The Zen of Therapy

As the title suggests, this book is targetted to mental health professionals and students: it's not a self-help book and it's not primarily oriented to the general reader. But it isn't inaccessible, by any means, either.

I came to this book, as I suspect many others will, via David Reynolds and his wonderful Constructive Living teaching, which is based in good part on Morita's work. There is a mention of Constructive Living by the editor of this book and it's unfortunately negative: it faults Constructive Living for not including a rest phase. Reynolds, however, isn't focused on the hospitalized: Reynolds targets the everyday problems that are part of the human condition. However, he himself has written about the value of restful practices, notably in his book "The Quiet Therapies".

A comparison of Constructive Living to Morita Therapy as presented (by Morita) in this book would show how far Reynolds has gone in building effectively upon Morita's work. Reynolds is very familar with and openly endebted to Morita's work, he wrote formally about it as the subject of one of his earlier books about it.

What is strikingly present with Morita but not so explicit with Reynolds is the reliance on a Zen-derived psychology. The editor of this book even uses the term "Zen" as if it were synonomous with "Morita Therapy". As Zen Buddhism can be, the Zen references Mokita makes are paradoxical, and, in my opinion, not that useful to those of us not enlightened yet. Nevertheless, being faithful to Zen, Morita avoided the kind of science-fiction level of speculation present in Freud or Jung and came up with a therapy, fully described and simply described in this book, that incorporates rest therapy and occupational therapy and avoids pretentious feedback based on
a patients statements. So the patient can relearn how to act effectively rather than acquire a complicated sense of themselves based on largely fictitious theory. Morita doesn't require the patient to learn the Zen theory that he based his therapy upon, he's simplified the program so that it consists of effective steps that should benefit a troubled person.

Reynolds, with Constructive Living, has taken that process further and made it useful for the rest of us. But it was Morita who began it, himself building upon a Zen tradition that itself tries to identify and build upon natural processes. The "pure mind" Morita hopes to restore is far more powerful than the artifical mind that many Western analysts have tried to manipulate into being.

Whereas such speculative Western therapies as Freudian and Jungian have declined in use as their relative ineffectiveness has become apparent over time, Morita's therapeutic practices have grown, if not in the full way he presented them, then at least in key parts. Occupational therapy is used in most psychiatric hospitals. Rest therapy, such as "Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy" (also known as "R.E.S.T") by Dr. Baylah David, has demonstrated many benefits that apply to anyone with a stressful life.

Hopefully the availability of this book will lead to increased investigation of and use of Morita's integrated therapeutic practices. It's effective and avoids the hassle and needless pain of having some ignorant doctor applying unfounded theories to dig into you to determine, unprofitably, your childhood relationship to your father or mother.

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