Title : Shuten-doji: The Japanese mythic unveiling of the psycho-socio-cultural consequences of substance dependence-abuse
Abstract:
In the mythical world of Japan, there once was an Oni (demon) named Shuten-D?ji, the Sake-drinking creature, a captive of the maidens. With mounting captives, Minamoto no Raik?, the hero was tasked with the downfall of the Oni. Raik? and his companions camouflaged themselves as priests to trace and end the wrong-doings of the ogre responsible for feasting and enslaving young ingénues. On the way to Shuten’s habitat, they met with an old laundry woman who told them of the plight of these women and they got a plan in place. Cognizant of his Achilles’ heel, they treated Shuten with Sake and under the influence, they could win over, free the captives as a result of his defeat. This mythic tale is a functional truth of the downside and realities of Substance-dependence and Abuse. Sake served as a poison exterminated the once powerful Shuten, this myth gives access into the maladaptive-addictive consequences of substance overuse and its psycho-social-cultural decay. Through the Jungian tool, Archetypal Amplification (an interdisciplinary approach to uncover the complexities of the fabric of the psyche through mythic expression) and reflections, the mythic tale of the inebriated demon is reviewed as a fresh perspective on the clinical-physiological framework of substance-dependence-abuse disorders. “For only through “amplification”—method of comparative morphological psychology, which interprets analogous material from the most varied spheres of religious history, archaeology, pre-historic studies, ethnology, and so on—can we reach an understanding of the archetypes and the individual symbols. However, the true object of our inquiry is the symbolic self-representation of the archetype that has passed through the medium of man, and that speaks to us from images fashioned sometimes unconsciously and sometimes consciously” (Neumann, 1991, p. 13). Anthropomorphizing the dynamics of alcoholism, this myth brings to light the psycho-social effects, conditions, symptomatology, comorbidity, interpersonal consequences, societal-community attitude and progression as well as stages of the disorder.
Audience Take Away Notes:
- This research will help the audience understand how mythology is an expression of psycho-social-emotional human effects and conditions in relation to substance dependence-abuse disorders
- It will help them dive into a fresh perspective on the dynamics of alcoholism as a disorder through an interdisciplinary approach extended through the Jungian psychological understanding
- Faculties studying the traits of substance dependence-abuse disorders, treatment strategies, prevention approaches, reform interventions will get an interdisciplinary mythic-archaic and cultural standpoint into the aforementioned dimensions of the disorder
- A novel research design along with hermeneutic research tools would give a new dimension to the operational clinical psychological framework of Substance dependence-abuse disorders
