Sato Yuriko
Zurich, Switzerland.
J Anal Psychol. 2017 Feb;62(1):147-154. doi: 10.1111/1468-5922.12282.
The Japanese expression 'Mottainai!' can be translated as 'What a waste!' or 'Don't be wasteful!' However, mottainai means much more than that. It expresses a sense of concern or regret for whatever is wasted because its intrinsic value is not properly utilized. Buddhism and Japan's indigenous religion, Shinto, are integral to the Japanese psyche, accordingly the other-than-human world is also experienced and lived in daily life. In the Japanese worldview everything in nature is endowed with spirit, every individual existence is dependent on others and all are connected in an ever-changing world. Mottainai offers a glimpse of the anima mundi inherent in this worldview. This contrasts with our anthropocentric Zeitgeist, which manifests outwardly as environmental crisis and inwardly as fixation upon social interactions, especially through communication technologies, to the exclusion of all else. Jung's statement, 'The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life', has never been more pertinent. Encounters beyond the human world could be understood as touching this 'something infinite', and the apparent benefits of such experiences in the analytical process are illustrated with clinical vignettes from the author's practice.
日语表达“もったいない！”可以翻译为“多么浪费啊！”或“不要浪费！”然而，“もったいない”的含义远不止于此。它表达了对任何被浪费之物的一种关切或遗憾之情，因为其内在价值没有得到恰当利用。佛教和日本本土宗教神道教是日本精神不可或缺的一部分，因此非人类世界也在日常生活中被体验和生活着。在日本的世界观中，自然界的一切都被赋予了灵魂，每一个个体的存在都依赖于其他个体，并且在一个不断变化的世界中所有个体都相互联系。“もったいない”让我们得以一窥这种世界观中所固有的世界灵魂。这与我们以人类为中心的时代精神形成了对比，这种时代精神外在表现为环境危机，内在表现为专注于社会互动，尤其是通过通信技术，而排斥其他一切。荣格的这句话“对人类来说，决定性的问题是：他是否与某种无限的东西相关？这是他生命中关键的问题”，从未像现在这样切中要害。超越人类世界的相遇可以被理解为触及了这种“某种无限的东西”，并且作者临床实践中的案例说明了这种体验在分析过程中所带来的明显益处。
