Japanese

Graduate School Faculty of Arts and Letters Tohoku University

Profiles

Associate Professor OHMURA Tetsuo

Affiliations :

The truth in the irrational

It is impossible to follow the voice of reason throughout your entire life.
Here and there people try to achieve peace of heart by clinging to the irrational. Some pray to gods when in trouble or on the eve of some great event, in other words, turn to religion. But “lucky” clothes put on for important occasions, personal rituals athletes do before a match, jinxes and other superstitions all belong to the same category. There is no guarantee whatsoever that a prayer will change objective reality, or that an offering to the gods will bring proportional profit. Then why do so many people turn to these practices?
It is fascinating that humans strive for the rational, on the one hand, and yet persist in believing in the irrational, on the other hand. It occurs to me that in this irrational behavior hides some profound truth about our psyche. This is the reason humans are so interesting.
Within my research, I first and foremost try to see the human through the prism of such ostensibly irrational behavior. Additionally, I am involved with rinshoshukyoshi training. How does “unscientific” care heal people? How does “religion” work? I find these questions really compelling and thought-provoking.

  • Research, History
  • Books, papers, etc.
  • Courses
    Science of Religions; Thanatology; Applied Thanatology
    Degree
    Ph.D. (Literature)
    Research Subject
    Religion and acceptance of one’s own and others’ mortality;
    Rinshoshukyoshi training;
    Religious culture of Guatemala
    Keywords
    Death acceptance; rinshoshukyoshi (spiritual care worker); child mortality; Guatemalan religious culture
    Affiliation
    Japanese Association for Religious Studies; The Association of Japanese Clinical Psychology; The Association for Indology and Study of Religion; Japan Socio-Gerontological Society; The Japan Association of Sandplay Therapy; Japanese Psychological Academy for Human Care; Japan Society for Spiritual Care; The Folklore Society of Japan; etc.
    Database of Researchers Information
    http://db.tohoku.ac.jp/whois/detail/e32bae067ade6909de810e42bdacd29f.html
  • Books
    『精神対話論』、慶應義塾大学出版会、2013（joint authorship）
    『心理臨床とセラピストの人生　関わり合いの中の事例研究』、創元社、2015（co-editor）
    『宗教を心理学する』、誠信書房、2016（joint authorship）
    Academic Papers
    「生者と死者をつなぐ〈絆〉－死者ヴィジョンの意味するもの」、『論集』39、2012、148-135
    「死者が卒業するということ－東日本大震災における慰霊と癒し－」、『文化』77．1・2、2013、52-32
    「心のケア・ワーカーとしての宗教者「臨床宗教師」とは何か－臨床心理士との比較から」、『東北宗教学』10、2014、1-17
    "Psychological Practices and Religiosity (Shukyosei) of People in Communities Affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami," in Pastoral Psychology ( 65 )、2016、 1-15, DOI （with Chizuko Saito, Hiroshi Higuchi, and Shizuka Sato）
    News
    『秘密の県民ショウ』、読売テレビ、2016
    『OH！バンデス』、みやぎテレビ、2016
    Publications in『河北新報』、2016;『朝日新聞』、2015、2010

Research

Japanese