A century of Morita therapy: What has and has not changed

Mitsuhiro Nakamura; Hidehito Niimura; Kenji Kitanishi

doi:10.1111/appy.12511

A century of Morita therapy: What has and has not changed

Asia Pac Psychiatry. 2023 Mar;15(1):e12511. doi: 10.1111/appy.12511. Epub 2022 Apr 10.

Authors

Mitsuhiro Nakamura^{1

2}, Hidehito Niimura^{3

4}, Kenji Kitanishi^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Yokohama Camellia Hospital, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
² Shinano Mental Clinic, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
³ Faculty of Human Science, Toyoeiwa University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
⁴ Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
⁵ Morita Therapy Institute, Tokyo, Japan.
⁶ Kitanishi Clinic, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

We review the history of Morita therapy (MT), which has existed for over 100 years, and examine what has changed over that period and what has not. Classic MT, which was dependent on a highly strict therapeutic approach, gradually lost its pre-eminence, but at the same time, the fundamental theory of MT was refined. This theory came to be applied to current outpatient MT and adapted to inpatient MT. As MT was refined, a standard training system for therapists was established, adaptations to modern conditions were made and expanded, and comparisons to and dialogs with other psychotherapeutic concepts such as mindfulness became possible. To better evaluate MT, further work should be conducted on its effectiveness of from a clinical epidemiological perspective.

Keywords: Morita therpay; outpatient; psychotherapy.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Humans
Mindfulness*
Psychotherapy*