Cure or stigma? Sociolinguistic research applied to the art therapies field in contemporary Japan: initial findings

Recent research has reported that in Japan, the social stigma towards mental illness and related non-pharmacological treatments (e.g. art therapies) still affects approximately 90 per cent of those affected, including children and adults, as well as their caregivers. This phenomenon is also evident in the specialist lexical choices, where Japanese terminology is often supplanted by linguistic borrowings, due to the perception that the former is almost intrinsically stigmatising. A substantial body of research has already been dedicated to the analysis of specialised language in various domains, including politics, economics, business, and medicine. However, studies on the specific field of art therapies, which is characterised by a lexical basin that intersects medicine, psychological sciences and visual arts or music, are still rare. The objective of this project is twofold: first, to deepen the understanding of the art therapeutic field from a more inclusive perspective, and second, to address and reduce the stigma associated with such forms of care. This is achieved through an analysis of the use of words of Japanese origin (wago), words or expressions derived from English or other foreign languages (gairaigo) and neologisms (shinzogo). This investigation forms part of a broader research project, the linguistic corpus of which, following the mapping model that has emerged in relevant research conducted in Japanese therapeutic settings over the last decade, includes manuals, sources promoted by the Japanese national art therapy and music therapy associations or similar institutions, previous research and field research (Japanese art and music therapeutic centres). The initial results from this study are reported and analysed using software such as NVivo, which has already been demonstrated to be effective for qualitative research in the humanities.