Dementia in Community Psychiatry and "Self-Participatory" Medicine: A Medical Anthropological Perspective

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K01205
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 04030:Cultural anthropology and folklore-related
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: Kitanaka Junko 慶應義塾大学, 文学部(三田), 教授 (20383945)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 医療人類学 / 精神医学 / 認知症 / うつ病 / 脳 / 神経 / 老い / 新健康主義

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In Japan, where the population is super-aging and people are beginning to live with an awareness of the possibility of neurological disorders at every stage of their lives, this research has investigated the rise of what could be called the "psychiatricization of the life cycle." Aware of such disease categories as developmental disorders, depression, and dementia, people are becoming more and more aware of the need to maintain and improve not only their physical health but also their mental and cerebral health at every stage of their lives. By focusing on the "new healthism" that is arising at the time when psychiatric care is shifting from the hospital to the community, I have analyzed how people with psychiatric disorders are beginning to talk about themselves and to each other about the health of the mind and the brain. I argue that through this process, there is emerging a new form of empathy, or what we might call "neurobiological empathy.”

Free Research Field

医療人類学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、国内外の一流雑誌を含めた英語・日本語雑誌論文１７本、学会発表４４（国際学会15）、図書5の成果と、カリフォルニア大学バークレー校やエジンバラ大学、ウェルカム財団での招聘講演や、医療の社会科学研究を先導してきた学者チームとの国際連携にもつながった。英語論文の中でも特に、「脳神経科学的共感(neurobiological empathy)」を論じたアメリカ医療人類学会誌掲載の論文はスペイン語に訳され、ライフサイクルの精神医療化とデータヘルスの関係を分析した英語論文はPsychiatric Epidemiologyに関する論文集に発表されている。