Present status and prospect of psychotherapy in Japan

The author will describe the changing trend of psychotherapy since the 1960s. The main theme in the 1960s was to establish psychotherapy for schizophrenics, although the school of Morita therapy had been continuing to treat the neurotic patients, particularly obsessional areas of neuroses. When social therapy came to dominate the clinical situation of schizophrenia in the course of time, the dynamic psychotherapists turned their attention to borderline patients. It was during this time that the borderline patients had been becoming the main theme in the clinical practices and the new theories and techniques had been successively imported. This situation is continuing even now. The rapid change of family structure had changed the personality structures and had given rise to the necessity for the family therapy. It is also emphasized that the new personality with ego splitting, who were likely to involve many people in the course of psychotherapy, has been asking us not only for individual psychotherapy but also a team approach.