Fiorenzo Ranieri
Recently, I came across two interesting doctoral theses submitted at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust: Shut in and cut off? by Petra A. M. Mohr (2019) and Socially withdrawn young people by Margherita Urani (2023). Both studies offer an in-depth psychoanalytic perspective on voluntary self-seclusion, drawing on interviews with child and adolescent psychotherapists who have worked directly with hikikomori patients. The two theses provide a rich source of information about patients’ behaviours, experiences and mental processes. The therapists interviewed describe their clinical experiences, the patients’ subjective states, and the complex countertransference dynamics that emerge in therapeutic work.
Continue reading Two Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Hikikomori: The Theses of Mohr and Urani