The Joy of Collaboration, Confidence for Patients

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition – November 14, 1998

In psychiatric hospitals, time flows quietly, detached from the hustle and bustle of the outside world. While culture in the city is being dismantled, annual events such as Christmas parties, rice cake pounding, kite flying, the Doll Festival, cherry blossom viewing, the Star Festival, sports days, autumn foliage excursions, and birthday parties are held. Many patients enjoy haiku, tea ceremony, and calligraphy.

There are 360,000 psychiatric hospital beds in Japan. About 60% are occupied by people with mental illnesses. More than twice that number receive outpatient treatment, spending time at day-care centers or workshops. Unlike depression, which has reportedly increased sixfold over the past 30 years, the incidence rate of mental illness remains stable at around 0.85%.

People with mental illness are sensitive and easily hurt. They are honest, reserved, and particularly vulnerable to stress.

There is a delightful Australian film called Cosi (1996). A young man, having dropped out of university saying he wants more life experience, begins teaching drama at a psychiatric hospital. The performance they prepare is Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte.

The patients are overflowing with individuality, making it hard to manage them as a group. Eventually, the young man is taught by the patients about the strangeness of the world he himself comes from. Frustrated and on the verge of giving up, he finds that the patients, untouched by worldly cynicism, have come to trust his sincerity. This keeps him going. As the production comes together, discord gives way to harmony.

Through the joy of creating something together and the recognition of their own actions, the patients regain confidence, spontaneity, and initiative. Cosi depicts a new chapter in which volunteers participate in the efforts of psychiatric hospitals to help patients reintegrate into society as soon as possible. After the credits, there is a bonus scene. I won’t spoil it, but it seems to say, “Wagner’s rousing music just doesn’t suit psychiatric hospitals.” I found it to be a film by a director who truly understands the subject.