Summary Of Ethan Watters's 'The Mega-Marketing Of Depression In Japan'

Ethan Watters and Michael Moss express two separate pieces of literary works that display different scenarios, but express the same message. Watters sets forth a phenomenon in which an entire culture is modified for the better of industry in Japan. With this circumstance, Watters argues that the ‘total environment’ in which a demographic is set can be altered by the influence of outside sources. Moss relates a similar example, where a certain group is marketed to, and as a result, this group’s relationship with the product drastically increases. There are many differences in the two works, but both researches contain many similarities; marketing techniques, ethical views, etcetera. The main thing that is most common in both texts is type

In her novel When the Emperor Was Divine, author Julie Otsuka presents the long-lasting effects that isolation and alienation have on a person’s self- image and identity. During WWII, Japanese-Americans living in the United States were forced to move to isolated and horrific internment camps. The US government ensured they were separated from the rest of the country. This even included their own families. When the Japanese-Americans were allowed to return home after the war, the result of the isolation they experienced created irreversible damage. They continued to experience alienation, often making it impossible for them to recover emotionally, mentally and financially. Otsuka uses characterization to bring to life the traumas of the war and the effects it had on her characters, the girl, her mother and her father.

     I think Monica Sone focuses on, and clearly shows, the tension that arose in the Japanese American community because they felt torn between two distinct cultures and amongst themselves. There was also much confusion in this pre-World War II and during WWII era concerning the place of Japanese Americans in the United States. The Issei, or first generation of immigrants from Japan, were generally highly organized in their communities. They tended to stay in close connection with traditional Japanese culture. The Issei spoke their native language, practiced traditional Japanese customs, and formed church groups, and other social communities amongst themselves. Similarly, the Nisei, or second generation Japanese American, were also highly organized and formed strong ties amongst themselves separate from the Issei. The Nisei attended Japanese schools, which enhanced their use of the Japanese language, but more importantly, created a social network of peers. They participated in church programs, and sports teams together. One main difference between the Issei and Nisei was that the Nisei were considered Americans. They were born here and they held complete citizenship. This was not true for the Issei. Another factor that separated the

In Ethan Watters’ essay, “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” he has a discussion with Dr. Laurence Kirmayer regarding Kirmayer’s invitation to the International Consensus Group on Depression and Anxiety. In their discussion Kirmayer talks about how the basis of his invitation was on the notion that he as the director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill could add to the answer the large pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline was looking for. The question at hand was how culture influences the illness experience, but more specifically how depression is influenced by culture in Japan. If the conference was a success, the company would be able to enter and expand into a market worth billions of dollars. The reason that the cultural aspect of depression was very important was because in countries like Japan, the American conception of depression was taken as a more serious illness, rivaling heights of diseases like schizophrenia. The company hoped that by somehow changing the Japan’s perception of the illness from being something social or moral to the American conception where expressing the illness to others is considered being strong person rather than being a weak one, that their drug Paxil would be able to sell to the market, which is where the scientific and economic aspects of depression come into effect. The scientific and economic aspects take place due to the intentions of the company to sell the drug, and the drug’s ability to help

Japan noticed that American citizens were very different than their own; no appointed social class meant that Americans had more spirits of freedom, independence, and self-reliance.6 In comparison to the Americans, those Japanese citizens who were in the upper classes received special treatments and at times were almost untouchable. In America, however, the president and the bourgeoisie could walk around with freedom and happiness, as there was no threat to them. Kume Kunitake notes that, “It is a place where those Europeans most endowed with the spirit of independence and self-government have gathered and are in control.”7 This free spirited attitude without the pressure from the elite showed the happiness and comfort of the citizens. This notion created a happy society within classes. Americans truly understood the notion that they were a self-made country and did not have a set of social beliefs that they were required to follow.

Thesis: Even though the Japanese Americans were able to adapt to their new environment, the

“…And we were Japanese with Japanese feelings and Japanese pride and Japanese thoughts because it was all right then to be Japanese and feel and think all things Japanese because one is not born in America and raised in America and taught in America and one does not speak and swear and drink and smoke and play and fight and see and hear in America among Americans in American streets and houses without becoming American and loving it” (16).

These two examples emphasize how Jeanne’s Japanese identity conflict with her American identity. When

Brave New World has been relevant to moral society ever since it was first published in 1932. From genetic engineering to class struggles, Brave New World examines a future where embryos are chemically treated to ensure they fit in a class, and then babies are hypnotized into believing governmental doctrines as pure truth. The use of Soma, a narcotic used as an instant anti-depressant, casts a worrying shadow on the chemical treatment of clinical depression to an extent. These are ideas that have been explored before, but as society shifts the importance and relevance of these key themes shift alongside it.

Human beings are greatly restricted by sociocultural background. In individuals’ lives, they consciously or unconsciously share sociocultural assumptions about normal behavior and alternatively are restricted to these assumptions, by following the disciplines of their culture, raising their social caste based on social norms, and behaving properly according to their social surroundings. These assumptions about normal behavior contain not only sociocultural expectations of proper behavior, but also sociocultural morality and the law. During individuals’ growth, they pick up these assumptions from family members, schools, peers, public media, or other sources as an important knowledge of their culture and life. However, these assumptions are not absolutely right and can change along with time as well as cultural transformation. Ethan Watters in his essay “The Mega-Marketing of Depression”, mentions his research of the Japanese and other Asian countries’ understanding and acceptance of depression. He wonders why these countries are different from the United States when facing the problem of depression. In “Son”, Andrew Solomon describes his growth as a gay and talks about parental influence on children’s self-acceptance of own identity. And Karen Armstrong in her essay “Homo Religious”, points out that religion in effect is a cultural way that human beings try to understand their life from a transcendent direction. Three authors in their context imply how sociocultural

Attitudes of psychotherapy differ from culture to culture. There are over 60,000 psychologists in Argentina (Stevens, Gielen, 2007). Therapy is widely accepted among the people in Argentina especially in amongst the middle class. Many feel this is due to the violent past of unrest in the country and search for identity (Tango and Analysis, 2008). On the other hand in Japan the Japanese people in general are not familiar or relate to the concepts of psychotherapy (Nippoda, 2002). The image of counseling in Japan is advice or answers to given to a particular problem and mental illness is treated by more of a medical model (Nippoda, 2002). The attitudes are quite different yet the goals of psychotherapy are similar. In Argentina the goals of psychotherapy seem to be a quest for identity and a sense of self. For the Japanese the result of psychotherapy is the sense of independence, discovering equality in relationships and finding authority within themselves (Nippoda, 2002). A sense of self seems to be the theme for both cultures yet those from Argentina may continue the process longer since finding meaning of life is a part of the culture.

On the opposing side of the society is the “sense offenders”, or the people who refuse to take the medication. In their culture, they believe that emotion is the reason for living. It is this belief that binds the “sense offenders” into a common culture. The Sense offenders also share material culture, or physical objects made by humans. The “sense offends” cherish and protect arts including music, literature, and paintings. These are key objects in their culture.

The Japanese are portrayed as faceless and conformist, their real feelings impenetrable to non-Japanese. This supposedly monolithic society is explained in terms of Japan 's militarist traditions, its consensus style of politics and a shared national anxiety over scarce resources. These are said to produce people committed to work unceasingly so that Japan can dominate the world economically, and perhaps militarily too. …

The culture of a place is an integral part of its society whether that place is a remote Indian village in Brazil or a highly industrialized city in Western Europe. The culture of Japan fascinates people in the United States because, at first glance, it seems so different. Everything that characterizes the United States--newness, racial heterogeneity, vast territory, informality, and an ethic of individualism-- is absent in Japan. There, one finds an ancient and homogeneous society, an ethic that emphasizes the importance of groups, and a tradition of formal behavior governing every aspect of daily living, from drinking tea to saying hello. On the surface at least, U.S. and Japanese

The Asian and American cultures’ take on health care can be compared and contrasted based on four main topics: the cause of the disease, methods of treatment, patient compliance, and dietary beliefs. Starting with the cause of the disease, many Asians believe that ailments are caused by unexplained supernatural