Toshinori Kitamura, M.D., Ph.D., F.R.C.Psych.

Over the past 30 years spent in clinical research, I have often found myself thinking that observing the psychology of the individual whom one may be interviewing at the time is simply not sufficient to fully appreciate the human psyche. Each individual is at a certain point throughout his or her life stage, somewhere between birth and death, and as such forms the life cycle that is passed on from generation to generation. In addition, the development of the individual is cherished in interpersonal relationships with the people that surround the individual: family members, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and people in communities. Interpersonal relationships are situated in the midst of wider social environments such as culture, climate, and legal systems. Medical and welfare professionals can better understand their clients by keeping this wider situational perspective in mind. This results in values-based medical services.

I define psychiatry as the “study on various psychological phenomena using the researcher’s own mind as a research tool”. The mind of the individual cannot exist without the brain. It is not possible, however, to figure out everything about the mind of the individual no matter how much we study about brain. Psychiatry is the study of that part of the mind which cannot be determined by research into the brain, and the role of mental health care services is to heal that very same part. These ideas are embodied in research and clinical methodologies which allow us to survey psychiatry and mental health care in frameworks of life stage, life cycle, and culture.

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