Recovering a Sense of "Living" : Insights from Matsushima Takeshi's Psico-nautica and Miyazaki Hayao's Spirited Away

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  • 「生きている」ということを取り戻す : 『プシコ ナウティカ』と『千と千尋の神隠し』から
  • イキテイル　ト　イウ　コト　ヲ　トリモドス　プシコ　ナウティカ　ト　セン　ト　チヒロ　ノ　カミ　カクシ　カラ

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Present-day Japan is characterized as a "society of disconnection" in which 32,000 people die alone every year and as a "suicide society" in which around 30,000 people annually, or around 100 people each day, commit suicide. Why is "living" neglected to such an extent? Designating contemporary Japan as a society of "solitary persons," this article examines attempts to regain a sense of "living" as seen in Matsushima Takeshi's book Psico-nautica: Anthropology of Italian Psychotherapy and Miyazaki Hayao's animated film Spirited Away. One example of the way in which modern bio-politics draws a boundary between "humans" and "nonhumans" can be found in the mental hospital. The elimination of mental hospitals therefore entails the erasure of such a boundary between "humans" and "nonhumans." Without this boundary, what appears is no longer a single "disease" but instead a "crisis" that affects everyone. The fact that everyone on his or her own will grope for a way to cope with the "crisis" is connected to how it will be resolved. Such is the significance of the practices of region-based mental health preservation in Italy as seen in Psico-nautica --the "crisis" is not a problem of "solitary persons," but one to be resolved by everyone's shared involvement. Similarly, Spirited Away recovers the idea that every "life" is "living" in the midst of "connections between different ways of living." This new link between "crisis" and "life" may possibly be the prescription that will cure a society of "solitary persons."

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