Toyo Eiwa University Repository / 東洋英和女学院大学学術リポジトリ
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Distance and Physicality in Online Encounters : Implications from and for Social Interaction Research
Get PDFThe spread of COVID-19 has had an enormous impact both on our daily lives and our research. The opportunities of meeting people have been dramatically reduced and we have had to change the ways we meet and gather. Many of us have transitioned to online communication.
Our team has been conducting experimental research on sandplay therapy to examine real-time interaction between the client and therapist. However, as it is not possible to gather participants in the laboratory, the author has come to consider how much a virtual encounter could replace a face-to-face meeting.
In this paper, the author discusses differences between in-person encounters and online meetings from the viewpoints of 1) distance, 2) physicality，and the 3) difference between the virtual and the real, seeking for some implications for our study.
Anthropologist Edward T. Hall suggests four categories of distance in human relationships: 1) intimate distance, 2) personal distance, 3) social distance, and 4) public distance. He also describes their characteristics and purposes. Online encounters can bring partners to an intimate distance immediately regardless of the nature and purpose of the meeting. While physical distance and time away from each other may at times deepen the relationship, connecting instantly can be both convenient and invasive. Also, our perception of others is rooted in physicality. Although we can imagine the partner’s body parts hidden from the screen, the image is based on our memory of prior experience. Humans have the ability to empathize, due to the mirror neuron network and other circuits in the brain, yet lack of close, intimate contacts with the caregiver in infancy may hamper the development of empathy. Moreover, elderly people have a strong need to meet directly and touch each other, especially when they are separated due to hospitalization or nstitutionalization. Such opportunities have been lost due to “social distancing.”
Social interaction research in cognitive neuroscience has been seeing a shift from virtual computer screen-based studies on individual brains to real-world interaction paradigms. Considering the ecological validity, it might be necessary to reconsider which components of face-to-face interactions are essential and which can be examined in virtual settings. The unusual situation brought by COVID-19, though it may be a crisis, has offered us an opportunity to rethink the meaning and ways of meeting, and how we conduct laboratory research on social interaction in psychotherapy.departmental bulletin pape
Problems of Stigma and Social Death from the Viewpoint of HIV Clinical Practice
Get PDFIn this paper, stigma and social death from the viewpoint of HIV clinical practice is discussed. Morbidity caused by the HIV virus has greatly decreased with the improvement of recently-developed pharmaceutical treatments. These now protect most HIV carriers from deteriorating into the deadly AIDS or transmitting the virus to others. Thus, HIV infection has come to be considered as a chronic disease.
Although HIV infection is no longer so fatal, HIV infection’s deadly image still remains, which keeps some people from believing that there can be a cure for those who are HIV positive. The fact is that people who are HIV positive no longer need to fear biological death, but there still exists the possibility of social death for them. This is caused by the situation in Japan in which people’s understanding of HIV infection has not changed significantly since the 1980s. Because of the negative labeling of HIV carriers, there are cases of social stigma created by administrative office policies and the media continuing until today. In some cases, this has resulted in the deprivation of the civil rights of people who are HIV positive, which can be regarded as social death. The present situation of HIV carriers in clinical practice has revealed that HIV-related labeling and stigma has caused another kind of death, that is, social death.departmental bulletin pape
An 86-year-old's Experience in the Coronavirus Pandemic
Get PDFThis essay is about a Japanese woman’s experiences in the first part of the coronavirus pandemic. The 86-year-old woman, in the eve of life, shares her experiences during the pandemic from January to October 2020. The themes she covers include her worries about health and a new awareness of the physical condition of her body, a dream about death, and connecting with others of her Catholic faith. For example, though mass was cancelled from March 1st, it was broadcasted on YouTube. Furthermore, she explains how she created a Facebook Messenger group to contact and communicate with Catholic friends, and the relief that gave her. In particular, she tells how Mr. Shintaro Yuzawa, the head of the Japanese Catholic Center of Paris, a member of her group, distributed religious materials and gave support to the group through a lecture on Zoom and how this deepened her faith. Finally, the Japanese blog Ringo Tsuushin (Apple Communication) gave her ideas of how to help people in need. One of these was “planting apple trees even if the world may end tomorrow”. This has inspired her to plant an apple tree for her great-granddaughter born in October and other children born during the pandemic.departmental bulletin pape
On the Definition of Spirituality : An Introductory Discussion of Theory Building for Spiritual Care
Get PDFIn this article, the definition of spirituality reached by international care practitioners in palliative care in 2014 is discussed. This definition focuses on the functional aspect of spirituality, which is the patient’s framework for their experience and helps them to make sense of the world surrounding them. Defining spirituality helps the healthcare team to integrate spiritual care into their practice. Since spirituality is expressed through beliefs, values, traditions, and practices, the chaplain is typically a spiritual care practitioner sympathetic to the patient’s world view. Therefore, a biopolitical interpretation of the chaplain’s role is introduced in this article.
The first criticism of the 2014 definition is that it follows only the modern western understanding of humanity as conscious individuals. In this article, the author presents an alternative view, one in which people are a bundle of “dividuals” who struggle with prioritizing the contradicting values to which they are committed. The “negative capability” (Hahakigi, 2017) is a crucial concept for giving care to “dividuals”. The second criticism is towards the definition’s insensitivity to the spirituality of those that a modern, productivity-oriented society has neglected. The definition presupposes the consciousness and integrity of a person. This view of humanity does not fully respect those who have mental and psychological difficulties. The overemphasis of the role of care practitioners in spiritual care is also discussed. Finally, the author provides his vision, that of re-evaluating the contribution of Japanese philosophical tradition in the discussion of spirituality and spiritual care.departmental bulletin pape
A Viktor E. Frankl Re-read During the Time of the Coronavirus Pandemic
Get PDFA worldwide best seller Yoru to Kiri (English title: Man’s Search for Meaning, 1946/2006) was written by a Jewish psychiatrist, Viktor E. Frankl. The book has encouraged, empowered, and given hope to countless people in their sufferings world-wide. Tokuji Shimoyama, who first translated the book into Japanese, repeatedly referred to Frankl in his lectures and writings, and pursued, just like the psychiatrist, living with and suffering with those in distress throughout his whole life. The aim of this article is to search for some hints from Frankl’s philosophy of life for living through this extraordinary situation when COVID-19 infection is rampant. In the Nazi concentration camps where the chance of survival was low, Frankl applied his logotherapy both to himself and to other prisoners. He suffered even more after he was released from the camp, as most of his beloved ones had died. What saved him from despair was the love of his second wife, Elly. In addition, he kept a strong faith in Judaism. According to Frankl, “life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual” (1946/2006, p. 77). The pandemic may be a huge problem, but it can also be seen as a task that has been presented to the whole of mankind as well to each one of us. Each person must respond to it in each moment. In addition, Frankl said that mankind should be united by a common will to a common meaning or task. The author hopes that, by responding patiently to unanswered questions day by day, we will see a new and better world.departmental bulletin pape
Healing Rituals and Care of Ghosts by the Mesopotamian Āšipu : Researches into One of the Oldest Forms of Shamanism
Get PDFThis article aims to contribute some material to the discussion on the Shamanism of Ancient Mesopotamia. A specialist, known as the āšipu, who belonged to some of the main temples, was responsible for treating most diseases in conjunction with other specialists who were organized under him. I believe that this āšipu should be regarded as a shaman in Mesopotamian society.
This discussion will include a sample text (No.115) from a book by JoAnn Scurlock (2006) which outlines how the āšipu, in the first stage of his treatment, makes his diagnosis of a client based on their symptoms. When the āšipu ascertains that the disease has been inflicted on the living by a roving ghost (eṭemmu) that is assumed to dwell in the underworld, he organizes a treatment consisting of a series of ritual procedures which includes a set of recitations.
In the second stage, he makes a clay figure of the ghost, sets up an offering table to the ‘three great gods’ (Ea, the god of wisdom and freshwater; Shamash or Šamaš, the sun god and Asarluhi or Marduk the son of Ea), and has the client recite a prayer that he (the āšipu) has prepared three times to the gods.
In the third stage, the āšipu buries the figure of the ghost and pours water on it, presumably enabling the ghost to return to the underworld as the figure melts. In the final stage, he purifies the client with a censer and the flame of a torch and then sends the client home by a different path than the one he came by with instructions not to look back.
In a case like this, where the disease was caused by a ghost, the healing ritual places great importance on the fact that the ghost is never attacked or made to perish, but is given proper care so that it can remain in the underworld and not venture out among the living again.
Japanese people are quite familiar with this kind of understanding. Therefore, an insight into Japanese folk religion and its practices from the viewpoint of comparative studies of religion would shed much light on our understanding of Mesopotamian religion which, like Japanese folk religion, arose naturally over time (during ca. 3000-300 BC).departmental bulletin pape
Exploring Active Learning in the university lecture hall : a collaborative lesson planning project
Get PDFThis paper reports on an ongoing collaborative lesson planning project at Toyo Eiwa University, Japan. The aim of the project was to explore methods for implementing an Active Learning approach in courses with a large number of students. Drawing on an enquiry-based model of teacher development, Collaborative Lesson Research (CLR), three subject teachers and one language education specialist worked collaboratively to research, plan, teach, observe, and critically evaluate a 90-minute class (n=96 students) on multicultural society. The authors begin by describing the background, educational context, and project schedule. They then discuss various aspects of the project, such as student learning outcomes, the effectiveness of their post-lesson discussions, and their reflections on the collaborative planning process. While the authors did not intend to prove the efficacy of either Active Learning or CLR, as they discuss, the project provides some evidence that collaborative planning could be an effective step towards establishing new teaching approaches in a university context. Implications for further research in this area are presented.departmental bulletin pape