I Could Be You, You Could Be Me: Embracing Our Shared Humanity with Koichi Togashi

2023-11-30

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Knowing others is a fundamental part of our human experience... But it is also an impossible task. And while empathy brings us closer to understanding this ‘otherness’, it still maintains a quality of difference –that those we empathize with are inherently distinct from ourselves. But perhaps there is a space within our minds where we can understand each other simply as we are, or once were, before we shaped our own journeys – as equals, as solely human. This place, where all humanity is shared, is what Koichi Togashi refers ...

But perhaps there is a space within our minds where we can understand each other simply as we are, or once were, before we shaped our own journeys – as equals, as solely human. This place, where all humanity is shared, is what Koichi Togashi refers to as 'The Psychoanalytic Zero'.

In this episode of The Art of Listening, Koichi recalls his journey into the field of Psychoanalysis. He tells us how he learned to balance Eastern and Western perspectives between Japan, his native country, and New York, his adopted city. Koichi also describes how his own quest for acceptance and understanding fueled his need to create his own theory. Together, we learn how the ‘Psychoanalytic Zero’ considers the complexities of division and difference while uncovering the underlying threads that bind us all together in the tapestry of the universe.

Chapters

1 - Finding balance between Eastern and Western practices (4:07)
2 - The relationship between trauma, empathy and the Psychoanalytic Zero (13:35)
3 - In practice: the Psychoanalytic Zero as a philosophy (18:30)
4 - Difference in practice and approaches to trauma in Japan (22:22)
5 - Makoto: the potential of letting go (28:25)

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