{"id":89051,"date":"2026-07-31T10:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T01:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/?p=89051"},"modified":"2026-07-31T11:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T02:48:07","slug":"podcast-column-the-strange-appeal-of-abnormal-psychology-in-modern-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/news\/89051","title":{"rendered":"[Podcast Column] The Strange Appeal of Abnormal Psychology in Modern Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This podcast column features an episode of Season 2 of Waseda University\u2019s English-language podcast \u201cRigorous Research, Real Impact.\u201d In this installment, Associate Professor Pau Pitarch (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/flas\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences<\/a>) joins the program as a guest in an episode exploring the relationship between modern Japanese literature, psychology, and cultural identity.<\/p>\n<p>Focusing on his research into early 20th-century literary culture, Assoc. Prof. Pitarch examines why writers in 1920s Japan openly engaged with the idea of \u201cabnormal psychology\u201d as part of their artistic identity. In the excerpt below, he discusses a 1923 survey of authors that asked them to describe their own mental \u201cabnormality,\u201d and situates this within the broader social experience of rapid modernization and the emergence of new ideas about the overworked modern mind.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Authors, Abnormality, and Identity in Modern Japan (Assoc. Prof. Pau Pitarch) \" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/28cdMPnuolEVfcjlMXfftx?si=Ahz3L50QTOyarbThFq-15g&amp;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>All eight episodes of Season 2 of Waseda University\u2019s English podcast \u201cRigorous Research, Real Impact\u201d are currently streaming for free on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/61VF3lETynCBuXt1AxXjXK?si=3eba847f8061431e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spotify,<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/e0aa1340-7af7-4227-9361-88eecc575214\/waseda-university-podcasts-rigorous-research-real-impact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon Music<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/waseda-university-podcasts-rigorous-research-real-impact\/id1777915569\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLeA0hDJkLYZDjs3b58eEZ1WnkvNJf9e9R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_89052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/news\/86633\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-89052 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.6.29-Eng-Pod-episode-6-cropped-banner.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1638\" height=\"948\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.6.29-Eng-Pod-episode-6-cropped-banner.png 1638w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.6.29-Eng-Pod-episode-6-cropped-banner-610x353.png 610w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.6.29-Eng-Pod-episode-6-cropped-banner-768x444.png 768w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.6.29-Eng-Pod-episode-6-cropped-banner-1536x889.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1638px) 100vw, 1638px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can read the full transcript by clicking the above episode banner.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2><strong>Question: In your article \u201c<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/modernismmodernity.org\/forums\/posts\/pitarch-fernandez-abnormal-genealogies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Abnormal Genealogies<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u201d, you explore why many writers and artists in 1920s Japan embraced the idea of \u201cabnormal psychology.\u201d Could you explain the social and cultural context behind this, and why abnormality became such an important part of artistic identity at the time?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Professor Pitarch (1:55):<br \/>\nYeah, it sounds odd, right? So, in this article, I\u2019m looking at a survey of writers that was carried out in 1923. And the survey asked a very simple question: what is your mental abnormality? And I think most of us, if we got that question from a journal, would feel maybe even offended or at least weirded out. Why are you asking me about this? But it\u2019s very interesting that in that survey, all the writers respond with great\u2026 very naturally. They know why they\u2019re being asked what\u2019s your mental abnormality, right? And they consider that part of their persona as artists.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Pitarch (2:31):<br \/>\nTo understand why that was so in 1920s Japan, we have to think about the way Japanese modernity was received in the 19th century, right? If you think of modernity as a process that takes several centuries in the West, that might seem odd, but in Japan, those centuries are received all together in the late 19th century after the modernization of the country. Basically, in Japan, you received discourses of progress, science, rationality, and development, together with all the worries about the effects of progress and development on the human psyche.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Pitarch (3:11):<br \/>\nLet\u2019s take the example of information. Japan goes from a pre-modern society with a telegraph, a postal system, news from all over the world, right? There is this worry that in modern times, we have too many stimuli. There\u2019s too much that\u2019s affecting our brains, and that is obviously going to overtax them. And that creates this image of the intellectual modern worker as somebody whose nerves, whose sensibility, whose brain is overworked. And that overwork is shown in this psychopathology of the time, right? And it\u2019s, if you think about it, it\u2019s very easy to self-diagnose oneself as, \u201cOh, I\u2019m too nervous. I can\u2019t sleep well. I\u2019m tired. It must be that I\u2019ve been reading too much. I\u2019ve been thinking too much,\u201d right?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a pathology, but it\u2019s also a way of showing that you are kind of embedded in this modern times where stimuli are flowing, everything happens very fast, right? You\u2019re living in that modernity, and that\u2013your psychopathology\u2013is proof that you are smack in the middle of that exciting new world.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Waseda Podcasts: &quot;Rigorous Research, Real Impact&quot;-- Season 2, Ep. 6 Teaser\" width=\"422\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9NPms-ftw5E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>About the Guest:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-89055\" src=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_7703-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"495\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_7703-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_7703-610x407.jpg 610w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_7703-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_7703-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_7703-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0Z8_7703-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 495px) 100vw, 495px\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/w-rdb.waseda.jp\/html\/100001467_en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Associate Professor Pau Pitarch<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Associate Professor Pau Pitarch\u2019s specialization is modern Japanese literature and media. He is interested in exploring how issues of aesthetics, psychology, ideology, and economics interacted in the formation of the modern literary field. He has published on authors like Akutagawa Ry\u016bnosuke, Ch\u014fng Y\u014fn-gyu, Okamoto Kanoko, \u014ctsuka Kusuoko, Sat\u014d Haruo, and Tanizaki Jun\u2019ichir\u014d, among others. His wider interests include narratology, translation, and the development of global genres such as mystery, fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Pitarch received his B.A. in Comparative Literature from Universitat Aut\u00f2noma de Barcelona, M.A. in Japanese Literature from the University of Tokyo, and Ph.D. in Japanese Literature from Columbia University. He previously taught at CUNY Queens College (2015-2017).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This podcast column features an episode of Season 2 of Waseda University\u2019s English-language podcast \u201cRigorous  [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,117],"tags":[355,379,178],"class_list":["post-89051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-topic","tag-highlight-en","tag-podcast-en","tag-research-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89057,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89051\/revisions\/89057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}