stupor. From my research the more successful approach to the acute social withdrawal is to remove the person from the stagnant home environment and put them into a group situation with peers in the same state. Add to that the trend for health care providers to to apply prescription drugs to solve the problem, and you have a mess. To be sure, there are some youth with mental health problems, but there is tendency in the sphere of western medicine to medicalize any behaviors outside the societal norm as a mental illness. The 'hikikomori' label has always seemed to me a catch-all term for people who have dropped out of society. However, a cursory search of the Internet reveals similar reclusive social withdrawal behavior in Korea, China, and even the United States. Since hikikomori is a word coined in Japan, focus in the media has been on it as Japan-specific phenomena. However, I've always felt that hikikomori is a social issue amongst the younger generation, one that is a by-product of globalization clashing with young people transitioning into adulthood. I admire Paul Ballas' work and efforts to understand individuals labeled as 'hikikomori', more people should look at this issue with a serious eye. My issue is with Ballas' framing of hikikomori as a mental health issue. My only complaint here is why revive the 'one million missing' hikikomori fallacy reported back in 2001? That alone shows poor background research into the issue. ![]() So I won't say much more on that aspect of the article. Kudos.Īs for the article itself, I think the comments do a fair job criticizing the relevancy of resurrecting the hikikomori topic in the aftermath of the 3-11 earthquake in Japan. Still, it is a great tech industry magazine. Though the print magazine suffers the curse of any paper publication in this instant digital age with a lot of the print magazine material feeling dated when it hits your door. ![]() A great deal of the material they produce is at the very least, though provoking. You can read it here: Op-Ed: Psychiatric Disorder Could Complicate Japan Quake Recoveryįirst, I want to state that I'm a long time reader of Wired Magazine. Psychiatrist Paul Ballas has written an Op-Ed piece for the Wired science section of Wired Magazine Onine. ![]()
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