Abstract
Morita therapy is a psychotherapy established by Masatake Morita in the 1920s. The background of Morita’s development of the therapy is in his own real-life experience. Due to belated remittance from his father, anger toward and antipathy to his father grew in Morita before he was to take exams for moving up to the next grade in college, but he left such feelings as they were and concentrated on study, which resulted in good grades. Key concepts of Morita therapy, including law of emotion, psychic interaction, and conflict between ideal and real, grew out of such experience. “The first words” given to a sufferer in introducing Morita therapy are “What do you want to do if you do not have the symptom you wish to be cured?” The words prompt raising awareness of the existence of “desire to live fully.” Key concepts of Morita therapy are used to explain how the current suffering is generated and to show the direction Morita therapy, which is about to begin, is heading for.
