It is recommended to learn Morita Psychotherapy

Morita Psychotherapy was founded in 1919 by Dr. Masuma Morita, a professor at Jie Medical University in Japan, and is unique in psychology. The second generation professor Dr. Takehisa Takara, and the third generation professor Dr. Takeshiro Ohara of Hamamatsu Medical University in Japan, and others continued to carry forward the Morita therapy. Over the past eighty years, tens of millions of patients around the world have been freed from their painful lives thanks to Morita therapy.

1. Brief introduction

Morita Therapy is a method of psychotherapy at home and abroad that was summarized by the Japanese psychiatrist Dr. Morita Shoma around the 1920s. , and on the basis of more than ten years of clinical treatment experience, he has repeatedly explored and practiced, and continuously improved and perfected a unique and self-contained psychotherapy theory and method based on the Eastern cultural background. During his lifetime, Dr. Morita called his original psychotherapy a "special therapy" for neurosis. After Hiroshi Morita died of illness in 1938, his disciples named this therapy "Morita Therapy".

Morita therapy is a Japanese cognitive behavioral therapy with a unique philosophical color and life theory. It has a status comparable to psychoanalytic therapy and behavioral therapy. The birth of Morita therapy is related to Morita’s own experience and experience. It is also the result of his years of unremitting exploration, research, and practice. Morita had obvious neurotic tendencies since childhood. He struggled with illness when he was young and was deeply troubled by neurotic symptoms. After engaging in mental health work, I collected a large amount of domestic and foreign literature, and went through repeated scrutiny and practice. The period from 1912 to 1928 was the most fruitful period in Morita's life. He authored many papers. His representative works include "The Radical Cure for Neurasthenia and Obsessive-compulsive Conceptions", "The Essence and Treatment of Neuroticism", etc. In 1930, he founded the magazine Neurosis and established the Morita Therapy Research Association, which continued to devote itself to the treatment and research of neurotic patients until the end of his life.

Since its inception, Morita therapy has attracted widespread attention and attention from the academic community for its satisfactory clinical efficacy in the treatment of neurosis, and has received high praise. Westerners call Dr. Morita the "Japanese Freud". Professor Takehisa Takara, Mr. Morita's favorite student, said that Morita was unique in creating his own theory of neurosis and introducing this effective psychological treatment method to patients with neurosis, which was an epoch-making achievement.

At present, Morita therapy, a psychological therapy rooted in Eastern cultural background and traditional thinking, is not only popular in Japan, but also attracts the attention of European and American scholars. David Reynolds introduced Morita therapy to the United States and applied it to the treatment of neurosis. In 1983, the Japanese Morita Therapy Society was formally established. The first president, Professor Takehisa Takara, and the second president, Professor Ohara Kenjoro, inherited and developed Morita therapy, and expanded the indications of Morita therapy to include neurosis other than neurosis. Treatment areas for mental illness, personality disorders, alcohol and substance dependence, etc. And it has been widely used in normal people's life adaptation and improvement of life quality. The International Morita Therapy Society was established in 1991. In our country, the first Morita Therapy Seminar was held in 1992. At the end of April 1994, the Third International Morita Therapy Conference was held at the Beijing International Convention Center. More than 300 representatives from 14 countries around the world conducted extensive and in-depth academic exchanges on the research and application of Morita Therapy.

my country Morita Therapy Association has been officially established. It can be expected that Morita therapy will be more widely used in my country and around the world.

2. Basic Theory

1. Morita Neurosis

Morita therapy is a special therapy suitable for neurosis. Neurosis is part of neurosis. Neurosis is a non-organic mental or physical dysfunction caused by psychological effects. Neurosis covers a wide range of disorders. Neurosis is only a part of neurosis. It mainly manifests itself as the patient having certain symptoms that have an impact on the patient's normal life. Therefore, the patient himself has a strong desire to overcome the symptoms and get rid of the symptoms, and actively works hard to overcome them. symptom. Morita divided neurosis into three categories based on symptoms:

(1) Common neurosis: insomnia, headache, heavy head, blurred mind, abnormal sensation, easy fatigue, reduced efficiency, feeling of powerlessness, Gastrointestinal neurosis, inferiority complex, sexual dysfunction, dizziness, writer's cramp, tinnitus, tremor, poor memory, difficulty concentrating, etc.

(2) Obsessive-compulsive neurosis (phobia): fear of people, uncleanness, disease, imperfection, going out, stuttering, sin, unknown terror, sharp terror, heights Terror, distracting thoughts, terror, etc.

(3) Anxiety neurosis (episodic neurosis): anxiety attack, episodic hyperpalpitation, episodic dyspnea, etc.

Morita believes that under certain conditions anyone may develop symptoms of neurosis. For example, when you show up in front of others for the first time, you may feel nervous; after hearing about other people's gas poisoning incidents, you always feel that your own gas valve is not closed properly, and you won't be relieved without repeated inspections, etc. For most people, this feeling of nervousness and uneasiness is a normal part of life. Necessary psychological and physiological phenomena will disappear after the event.

However, for some people with special personalities, normal reactions will be regarded as pathological and they will desperately try to eliminate them. As a result, this uneasiness will be pathologically fixed, thus affecting their normal life and forming neurosis.

The personality characteristics of neurotic patients can be summarized as follows:

(l) Introversion, introspection, rationality, and pursuit of perfection;

(2) Emotional inhibition , seldom use emotions;

(3) Sensitive than average people and love to worry;

(4) Strong, motivated, uneasy with the status quo, prone to inner conflicts;

(6) Have a certain level of intelligence.

2． Hypochondriacal diathesis theory

Morita's basic assumptions about the occurrence of neurosis are based on the same mental diathesis, which is called hypochondriacal diathesis. The so-called hypochondriasis refers to the fear of illness and the fear of oneself getting sick. This is a reflection of people's desire to survive and exists in all people. But when the intensity is excessive, an abnormal mental tendency begins to form, gradually showing complex and stubborn neurotic symptoms.

Morita believes that hypochondriasis is directly related to the fear of death. The fear of death and the desire to live are two aspects of the same thing. The desire to live is manifested in:

(1) I don’t want to get sick, I don’t want to die, I want to live a long life;

(2) I want to live a better life, I don’t want to be looked down upon, I want to be respected by others Acknowledge;

(3) Want to have knowledge, want to learn, want to be a great man, want to be happy;

(4) Want to develop upward. Neurotic patients have an excessive desire to live and want to achieve a perfect state, but are prone to fall into the "fear of death".

In addition, neuroticism is an introverted temperament. Introverts focus on introspection. Therefore, you should pay special attention to your physical or mental discomfort, abnormality, disease, etc., and form hypochondriasis due to worry and worry, thinking that you are weak, abnormal, or sick, and worrying about it. Some of this tendency is due to the influence of the upbringing conditions or living environment in early childhood, and some is due to opportunistic factors, that is, caused by mental trauma. In short, hypochondriacal diathesis is the root cause of neuroticism.

3． The theory of mental interaction

Morita believes that the cause of neurosis is the mental interaction in the process of hypochondriacal diathesis and the mental activities caused by it. The so-called mental interaction means that when a certain feeling occasionally causes attention to be focused and directed to it, this feeling will become sensitive. The hypersensitivity of the feeling further fixes the attention on this feeling. A mental process in which sensation and attention promote and interact with each other, resulting in heightened sensory hypersensitivity. As this vicious cycle repeats, mental and physical symptoms occur. Dr. Morita expressed this psychological situation in Zen language as: You can't get what you ask for. The more you want to ask for, the less you will get.

When symptoms occur, patients are often closed in the subjective world and distressed by it. In this state, it is easy to produce anticipatory anxiety or fear, and attention becomes more and more concentrated due to self-suggestion. Morita believes that if mental interactions are not blocked, symptoms will become fixed. The principle of treatment is to adopt a natural attitude toward symptoms, which must be based on things, goals, and actions.

4. The mechanism of neuroticism

Morita proposed the pathology of neuroticism in the book "The Essence and Treatment of Neuroticism", which can be expressed as follows:

Onset = Quality X Opportunity X Cause of disease

Diathesis refers to hypochondriacal diathesis. Neurotic people are introverts and worry about everything. For some reason, the feelings, emotions, and thoughts that everyone often has are excessively regarded as pathological, and they are obsessed with and distressed by them. Opportunity refers to something that causes a morbid experience in a certain situation, also called an inducement. The cause refers to mental interaction.

In other words, people with hypochondriacal qualities focus on their physical or mental changes due to certain incentives. Due to the concentration of attention, their feelings become more and more sensitive and their attention becomes more intense. It becomes more and more concentrated and fixed, causing the symptoms to develop and form neurotic symptoms. Here, the hypochondriacal diathesis is the root cause, and psychic interactions play an important role in the development of symptoms. Therefore, the focus of Morita therapy must be to cultivate and exercise hypochondriacal qualities and block mental interactions.

3. Treatment methods:

1. Treatment characteristics:

(1) Don’t ask about the past, focus on the present.

Morita therapy believes that the cause of the patient's illness is that people with neurotic tendencies encounter some accidental inducements in real life. The treatment adopts the "reality principle" and does not pursue past life experiences. Instead, it guides patients to focus on the present and encourages patients to start from now on and make real life full of vitality.

(2) Don’t ask about symptoms, pay attention to actions.

Morita therapy believes that the patient’s symptoms are just a manifestation of emotional changes and are subjective feelings. The treatment focuses on guiding patients to take positive actions, "action changes personality" and "acting as healthy people do, you can become a healthy person".

(3) Guidance in life, change in life.

Morita therapy does not use any equipment and does not require special facilities. It advocates living like a normal person in real life and at the same time changing the patient's bad behavior patterns and cognitions. Heal in life, change in life.

(4) Cultivation of character, making use of strengths and avoiding weaknesses.

Morita therapy believes that personality is not fixed, nor does it change with subjective will. No matter what personality you have, there are positive and negative sides. The same goes for neurotic personality traits. The neurotic personality has many advantages, such as being introspective, conscientious, down-to-earth, diligent, and with a strong sense of responsibility; but it also has many shortcomings, such as being too cautious, having low self-esteem, exaggerating one's own weaknesses, and pursuing perfection. It should be tempered by active social life to bring into play the advantages of the character and suppress the shortcomings of the character.

2． Treatment Principles

When using Morita therapy to treat neurotic patients, we must first help the patient understand what kind of disease neurosis is, how its symptoms occur, and the personality characteristics of neurotic people. Understanding the nature of neurosis plays an extremely important role in treatment. Some patients are cured quickly once the nature of their symptoms is understood. During the treatment process, the following basic principles are generally followed.

(l) Let nature take its course

Morita believes that when symptoms appear, the more you try to overcome them, the more your inner conflicts will worsen, your distress will become worse, and the symptoms will become more stubborn. . If symptoms appear, adopt an attitude of not caring about them, go with nature, accept the symptoms as they come, accept the symptoms, do not regard them as special problems, and treat them with a normal mind. For things that are beyond your control, even being anxious will not help. You can only face reality and accept reality. Just like the weather, no matter whether it is good or bad, you should let it take its own course and insist on doing what you can do. Letting nature take its course does not mean letting things go and doing nothing. On the one hand, patients naturally accept their symptoms and emotions, and on the other hand, they rely on their own efforts to carry out symptoms and do what they should do.

(2) Endure the pain and do what is right

Neurotic patients often adopt an attitude of avoiding pain. For example, you don't work because you have a headache, you don't go out because you're afraid of illness, you avoid people because you're scared of the red face. When you really can't avoid it, try to deal with it as much as possible. This avoidant attitude can never be adapted to real life. If you want to change, you must endure the pain and invest in real life, no matter how painful it is, and do what you should do, so that you can improve unconsciously. For example, those who are afraid of people should endure the trembling fear and insist on contacting others; those who are afraid of uncleanness should insist on cleaning despite being afraid of uncleanness. Just like you can never learn to swim without jumping into the water, you can never improve without enduring pain and insisting on doing what you should do and engaging in positive, effective, and constructive activities. Only when the patient invests the mental energy originally concentrated on himself into the external world and experiences the joy of confidence and success in action, the symptoms will fade until they disappear.

(3) Purpose-oriented, action-oriented

Morita therapy advocates that patients should abandon their attitude towards life based on emotions and should instead use behavior as the criterion. The most common life attitude of neurotic people is to value emotions and often act emotionally. When you are in a bad mood, you don’t want to do anything, and some common physiological phenomena also feel like you are sick. Morita therapy requires that we ignore emotions that are not controlled by will, and allows us to pay attention to actions that conform to our own wishes. Only actions and the results of actions can reflect a person's value. “It’s better to do than to think”. Be at ease with emotions as they come, not be controlled by them, and act to achieve set goals.

(4) Overcome low self-esteem and maintain self-confidence

Neurotic people have a strong desire to pursue perfection, strive for perfection in doing things, and are harsh on themselves. In fact, no one is perfect, and we may make various unexpected mistakes every day. Being demanding about your own results will only make you feel disappointed, failed, and lose confidence. When the facts run counter to their subjective wishes, neurotic people will inevitably become imperfect and horrible. They often exaggerate their own shortcomings and weaknesses, and are distressed by them. They feel inferior to others and feel inferior to others. As a result, they achieve nothing. Confidence comes from hard work. Many people who are caught up in the desire for perfection think twice but do not take action, emphasizing that they have no confidence. It is absurd to think that you have to have faith to act. When you are wandering between doing and not doing, you should do it boldly. Even if you are not confident or may fail, you must act. As long as you work hard, you may succeed.

3. Indications

The main targets of Morita therapy are neurosis, that is, neurasthenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobia, and anxiety among neurosis. According to Japanese research reports, the recovery rate (either subjectively or objectively, symptoms disappear) using Morita therapy is about 60%, and the improvement rate (subjectively, symptoms remain, and objectively, some social incompatibility still exists) is about 30%. ①. The therapeutic effect is obvious. In recent years, the indications of Morita therapy have been expanding. In addition to neurotic patients, patients with drug dependence, alcohol dependence, depression, personality disorders, schizophrenia, etc. have achieved results through treatment.

There are three main forms of Morita therapy: inpatient Morita therapy, outpatient Morita therapy, and life discovery sessions. Choose an appropriate method based on the severity of the patient's symptoms and the impact on social functioning. Regardless of the form of treatment, the guiding ideology is the same. Through the study of Morita theory and the guidance and help of the therapist, the patient's personality characteristics are changed, the mental interaction is blocked, and the patient's desire for life is guided into constructive life actions, so as to enable the patient to gain experience and understanding of life. confidence.

4. Inpatient Morita therapy

Inpatient Morita therapy is the main form of Morita therapy. It is generally suitable for patients with severe symptoms whose normal life and work are significantly affected. Hospitalization provides a new environment for patients, eliminating contact with the outside world, allowing them to concentrate on treatment. Inpatient treatment takes approximately 40 days and is divided into 5 stages:

(l) Treatment preparation period. The therapist should explain to the patient that the disease is a mental illness and can be treated with Morita therapy, and explain the principles and processes of treatment. Introduce the therapeutic effects achieved. After obtaining the patient's consent, the patient is required to cooperate.

(2) Absolute bed rest period. It takes about 4 to 7 days. The purpose of absolute bed rest is to: eliminate physical and mental fatigue; develop a tolerance and acceptance attitude towards anxiety, troubles and other symptoms; and stimulate the desire to live. Absolute bed rest period: the patient enters a closed single ward and lies quietly except for eating, washing, and defecating. Visitors, reading, talking, smoking and other activities are prohibited. and under the guardianship of the guardian. The doctor in charge conducts ward rounds once a day and does not ask about symptoms, but only requires patients to endure and persist. While lying in bed, the patient experienced a psychological process from quietness to boredom, irritability, relief, and a strong desire to get up and do things.

(3) Light work period. About 3 to 7 days. At this stage, socializing, talking, and going out are still prohibited, and time in bed is limited to 7 to 8 hours. Get outside into the fresh air and sunshine during the day and journal in the evening. Read aloud Kojiki and other books in the morning and before going to bed. The patient goes from being bored to spontaneously thinking about activities and homework, gradually reducing restrictions on his or her work and allowing him to work. At this time, the patient is liberated from boredom, symptoms disappear, experiences the joy of labor, and becomes increasingly eager to participate in heavier labor. At the same time, the doctor in charge guides and corrects the patient's diary.

(4) Ordinary working period. About 3 to 7 days. At this time, the patient was transferred to the open ward and participated in Morita group activities. Participate in labor, cleaning, watering plants, manual operations, and cultural and sports activities every day. Keep a diary every night and submit it to the doctor for review. The doctor does not ask about the patient's symptoms and emotions, but only asks the patient to work hard and study. At this stage, through actions, patients experience the possibility and sense of success of participating in real life with symptoms, learn to accept symptoms, and gradually develop the habit of acting with purpose.

(5) Life preparation period. About 7 days to 10 days. At this stage, patients undergo training to adapt to changes in the outside world and prepare to return to real life. The therapist talks to the patient once or twice a week, and continues to review the diary and give comments. Allow patients to leave the hospital and perform complex real-life exercises in preparation for discharge.

In order to consolidate the curative effect, patients after discharge from the hospital regularly return to the hospital to participate in group psychotherapy and continue their recovery.