Hikikomori: Adolescence without End by Tamaki Saitō

Hikikomori: Adolescence without End Reviews

• 
  Nick

  Really fascinating. From reading this I've come away with a much better, less sensationalized view of what Hikikomoris are. I can see some approximants or resemblances of it in American society as well. Though the author is writing in a very Japan-specific context, and most of the salient differences between it and its American manifestations seem to stem from the cultural differences re: individualism and family norms. Really it is a basket of mental disorders with some shared themes, but which are probably not all present in all cases, but which pretty much all share some sort of "shut in" behaviour.
  
  Interestingly, this book was written in 1998, before the internet was really as huge as it is now. It seems like life for Hikikimori now is actually a bit better than it was due to the internet. They can lessen the severity of the withdrawal by using electronic communication.
  
  She also notes a number of interesting commonalities amongst Hikikomoris. Namely that they tend to come from well educated, middle/upper middle class families. They should be doing well by all accounts, but arent. So in addition to Japanese society, there is probably a class component to the phenomenon as well. Also, a gender component---- its mostly male. And also a "progressivism" component, as in the final chapter she discusses how certain recent and contemporary "everyone can achieve infinite possibilities!" educational ideology plays into this.
  
  idk how it is to be resolved though. She adivses certain steps for treatment, but they seem very difficult to implement. I imagine trying to help a Hikikomori is very difficult in practice.
• 
  tttttt ssssss

  Not only do we manage to learn nothing about the Hikikomori, but we are also treated to some of the most boring, vague, noncommital and trite ruminations on psychology on an entirely new and contemporary subject. I can seriously quote whole pages of this book where Saito doesn't seem to have a single thing to say. This book is absolutely littered with ... gosh I just HAVE to quote it it's just so fucking silly!
  
  

  As I have suggested before, I am of the belief that the withdrawn state is often far more serious than the experience that provokes it. This is probably because "withdrawal" is not a condition that is caused by a single psychological factor. We can think of it as a system- a vicious circle, in which various psychological factors work together, and one external trauma gives rise to another. Indeed, it is entirely possible that it may have all started off with a drop in grades, conflict with friends, or being bullied; however, when individuals withdraw from the world and shut themselves up they lose the opportunities for healing that interactions with other people can provide. Sure enough, other people do provide stress and can be a course of trauma, but if one gets rid of the help that others can provide, it becomes just about impossible to recuperate. It seems that one reason people in withdrawal have difficulty recuperating on their own is that they do not have any meaningful contact with others. What I am trying to say is the very fact of being in a state of withdrawal is itself traumatic in its effects. This is the only way to explain the psychogenesis of withdrawal and the unbalance that results from it. I explain this point in somewhat greater detail in a later chapter on the hikikomori system.

  
  
  This guy LOVES to talk about vicious circles- to him everything becomes a vicious circle. And he loves to start sentences with "What I'm trying to say is..."- its just so lame! As far as I know, this is one of the only texts in the field of psychology seriously engaging with the subject of the Hikikomori and we never once actually meet on, let alone actually talk about one! It's maddening! It's not like I need some sort of vulgar exploitative account of some kid sitting for moths in a fetal position in a puddle of nervous sweat, gism and issues shonen jump, but I would appreciate an empathetic case study of someone dealing with an inadequately described and increasingly common human problem that no one really knows what to about yet.
  
  And that passage, what the fuck is it saying? Sometimes you read a sentence and you just say DUHH, and other times you just get this self-referential nonsense and a promise or suggestion of a taken position that never quite comes. Its ludicrous! And this was the conclusory paragraph of the diagnostics and identification chapter. Clearly we are no closer to diagnosing or identifying the hikikomori if every sentence needs some form of "it seems" or "I believe".
  
  Hopefully I'm not being ridiculous. Its just so frustrating!!!
• 
  Neal Alexander

  Unlike some of the sensational stories in Western media, this is a compassionate review of hikikomori, or social withdrawal. The term has become a concrete noun as well, so that someone – usually an adolescent or young adult – can be a hikikomori. The author cites a 2010 study estimating their number in Japan at about 700,000. The book was written to inform families and guide them on ways to integrate hikikomori back into society.
  
  The author understands hikikomori as, essentially, an escape from peer and family pressures to achieve educational or career status. In terms of schools, he makes an observation that could well apply outside Japan: “It is because students are differentiated in an environment where they are supposed to be treated homogeneously that school becomes a hotbed of jealousy and bullying”. In fact the author briefly describes a phenomenon similar to hikikomori in Korea. On the other hand he argues that, in Western countries, the end state for this escape is homelessness, whereas in Japan it’s very rare for a young person to be ever unwelcome at home.
  
  As a psychiatrist, the author describes what he’s found to be the best route to reintegration of hikikomori. The first thing, he says, is that the whole family must agree to the therapy process: easier said than done when one of the sources of the hikikomori behaviour is often failure to meet parental expectations. The next task is gradually to re-integrate into the family, by conversing, however briefly, keeping doors open (literally) and so on. Then the final stage is to use the family as a base for re-entering society.
  
• 
  Theresa

  This is a great introductory read to hikikomori. It's written in a way everyone can understand and follow the reasoning; there's not too many technical terms or concepts anyone who's not a psychiatrist wouldn't understand. Definitely recommend this if you're interested in the condition.
  However, it's also not quite unbiased - the nihonbunkaron aspect is quite clear, referring often indirectly to Japan's presumed "uniqueness" and "special snowflake"-ness. He also never really touches on the subject of the role that Japanese society plays in the problem, which is another sore spot. Regardless, one of the most accessible and interesting monographs I've ever read.
• 
  Melanie Smith

  Have heard a lot about hikikomori people in Japan and this book, since translated from Japanese, looks to help me figure out what is it all about.
• 
  ukuklele

  Buku ini terdiri dari dua bagian. Bagian pertama menguraikan seluk-beluk hikikomori. Bagian kedua mengajukan solusi yang cenderung ditujukan kepada orang tua yang anaknya hikikomori serta pihak-pihak terkait yang berwenang seperti praktisi kesehatan mental, pemerintah, dan sebagainya.
  
  Yang dapat dilakukan orang tua di antaranya berkonsultasi kepada psikiater, mengubah cara berkomunikasi dalam keluarga, dan boleh jadi mereka sendiri memerlukan konseling. Penulis menyarankan agar memilih psikiater muda yang baru buka praktik sendiri, sebab mereka cenderung lebih terbuka. Tidak jarang psikiater menolak menangani kasus hikikomori karena menganggapnya bukan penyakit mental yang serius.
  
  Adapun pihak lainnya yang memiliki perhatian terhadap hikikomori dapat membuat klub yang mengadakan berbagai kegiatan, di mana hikikomori dapat perlahan-lahan kembali menyesuaikan diri dengan masyarakat.
  
  Penulis seperti memiliki pemahaman bahwa seorang hikikomori telah berada dalam situasi terpojok, dan tidak bisa lebih dipojokkan lagi, sehingga pihak-pihak di luar dirinya lah yang mesti turun tangan dengan pendekatan yang lembut dan sabar.
  
  Bukannya tak mungkin hikikomori membantu dirinya sendiri. Justru cara yang paling efektif adalah bila motivasi berubah datangnya dari dalam diri hikikomori itu sendiri. Hikikomori yang masih mungkin pulih di antaranya yang taraf pemencilan dirinya belum begitu parah.
  
  Buku ini diterbitkan pertama kali di Jepang pada 1998, dan cenderung menyoroti hikikomori yang masih muda (usia belasan sampai awal dua puluhan tahun). Dalam tahap itu, harapan untuk pulih cukup besar.
  
  Baru satu bab di belakang mengangkat hikikomori yang telah berusia tiga puluh tahun ke atas. Solusi penulis untuk kasus ini di antaranya mendaftarkan hikikomori agar mendapat tunjangan kesejahteraan atau disabilitas--fasilitas yang sepertinya hanya ada di negara maju seperti Jepang.
  
  Pada waktu itu, di Jepang sendiri fenomena hikikomori baru terangkat. Dalam uraiannya, penulis mengaitkan dengan faktor-faktor yang khas Jepang seperti sistem keluarga dan sistem pendidikan. Penulis tidak luput mencari tahu mengenai kasus-kasus serupa di luar Jepang. Hasil penemuan sementara menampakkan bahwa fenomena ini khas Jepang.
  
  Namun sejak itu, fenomena hikikomori dikenal semakin luas hingga ke luar Jepang. Ditemukan kasus serupa di banyak negara lain terutama yang memiliki kesamaan kultur tertentu dengan Jepang, di mana anak yang sudah dewasa dapat terus tinggal bersama orang tuanya, seperti Korea Selatan, Italia, dan Spanyol.
  
  Di negara-negara lainnya dengan kultur berbeda seperti Amerika Serikat dan Inggris, faktor-faktor yang mendorong kepada hikikomori bukannya tidak ada. Namun di negara-negara tersebut, kaum muda yang tidak mampu beradaptasi dengan masyarakat biasanya berakhir jadi gelandangan.
  
  Dua dekade telah berlalu. Fenomena hikikomori tampak tidak mengalami penurunan, terus bermunculan kasus-kasus terkait bahkan sampai melibatkan pembunuhan. Malah sebelum pandemi COVID-19, Jepang menghadapi problem 8050 di mana banyak orang tua yang telah berusia 80-an tahun masih menanggung anaknya yang hikikomori yang telah berusia 50-an tahun. Video-video YouTube tentang hikikomori mengundang banyak komentator dari berbagai penjuru dunia yang merasa relate atau bersimpati dengan keadaan ini.
• 
  Chanatip

  Tamaki Saito's Hikikomori takes a really interesting, unique approach to analyze social withdrawal (hikikomori) in Japan. I was initially drawn to it by my research interest to study a logic of school bullying in postmodern Japan through a psychoanalytic lens. To this purpose, Saito proposes a useful analytical tool to understand bullying as a mode of Freudian castration that grounds the subjectivity of Japanese youth within the social norms. This is an essential regulatory mechanism of the society in the face of the demise of transcendental authorities in the country after the second World War and the fall of the Japanese empire. Still in recent years, we have been witnessing a rise of neo-nationalist ideas from Fujioka Nobukatsu and right-wing aggressions from the Abe administration. I am curious how Saito would approach this important historical turn with this psychoanalytic approaches.
  
  One reservation I have about this book, however, is its clinical analysis on hikikomori. Saito proposes that an efficient solution to fixing this ‘disorder’ to resort to non-familial, heterosexual love. This argument is not simply mentioned in passing, but plays a big role in the second half of his book. Similar to many conventional psychoanalysts, he suggests that this romantic heterosexual love permits those suffering from social withdrawal to communicate with the outside world which the family could not offer. As a powerful scholar on this topic, Saito’s work seems to influence popular cultural productions, such as, the famous anime film, The Silent Voice, which tells the story of a boy who successfully recovers from hikikomori after engaging in a heterosexual relationship. I think this heteronormative premise in psychoanalytic theories should be assessed more critically and I am curious what scholars who study an intersection between queer theories and psychoanalysis would think of this book and how they may approach the same topic differently.
  
  Still, this is a brilliant, eye-opening book and I really enjoyed reading it.
• 
  Pete

  Hikikomori: Adolescence without end (1998) (2013 translation) by Tamaki Saitō is a fascinating book about the Japanese phenomenon of the hikikomori, young people withdraw into their parents house in adolescence or early adulthood and stay there for years, often not talking to anyone or just their family. Some have been doing this for a decade or more. The Japanese government estimates there are at least 700 000 Hikikomori in Japan.
  
  Saitō is a psychiatrist who wrote this book after treating a number of Hikikomori and talking to fellow physicians and seeing the numbers increase. When it was published it caused a stir in Japan. It's not a uniquely Japanese problem, Korea has something similar but with more of their Hikikomori playing games and being online. There are young recluses in the West but with weaker family bonds more people who do this sort of thing leave or are forced out of home. The Not in Education, Employment or Training or NEETs that the Blair government referred are similar. Also in the US the recent decline in the male participation rate looks similar. So world wide there are more adolescents and young adults dropping out in culturally specific ways.
  
  Hikikomori are predominantly male, beyond 4/5 and stay at home. Some only communicate with their parents via written notes. Some are so extreme as to not leave their room to defecate or urinate. It's pretty amazing. Some are also violent toward their family, particularly mothers suffering from them.
• 
  Arminion

  With the current pandemic of Covid-19, most of us were locked up in our little apartments and rooms as a part of quarantine. This got me thinking of hikikomori - young people locked up in their rooms for months and sometimes even years, avoiding any form of social contact. So I decided to pick this book up to broaden my understanding of this phenomenon.
  Unfortunately, after struggling through half of the book I had to give up. Even though the book is written for laymen, it reads like something intended for other doctors. It is written in a sterile and crude fashion, just like an article. It also seems targeted at people who know (or are) a hikikomori and aims to help that person. While that goal is certainly noble, it does nothing for an average reader like me.
  In the end, I can't really say that I learned anything new, which is a shame.
• 
  Zia

  Easily worth 4 stars had the author been prepared to confront the inadequacies in the venerable Japanese education system and the social practices that contribute towards social withdrawal. The approach to the problem is compartmentalized and does not contribute to the understanding of this phenomenon in the broad sense. Some of the sources are dated, as it can be expected from a book written in the 90s. The general socio-economic phenomenon that was later revealed in time, "the lost decade" was yet to materialize in the popular culture and people were rightly undecided.
• 
  Sunbea☀️

  «What motivated me to write this book was my sense that we may be facing a crisis because we simply do not have enough information. If society continues to fail to understand the problem, it will continue to treat it in an ad hoc way, and that will only delay the process of finding proper solutions. If we just think of withdrawal as a social illness or some sort of generational pathology, we will put off investigating the problem in any specific, concrete way. We cannot afford to way».
  
• 
  Word Muncher

  This is so scary. How an 'affliction' like this can take over a person and be diagnosed. It can even be part of the millenial state that we face now. You have to be brave and strong to face all aspects either as a recluse or as a person who cares for one. Scary.
• 
  Josée

  L'ouvrage fondateur pour comprendre le phénomène hikikomori au Japon et ailleurs.
• 
  Giorgio

  Importante issues, not only about Japan but to every young men around the world. There is clear parallel between Hikikomoris and Incels. Worth Reading, for sure!
• 
  Auggy

  Not what I'm looking for. Wanted a sociological examination, not psychological.
• 
  Leah

  Half of the book talks about the psychology of hikikomori patients without delving at all about why Japan faces this problem. (In fact it outright objects thats this is a uniquely Japanese phenomenon). The 2nd half is really a self help book for families who have family members who are socially withdrawn.
  
  An interesting book but, though some aspects I could relate to personally, I don't know anyone in this situation so I kind of sometimes glossed over the actual "what to do to get help" part.
• 
  Ben

  Case Study 2: Twenty-One Years Old, Male
  
  When this young man was little, he was quite active and wanted to win at everything. Throughout high school, he was serious about sports and his studies, and without any trouble he was able to get into the university that was his first choice. Once at university, he joined the tennis club and attended class diligently. After the summer break of his freshman year, however, he suddenly stopped attending class. When his parents asked him why, he just responded that he had trouble in one particular class, and he did not get on well with his classmates.
  
  After that, he gradually began to pay more attention to what people thought of him, and it became difficult for him to get on trains when he thought lots of people might be looking. When he was a sophomore in the middle of exams, he walked all the way home one day without using the trains at all. A psychologist diagnosed him as having anthropophobia, a debilitating fear of others. After that, he continued to go to university with the help of his parents, who accompanied him all the way to campus each day, but eventually he stopped going to his classrooms. He went to counseling for a month, which erased his anxiety somewhat. He also started a part-time job at the post office and attended a ceremony for his "coming-of-age" when he was twenty years old. Nonetheless, he still was not able to bring himself to enter his classrooms at school.
  
  He tried going to the counseling office at the university, but he did not stick with it, and eventually he stopped attending school altogether. Since then, he has been spending time at home. He has maintained a part-time job delivering newspapers, so he does leave home on his moped for that reason, and he also sometimes plays tennis. Most of the time, however, he stays at home. He has a relatively sunny disposition, but realistically, it does not seem like he can handle day-to-day life in quite the same way he once did.
• 
  Rebecca

  A very Japanese book on a very Japanese phenomenon - that might not be that exclusive to Japan as you might at first think. It is a fascinating presentation of a rather odd phenomenon (at least for someone like me who lives in a country where the family doesn't have that strong a position as in, for example, Japan, nor where hierarchies in society are as pronounced - both things that seems to have something to do with it). The book is also quite revealing on how the Japanese society works , not in a way intended by the author of this book - but interesting all the same. That means that both some of the causes and some of the cures for these recluses from society can seem a bit odd for someone like me - but that doesn't make them any less real.
  
  And, once again, it might be more common here than there - but that does not make it an exclusively Japanese phenomenon with no bearing for the rest of the world.
• 
  Sara

  When I picked up this book, I thought it was going to be about the trend of emerging adulthood as seen in the modern Japanese culture, and was really interested to see how it compared to the American wave of post-college emerging adults. However, this book addresses a fairly specific psychological disorder -- social withdrawal -- that, although it happens most frequently in young adults, does not necessarily mirror the American trend of emergent adulthood. As the author points out, the Japanese family unit is substantially different than the Western one, and the situations discussed in Saito's primary research are radically different than what would normally be tolerated in an American family. As someone who bridges Eastern and Western culture, I found this to be an interesting read, though it does not fit into my areas of research and study as much as I initially thought it would.
• 
  Simon

  This is a translation of the Japanese book that first alerted the world to the problem of hikikomori (sufferers avoid all forms of social contact by shutting themselves up in their bedrooms). The original book was written in 1998 and it's a bit dated now, but the introduction written by the translator provides a good update of developments in this area. The book itself is mostly based on the experiences of psychiatrist Saito Tamaki as he tried to help hikikomori sufferers and their families. A must read for anyone interested in this phenomenon.
• 
  Bob

  The issue dealt with in this book is interesting. It is clear that the author has spent a lot of time working with those in withdrawal & much time thinking about it. The approach to dealing with this problem does seem to be more like coddling than anything else. And I'm not sure I buy into his fear of castration theory, it seems a bit convoluted. The author cares for this growing number of people but in the end I think that the issue is more about growing up & parents allowing their kids to get away with too much.
• 
  Vasil Kolev

  The book is very interesting, and at some points it reads more like a critique of the Japanese society than a psychological research. It would be interesting to see some later books about the topic, and how it's showing in the "western" societies, as it seems that it's a phenomenon that's not culturally restricted to Japan.
• 
  Whitney

  This is not a case study book. It is a book for families with hikikomori children and clinicians who are looking for basic information. If you are looking for case studies, look elsewhere.
  
  With that said, it is a well written and easy to understand book, even for those with no pysch background. The translation felt a bit clunky at times and many points were repeated over and over.
• 
  ステファニー

  A bit outdated and uninformed. Has some good points, but I feel that its missing a lot.
• 
  Lisa of Hopewell

  I learned of this book from this blog post:
  http://www.foreverlostinliterature.co...