Rashomon Revisited: A Re-analysis of the Film and Implications for Mass Psychology

ABSTRACT

The author notes that the title of the film has been used to identify a social-psychological concept that has been widely applied in the literature. The author gives a synopsis of the film. In order to debunk the standard interpretation of the film and provide a new one, the author places the making of the film in an historical context. This requires an explication of the absorption of the samurai into modernized Japan and the country’s history before, during, and immediately after World War II. The perception of the Emperor as a deity and his de-deification are central to understanding the culture and the problem of managing aggression in that society. The social structure of the society can be described as massification. The effects of these sociocultural issues on psychotherapy in Japan are discussed along with the implications for group psychotherapy.

Notes

¹ This idea was presaged in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion from 1898–1901 that aimed to eliminate foreign, largely Western, spheres of influence and encroaching Christianity in China.

² In the film Rashomon, the Woodcutter is a skilled person who is of a higher class than the Commoner.

³ Miyamoto (1994) observed, when discussing the Japanese bureaucracy in the late 20^th century, that attitudes of extreme politeness, social reserve, and being quiet, staid, and serious conceal other aspects of the human experience associated with stress and conflict. In contrast, Japanese men, in particular when away from their usual social milieu and especially in a foreign country, are prone to exhibit unbridled behavior.

⁴ Consider this in terms of imperial worship which will be discussed shortly.

⁵ The Potsdam Conference was held in July 1945 in a small town outside Berlin. It was attended by the big three powers, the United States represented by President Harry Truman, Great Britain represented by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the Soviet Union represented by Generalissimo Joseph Stalin. It called for the unconditional surrender by Japan but with preservation of the Imperial Monarchy.

⁶ From cables intercepted between Tokyo and Moscow in which Japan asked Moscow to intercede, giving it more favorable terms.

⁷ That is what Volkan (2001) had described in his seminal paper on the transmission of chosen societal traumas.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Howard D. Kibel

Howard D. Kibel is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, and an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, White Plains, New York.