Hikikomori: contemporary forms of suffering in the transition from adolescence to adulthood

Abstract

Introduction: Since the emergence of Hikikomori syndrome in Japanese literature, special attention has been given to this phenomenon all over the world concerning adolescents and young adults. Several questions have risen: the novelty or not of such syndrome, its psychopathological and nosographical status, but also its social and cultural implications. Material and method: We have first realized an analysis of studies published in French in order to confront them with the reference studies of international literature. As soon as 1950, a description of a “claustration syndrome” occurred with its psychological implications and transnosographical, mainly based on adult subjects. During the 2000’s, the interest for these adolescent behaviours increase, stressing the complexity both of its functioning and the treatment modalities, but also the access to these young secluded. Then we present two forms of Hikikomori, built after a clinical study of a cohorte of 30 adolescents, and illustrated them by to two clinical vignettes Results and discussion: The predominance of Hikikomori among boy teenagers and young adults has led us to explore the functions of this behaviour during adolescence and its specific stakes: excitement treatment, passivity treatment, confrontation with loss and with ideal’s demand. We make the hypothesis of a double figure of Hikikomori. The first concerns temporary and defensive adjustments of conflicts, the other stresses the impossibility to treat the adolescence process. Therefore, the therapeutically propositions have to take into account these two figures of Hikikomori.

Keywords

• hikikomori
• adolescent
• inhibition
• passivity
• ideal.