Morita Therapy: An Introduction
Morita Therapy is a structured Japanese form of residential treatment psychotherapy developed by psychiatrist Shoma Morita (1874–1938). Morita would take his patients into his home, and would provide a theraputic environment to compliment his treatment. Influenced by Zen Buddhism and Shintoism, its central and often counterintuitive premise is that suffering is perpetuated by the struggle to control or eliminate unpleasant feelings.
Core Principles of Morita Therapy
Morita Therapy focuses on shifting the patient's perspective and behavior, rather than analyzing past traumas or attempting to directly change emotions. Its key principles are:
Arugamama (Acceptance of Reality As It Is): Non-judgmentally accepting all feelings (anxiety, fear, sadness) as natural phenomena, like the weather, that are outside of direct conscious control.
The Naturalness of Feelings: Recognizing that emotions arise and pass according to their own rules, and trying to suppress them only makes them stronger (the "Law of Mental Function").
Purposeful Action Over Emotional Control: Focusing attention and effort on what needs to be done (responsibilities, goals, or tasks) in the external world, regardless of how one feels. The emphasis is on acting with purpose, even when anxious.
The Goal of Morita Therapy
The primary goal of Morita Therapy is not to achieve a state of permanent calm, but to help the individual live a productive, value-driven life alongside their anxiety. By shifting focus from introspection and symptom removal to outward action and purpose, the influence of the anxious feelings naturally diminishes over time. Morita’s approach has significant parallels with modern therapies like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Mindfulness Based therapies.
Who was Shoma Morita?
Dr. Shoma Morita (1874–1938) was a psychiatrist, researcher, and professor of psychiatry at Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo. He formulated his therapeutic principles in Japan in the early 20th century, influenced by his personal struggle with anxiety and the philosophy of Zen Buddhism. Morita developed his therapy primarily for patients suffering from shinkeishitsu, a Japanese diagnostic category for anxiety disorders and obsessive tendencies. He designed Morita Therapy as an alternative approach to Western psychoanalysis, lead at this time by Freud and Jung.
Born into the Meiji era, a period of dramatic Westernization in Japan, Morita himself struggled with debilitating anxiety and neurotic symptoms in his youth. His personal suffering became the inspiration for his clinical philosophy. He was a contemporary of Freud, and while both sought to alleviate suffering, their approaches were significantly different. Where Freud delved into the unconscious, Morita turned his attention more towards conscious experience and behavior. He saw patients afflicted by shinkeishitsu, often characterized by a strong desire to eliminate unpleasant feelings.
One of Morita's key insights was that the struggle against unpleasant feelings is precisely what perpetuates them. His therapy approach does not aim to eradicate a patients anxiety, but to reframe one's relationship with anxiety. Morita stated, "We should not try to control our emotions, but rather let them be as they are. Emotions are like the weather; they come and go."
Read more about Morita Therapy in our article The Unquiet Mind: Morita Therapy
