Hikikomori is those who lock themselves in their rooms and shut down any social contact and communication with outside world. Goodman et al describe the medicalization of hikikomori as “the (shifting) boundaries between socially accepted and deviant behaviour, supplying social commentators as well as other citizens with an explicit observe image of a wholesome, culturally appropriate kind of young person” (2012,132). Mrs Aoi also points out that until the beginning of 1980s, hikikomori was seen as a symptom of developmental disorder, depression, schizophrenia and dysautonomia. When I was working in high school, about 12 to 13 years ago, hikikomori was not socially recognized yet and most of parents believed that psychiatric treatment would be the …show more content…
Foucault writes “the doctor’s intervention is not made by virtue if a medical skill or power that he posses in himself and that would be justified by a body of objective knowledge. It is not as a scientist that homo medicus has authority in the asylum, but as wise man. If the medical profession is required, it is a juridical and moral guarantee, not in the name of science” (Foucault 1965, p.270). Freidson criticises social construction of illness and medical professionalism in which “how signs or symptoms get to be labeled or diagnosed as an illness in the first place” (1970, 212). Teo and Gaw argue that hikikomori may be a culture bound syndrome ,and also there should be further discussion whther hikikomori is catergorosed as a new psychiatric disorder according to DSM-IV’s criteria of social anxiety disorder and taijin-kyofusho (2010). As we discuss both taijin-kypfusho and hikikomori, there are controversial debates over how we should draw the line between abnormal and normal human behaviours. This argument can be applied to lunch-mate syndrome whether we should see anxiety and fear of university students as abnormal human