The History of Japanese Psychology: Global Perspectives, 1875-1950

337 Pages·2016·9.107 MB·English

by  Brian J. McVeigh, Christopher Gerteis

The History of Japanese Psychology
SOAS Studies in Modern and Contemporary Japan
Series Editor: Christopher Gerteis, SOAS, University of London (UK)
Series Editorial Board:
Steve Dodd, SOAS, University of London (UK)
Andrew Gerstle, SOAS, University of London (UK)
Janet Hunter, London School of Economics and Political Science (UK)
Helen Macnaughtan, SOAS, University of London (UK)
Timon Screech, SOAS, University of London (UK)
Naoko Shimazu, Yale-NUS College (Singapore)
Published in association with the Japan Research Centre at the School of Oriental and
African Studies, University of London, UK.
SOAS Studies in Modern and Contemporary Japan features scholarly books on
modern and contemporary Japan, showcasing new research monographs as well as
translations of scholarship not previously available in English. Its goal is to ensure
that current, high quality research on Japan, its history, politics and culture, is made
available to an English speaking audience.
Published:
Women and Democracy in Cold War Japan, Jan Bardsley
Christianity and Imperialism in Modern Japan, Emily Anderson
The China Problem in Postwar Japan, Robert Hoppens
Media, Propaganda and Politics in 20th Century Japan, The Asahi Shimbun Company
(translated by Barak Kushner)
Contemporary Sino-Japanese Relations on Screen, Griseldis Kirsch
Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan, edited by Patrick W. Galbraith,
Thiam Huat Kam and Björn-Ole Kamm
Politics and Power in 20th-Century Japan, Mikuriya Takashi and
Nakamura Takafusa (translated by Timothy S. George)
Japanese Taiwan, edited by Andrew Morris
Japan’s Postwar Military and Civil Society, Tomoyuki Sasaki
Forthcoming:
Postwar Emigration to South America from Japan and the Ryukyu Islands,
Pedro Iacobelli
Gathering for Tea in Modern Japan, Taka Oshikiri
The History of Japanese Psychology
Global Perspectives, 1875–1950
Brian J. McVeigh
Bloomsbury Academic
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First published 2017
© Brian J. McVeigh, 2017
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-8308-3
ePDF: 978-1-4742-8310-6
ePub: 978-1-4742-8309-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McVeigh, Brian J., author.
Title: The history of Japanese psychology : global perspectives, 1875-1950 /
Brian J. McVeigh.
Description: London ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. |
Series:SOAS studies in modern and contemporary Japan |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016029657 | ISBN 9781474283083 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781474283090 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Psychology–Japan–History–19th century. |
Psychology–Japan–History–20th century.
Classification: LCC BF108.J3 M39 2017 | DDC 150.952–dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016029657
Series: SOAS Studies in Modern and Contemporary Japan
Cover design: Sharon Mah
Cover image © akg-images/Horizons/ton koene
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
Contents
List of Figures vi
A Preface by Way of Acknowledgments vii
Notes to the Reader ix
Prologue: Spiritual Physics—A Physics for the Soul 1
1 Places, Periods, and Peoples: Problematizing Psyche 7
2 Historical Context: Japanese Cosmology and Psychology as
Secularized Theology 23
3 From Soul to Psyche: A Change of Mind in Late
Nineteenth-Century Japan 37
4 Early Institutionalization: How Higher Education Disciplined the Psyche 55
5 Motora Yūjirō and Matsumoto Matatarō: The Founders of Japanese
Psychology 71
6 Intellectual Reactions: Spiritualizing the Psyche and Psychologizing Society 97
7 Organizational Institutionalization: Professionalization, Applications,
and Measuring the Mind 117
8 Disciplinary Maturation: Specializations, Theories, and Psychotherapy 141
9 Nationalist‒Imperialist Psychology: State, Schooling, and Military
Applications 159
10 Reconstruction and Expansion: Postimperial Japan as a Psychologized
Society 173
Epilogue: In Retrospect: Trajectories, Alternative Routes, and the
Contributions of Japanese Women Psychologists 179
Appendices 201
Notes 235
Bibliography 274
Index 304
List of Figures
1 Title Page of Motora Yūjirō’s Ethics (Rinrigaku, 1893). By author. 194
2 Title Page of Fukurai Tomokichi’s Dr. Motora and the Psychology of Our
Day (Motora Hakase to Gendai no Shinrigaku, 1913). By author. 195
3 Title Page of Motora Yūjirō’s Collection of Essays
(Ronbun-shū, 1909). By author. 196
4 Title Page of Matsumoto Matatarō’s Lectures on Psychology
(Shinrigaku Kōwa, 1924). By author. 197
5 Title Page of Motora Yūjirō’s Outline of Psychology (Shinrigaku Kōyō,
1907). By author. 198
6 Motora Yūjirō. From Fukurai Tomokichi’s Dr. Motora and the Psychology
of Our Day (Motora Hakase to Gendai no Shinrigaku, 1913). 199
A Preface by Way of Acknowledgments
We sometimes begin books deep within our minds a decade or two before we realize
it. I probably began this book in the mid-1980s when, as a graduate student at
Princeton University, I became acquainted with Julian Jaynes (1920–97) who offered
advice about my project on spirit possession in a Japanese religious movement. To put
it politely, the nuances of his ideas were lost on members of the faculty of Princeton
University’s Anthropology Department. This made him persona non grata on my
dissertation committee, so his advisory role was unofficial. A maverick Psychologist,
Jaynes earned a certain notoriety with his theory that subjective conscious experience
was a cultural adaptation to historical changes rather than a product of biological
evolution. His salient concern with adopting a historical approach to key problems
in Psychology (as well as with the history of Psychology itself) would educate me
about larger issues that transcend disciplinary boundaries. Specifically, I learned that
understanding the nineteenth-century maturation of Psychology involves not just a
branch of intellectual history; rather, the appearance of Psychology on the historical
stage says something significant about changes in the very mental processes it claims
to be exploring. More than just a scientific analysis of the psyche, Psychology itself,
like mathematics and technology, is part of a larger picture, one facet of humankind’s
incessant need to reinvent and adapt itself.
Some of us must first publish a number of books before we write one that combines
what to others seem like scattered concerns in previous works. I have written about
religion, nationalism, the bureaucratization of subjectivity, the Psychology of self-
expression and popular culture, education, gender roles, postmodern alienation and
simulation theory. Not all these projects explicitly point to my general interest—the
intersection of psychological processes and politics. Nevertheless, at some level they
certainly concern how societal changes transform psyche and this is a central theme
of this work.
Scholars stand at confluences of intellectual streams, both geographically and
temporally. It is an inspiring exercise to trace the currents of ideas that have shaped
one’s thinking. My case is neither particularly unique nor special, but it is a humbling
experience to know that I am only several handshakes away from Wilhelm Wundt
(1829–1920), the man that many consider to be the father of modern research
Psychology. He taught the eminent E. B. Titchener (1867–1927), who in turn taught
the famous historian of Psychology Edwin G. Boring (1886–1968). The latter was close
friends with Julian Jaynes who taught me at Princeton University. Jaynes wrote a long
obituary on Boring’s passing in the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
(April 1969). Boring trained Yokoyama Matsusaburō (1890–1966) at Clark University,
viii A Preface by Way of Acknowledgments
thereby making me only a few handshakes away from this accomplished Japanese
Psychologist as well as many other Japanese Psychologists with whom Boring was
acquainted. A humble man, Julian Jaynes would have been embarrassed if I stated that,
having been influenced by him, I stand on the shoulders of a giant. He would have been
satisfied to hear me say that I just shook his hand.
This project benefited from helpful discussions and useful advice from Andrew
Barshay, Anzai Junko, Charles Muller, Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, David Schawlb,
Michael Brescia, John Brine, Richard Gotti, Scott Greer, Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu,
William Uttal, and William Woodward. In particular, I would like to express my
gratitude to those who answered questions about especially challenging concerns:
Aihua Zheng, Hwansoo Kim, Ishimori Masanori, Nishikawa Yasuo, Ōyama Tadasu,
Takasuna Miki, and Uchijima Sadao. I also received support and advice from Ishikawa
Michiko, Marcel Kuijsten, Sugawa-Shimada Akiko, Toyama Haruko, Enno Giele, Reed
Peterson, and Tim Vance.
I would not have been able to complete this project without acquiring certain
publications, so I owe a special thanks to a number of individuals who took the time
to send me sources (some of which were particularly difficult to obtain): Nishikawa
Yasuo, Ōyama Tadasu, Takasuna Miki, Satō Tatsuya, Uchijima Sadao, and Yoshinaga
Shinichi. I want to also thank Kamada Hitoshi, librarian at the University of Arizona
and James Stimpert of Sheridan Libraries at John Hopkins University. I should also
express my gratitude to the extremely useful Kindai Digital Library (Digital Library
from the Meiji Era) of the National Diet Library.
Portions of this work were presented at the Western Conference of the Association
for Asian Studies (University of Arizona, October 23–24, 2009) and at the same
conference held one year later at California State University, Northridge (October 22–
23, 2010). I want to thank the audiences for their questions and feedback (McVeigh
2009, 2010).
As always, my wife, Lana, provided intellectual, moral, and emotional
encouragement.
Notes to the Reader
In this book, I distinguish between the academic discipline of Psychology (with a
capitalized “P”) and the psychological (with a small “p”) or what since the late nineteenth
century has been called mental, emotional, perceptual, and cognitive processes. This
distinction is elaborated upon in the introduction.
Table 1 Periods of Japanese history
Tokugawa 1603 to 1868
Meiji 1868 to 1912
Taishō 1912 to 1926
Shōwa 1926 to 1989
Heisei 1989 to present