The importance of art-therapies in contemporary world. Japan: NPO Tokyo Soteria Art Circle as supporter of the fragile selves

Today, psychological problems and the need for individual expression are gaining in importance, in fact psychological and psychiatric centres are increasing in numbers all over the world. These structures’ professionals offer counselling and treatment to their patients, often using verbal communication as the only method to interact with them. However, this may not be the most effective way, especially for individuals who cannot express themselves orally at best. In such circumstances, art-therapies can represent new means of communication. Indeed, using the good effects of the creative experience, so definable “flow or optimal experience” according to the theory of the well-known psychologist Csíkszentmihályi (1934-2021), makes this kind of psychotherapy very successful. This study aims to outline the creative activity in art-therapeutic ateliers as a possible solution to support the fragile selves of contemporary Japan, society still today characterised by some social collectivised and hierarchical structures. In this context, the individuals are considered as “Interdependent Selves” – according to the 1991’s definition of Markus and Kitayama –, who exist as in relation with their belonging community. The functioning of the collective becomes riskily liable to be hindered or modified in its success by subjects with a strong original expressive need or with any psychic or physical discomfort, therefore generally marginalised. It is precisely to protect and welcome such fragile selves that in 2009 the pioneering NPO Tokyo Soteria, led by Hirofumi Noguchi, has been established. The organization promotes the guests’ independence in a familiar atmosphere, with constantly present staff, available for the physical, mental, recovery and therapeutic needs of the guests of the community. Within Soteria’s activities, particularly relevant are the ones of the art-therapeutic atelier Tokyo Soteria Art Circle which, for years in close collaboration with the mental health department of the ASL of Bologna, has also exposed the artworks created by its patients on the latest editions of the Festival of Outsider Art. The artistic creations produced in the atelier allow each patient to find or rediscover his/her own identity, previously clouded by the stigma of his/her physical or mental discomfort. After having acquired a greater self-confidence by means of art, the individual starts to play a new role also within the community, or the society to which he/she belongs. Given its achievements, Tokyo Soteria Art Circle provides us with the tools to analyse and further develop an already exemplary model of support for the fragile selves in contemporary Japan. In consideration of their efficacy, such therapies should not be addressed just to patients with severe diseases, but they could also be used, for example, in educational institutions, where young people often become victims of unexpressed struggling.