Psychoanalytic Zero

Koichi Togashi, Ph.D., L.P., is a Professor at Konan University, Kobe, Japan, and a Faculty and Training and Supervising Analyst at TRISP, New York, U.S.A. He works in private practice in Kobe and Hiroshima, Japan.

"Drawing on a wealth of cultural and clinical experience, Koichi Togashi’s innovative new book is a welcome and necessary addition to contemporary psychoanalysis, a field that is shaped by its Western outlook. The decolonizing impulse at the heart of The Psychoanalytic Zero is a refreshing and vital contribution. Togashi introduces us to different ways of thinking, thereby challenging our traditional assumptions and enriching our knowledge about human experience and analytic practice." --Roger Frie, Ph.D., Psy.D., Professor at Simon Fraser University and Psychoanalytic Faculty and Supervisor, William Alanson White Institute, New York"A thoughtful and challenging voice from Japan, Koichi Togashi provides a fundamental alternative to the Western presumptions of traditional psychoanalysis. Illustrating his perspective with wonderful clinical storytelling, he invites us to "decolonize" psychoanalysis and open ourselves to the challenges of emptiness. This book is for therapists and students ready to ask big questions, and keeps us absorbed. A true gift from the East." --Donna M. Orange, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, author, Psychoanalysis, History, and Radical Ethics: Learning to Hear"By refocusing our vision eastward toward Asia, Koichi Togashi brings a fresh and thoroughly innovative perspective to many aspects of the psychoanalytic situation. Starting with the premise that "being precedes awareness" he shows how "the psychoanalytic zero" which has its roots in the Heart Sutra of Mayahana Buddhism as well as Taoism, decenters psychoanalysis from the iron grip of Western thought and values. Togashi confronts the reader with the startling awareness that such familiar topics as trauma, guilt and responsibility take on new meaning when viewed through an Eastern lens. But perhaps even more importantly, reading this book allows the reader to find new answers to questions about what it means to be human." --Doris Brothers, co-founder of The Training and Research in Intersubjective Self Psychology Foundation, advisory board and council of the IAPSP

• Preface; Acknowledgements; PART I EMPTINESS AND THE PSYCHOANALYTIC ZERO; Chapter 1: Surrender and Silence: The Problem of Narrative and Non-Narrative in Psychoanalysis; Chapter 2. Beyond the Guilt of Being: Surrender to Emptiness; Chapter 3. An Asian Ethical Perspective on Sincerity in Psychoanalysis; Chapter 4. The Motivational System of Moving Toward Zero; Chapter 5. Trauma, Contingency, and the Psychoanalytic Zero; PART II HUMAN SUFFERING AND THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING HUMAN; Chapter 6. Being Thrown into the World Without Informed Consent; Chapter; 7. From Traumatized Individuality to Being Human with Others: Intersubjective Taboo and Unspoken Reality; Chapter 8. A Sense of ‘Being Human’ and Twinship Experience; Chapter 9. The Problem of Uncertainty: The Future of Psychoanalysis; Epilogue; References