FAQ

Q: What do you think of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) classifications?

A: DSM is a classification for diseases and disorders that is helpful for describing patients’ symptom presentations, for the disbursement of medication, and for insurance claim and reimbursement purposes. Today, this science based on a disease paradigm is outliving its usefulness–not because it is wrong, but because it is too narrow a worldview.

Mental maladjustment and suffering is serious and deserves care comparable to all other physical illnesses. However, the disease paradigm has its limitations and inhibits an advance in our understanding of how to build health both for those who are ‘sick’ and those in the general population. Most limiting, the disease model does not attempt to do what all natural sciences must: effectively explain, predict, and measure experiences that build health.

Natural science has already gone through such a paradigm shift over the last century, having been liberated from the Newtonian worldview that dominated science for 350 years. Relativity, quantum mechanics, and Bell’s theorem have provided the world with a far more inclusive and useful paradigm that has led to the rapid advancement of science.

After 150 years of domination by the ‘disease model’ psychiatry must undergo a similar transition. The Lifetrack model is one attempt to define a science of wellbeing. Naturally, all models must be continuously challenged, tested, refined or replaced (criteria for Health Models by Jahoda).  They are mere tools that are a means to accompany theexperience of well-being and a means to measure happiness.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

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DSM Classifications, Disease model, Mental Illness
Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Japanese psychiatrist discusses DSM classifications, the disease model, mental illness and the necessity to move to a model of happiness and health.

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Consultation

If you would like to contact Dr. Yukio Ishizuka for a consultation for Lifetrack therapy call 914.967.6210 (New York, USA time).

Download Ottawa Journal Article (3MG) for more information on LifeTrackTherapy (succinct for therapy, academics or the press).

Press Information

We will do our best to respond to individual inquiries.  We will group responses to general questions in FAQ.

Dr. Yukio Ishizuka has made numerous television appearances as a psychiatric expert on major networks such as NBC, NHK (Japan), Fuji-Television (Japan), TV Asahi (Japan), and Antenne 2 (France).  Newspaper and magazine articles featuring Dr. Ishizuka and his work with Lifetrack have been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, Psychiatric News, L’Express (France), Voice (Japan), and Nikkei Business (Japan).  His first book, Self-Actualization (Kodansha Tokyo, 1982), sold over 45,000 copies in Japan.  The book was reprinted nine times.

Dr. Ishizuka has presented models of individual and organizational health with diverse organizations including AT&T and IBM as well as many Japanese, American, and European elite CEOs.  He is the founder of Japan International Students Association, the recipient of the coveted Japanese Health Culture Award in 2007 by the Minister of Japanese Health at the Japanese Imperial Palace.

Interview or Article

If you would like to contact Dr. Yukio Ishizuka for an interview for Lifetrack Positive Mental Health call 914.967.6210 (New York, USA time).

Please Download Ottawa Journal Article (3MG) for more information on LifeTrack Therapy (succinct for therapy, academics or the press).

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Q: Do you really think you can define happiness or well-being and quantify it? Are you not attempting to quantify the unquantifiable?

A: Happiness means different things to different people.

Regardless of one’s definition, happiness and depression are not steady states, but can change from one moment to the next.  In other words, psychological experience is a quanta and is discontinuous. It occurs in spikes of thoughts, feeling and actions.

For this reason, the three spheres as defined by Self, Intimacy and Achievement (and the 41 parameters on the Lifetrack tracking sheet) is really just a snapshot of moments. Even with a simple 10 point scale tracking three psychological spheres, assessments may differ depending on when the person rates himself or herself. A rating may be different if the same person performs the exercise only a few minutes later (depending on what happened in the meantime) or what the person might have happened to think about when another self-assessment was being made.

Despite this fundamentally subjective and changeable nature of the self assessments (objective subjective), in the experience of Lifetrack therapy, repetitive self assessments according to the same fixed model yield highly valuable information.

To use an analogy, one can imagine that each individual rating is much like a droplet in our psychological experience. These droplets when viewed individually or in isolation may not tell us much.

However, when a patient uses the same model consistently over time, the droplets accumulate creating patterns, which take the shape of a fountain.

In this sense, one can think of one’s overall psychological state as a fountain, which keeps a certain shape, but consists of constantly changing and discontinuous droplets. While we may not objectively compare the level of happiness of one patient to another, we can compare the level of happiness in the same person at different points in time, particularly if such self assessments are performed frequently and regularly (daily for example). Although memory is short, one can reliably observe if one is happier or more depressed than the day before.

For more information on Quantifying the Unquantifiable see section under Approach: Happiness Defined? Quantified?

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

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Quantify Happiness, Objective Subjective
Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Japanese psychiatrist explores subjective happiness and shows us a means to quantify happiness.  The method shed’s light on objective subjective states.

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FAQ

Q: What do you think of medications such as Prozac?

Recent studies such as in the Journal of Public Library of Science Medicine suggest that Prozac, the bestselling antidepressant taken by 40 million people worldwide, does not work and nor do similar drugs in the same class. Patients that take it do improve – but those on placebo improved just as much as those on the drugs. Perhaps, the only exception is in the most severely depressed patients, but the authors claim that it is probably because the placebo stopped working so well, rather than the drugs having worked better.

Brain Chemistry Alone can not Explain Human Existence

Even if more effective and side-effect free medications in the future could suppress or even eliminate some stress symptoms such as depression, this does not present proof that the cause of the problem is chemical. Brain chemistry alone will never adequately explain the full human experience. Chemicals cannot replicate past individual experiences, nor can they help a person experience his or her full creativity, a successful close relationship or a meaningful existence.

Rather than becoming a Prozac nation, or indulging in drugs to dullen our sensations of pain, we need to build inner health.  Of course, when necessary, pain relief is humane and can be part of the process.  Regardless of whether we use medication or not,  the ultimate goal is not mere symptom relief, but happiness and health in all spheres of our life.

Medication is Symptom Relief

Rather than viewing stress as something that must be reduced or as an abnormality that can best be addressed by medication (some illnesses do require them such as psychosis, manic-depression, or perhaps severe depression). Yet most often medication is often purely symptom relief. In the process of treating these symptoms we need to view stress as a natural signal of an overwhelmed mind.

Stress as Opportunity for Growth

Dr. Ishizuka believes distressful setbacks are an integral part of a human being’s coping mechanisms. To indiscriminately use chemicals such as Prozac (or more effective medication given most antidepressants work as placebos) is to deprive the mind of its capacity to get distressed when it should. This may be detrimental to our optimal functioning and growth. Where there is nothing wrong with wanting to reduce pain in our lives (sometimes it is necessary and humane), to deal effectively with stress we have to recognize its nature and source. When we do so, we can learn to use stress as an opportunity to build health in the present: a stronger self, closer intimate relationships and meaningful achievement.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Depression, Prozac, Antidepressant
Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Japanese psychiatrist, discusses depression, prozac, antidepressants and the difference between symptom relief and health.

http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

Q: What are the similarities between Lifetrack and organismic or systems theory that views personality as an open system of interacting parts?

A: Organismic or systems theory, may be used to understand personality as a unity, and focuses on the integration of normal personality or health.  It does not analyze parts of personality in isolation, but in relation to the whole.

Lifetrack theory has much in common with organismic theory.  The lifetrack model of positive mental health as developed by Dr. Yukio Ishizuka proposes a comprehensive understanding of the individual both in distress and at his or her best.  The primary drive is towards self-actualization, and all parts of the tripod personality model (self, intimacy and achievement) interact with and influence each other dynamically.

Unlike strands of organismic theory, which often assumes a constant equilibrium among parts, the parts of personality in the Lifetrack model influence and are influenced by the environment. A sense of self is not created in a vacuum.  There is no assumption that human beings are good and are perverted by the environment. A balanced personality organization is not the natural state of the organism, nor is disorganization always a sign of pathology.

Crisis and disorganization can be painful but are sometimes necessary to help the individual challenge and change the way he or she thinks, feels, and acts in key areas of life. In this sense disequilibrium, however painful, can become an opportunity for fundamental change.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Organismic Theory, Personality Definition, Lifetrack therapy
Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Japanese psychiatrist, discusses organismic theory, personality definition, equilibrium and Lifetrack therapy.

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Q: How is your approach different from Henry A. Murray’s large list of more than 20 motives or needs?

A: Henry Murray is best known for developing the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) a test to determine personality and unconscious motivation.  He is also well known for his list of 27 psychogenic needs, a list of needs largely at the unconscious level.

According to Murray, we both have primary needs which are biologically based such as the need for water, food, air, sex and the avoidance of pain, and secondary needs that derive from biological needs or are part of human nature.   Of the long list of 27 psychogenic needs, the most often cited for their importance in research are: achievement, power (dominance), affiliation, and nuturance.

The Lifetrack tripod Model is More Succinct than Murray’s

Because the three-sphere model seeks to determine the essence of, rather than great detail about, human personality, it is more succinct than Murray’s 1938 lengthy list of more than 20 motives or needs.  Lifetrack groups all psychological needs in three primary spheres: self, intimacy and achievement.  These needs can be just as important as biological needs and are not placed in a hierarchy.  They are not in a natural state of disequilibrium; they can co-exist in all healthy and distressed individuals.

To compare with Murray, the achievement sphere incorporates the need for power or control over the environment.  Affiliation and nuturance fall into the intimacy sphere.   Notably absent in Murray’s list is the self sphere.

Interaction Amongst Psychological Needs Provides Insight

In the Lifetrack model, the intimacy sphere encompasses all forms of intimacy, but focuses in therapy on the adult couple relationship.  The couple relationship is seen as the most direct, inter-dependent and intense human adult relationship in three dimensions: emotional, intellectual-social, and physical sexual.  As such, its impact on the human psyche is important.  Intimacy in this definition goes far beyond geneal feelings of associations or friendships amongst people or nuturance.

According to Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, each of the three spheres interact amongst each other and can influence change in the other.  In Lifetrack therapy, the most important catalyst for deep transformational change has proven to be the intimacy sphere (see breakthrough intimacy), even if the source of the problem may be found in the self or achievement sphere.

The three spheres (self, intimacy and achievement) are helpful to patients and lay people precisely because they remain conceptually broad enough to encompass all critical psychological events, yet simple enough to be remembered. At the same time, the tripod model has been further broken down into three dimensions or nine elements for each sphere (love definition , self definition and work definition).  Each of the elements are tracked and measured over the process of therapy by the individual.

Personality:  Patterns of Thinking, Feeling and Acting in one’s Self, Intimacy and Achievement Spheres

While Murray differentiated real environmental forces and perceived, in his model it is the psychogenic needs that give rise to personality.  How the environment will ‘press’ or put pressure on individuals and force them to act defines our personality; ie. which of the 27 psychogenic needs are expressed most strongly.

In Lifetrack therapy, the emphasis is on the perceived or subjective interpretation of life events that contribute to happiness or distress.  It is not on the actual ‘objective’ event in our self, intimacy or achievement sphere that ultimately matters, but on the individual’s experience of that event (objective subjective).  Personality can be defined as patterns of thought, feeling and action amongst our three spheres.  Some extreme personality types may emerge when one sphere is consistently given precedence over the others.

The spheres provide a conceptual means to cluster essential elements of our personality. People can grasp the essence of three spheres, but need not remember more.  For those who wish to actively improve in the spheres, the Lifetrack model of positive mental health is broken down into 41 parameters that are defined and can be tracked daily.  The Lifetrack model provides a definition of positive mental health which takes into account the rigourous criteria set forth by Maria Jahoda.

Using a visual model of the three spheres one can illustrate how individual spheres and elements overlap and interact.  The definition of each element enables us also to quantify subjective areas of life that create fundamental change.  Over time, we can better understand and measure how spheres of psychological existence contribute to our happiness or distress.  Each element in the tripod model of health is a small lever that can help us control subjective experience that determines our experience of health and distress.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Henry Murray, 20 Motives or Needs, Human Psychology
Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Japanese psychiatrist discusses a human psychology of health Lifetrack therapy, Henry Murray, and 20 motives or needs.

http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

FAQ

Q: What is the difference between your therapeutic approach and that of behaviorists who emphasize personality change by focusing on changing actions?

A: Unlike Skinner, Watson, and other behaviorists who emphasize behavioral elements that bring about desired change, the Lifetrack approach developed by Dr. Yukio Ishizuka puts equal weight on cognition, emotion, and action.

Individuals, when rating themselves on the Lifetrack scale, are encouraged to consciously improve how they think, feel, and act about critical areas in their lives that contribute to psychological health, often overcoming their emotional resistance.

In Lifetrack, change occurs through changes in an individual’s thoughts, feelings and actions.  Focusing on cognition, affect or behavior alone can lead psychologists to grossly mis-interpret and reduce human beings to only one aspect.   When this is done to the extreme, supposed ‘remedies’ may often do more harm than good.

(Upper photo B. F. Skinner, photo on left of John Watson)

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Behaviorists, Skinner, Watson
Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Japanese psychiatrist discusses behaviorists, Skinner and Watson and how lifetrack therapy puts equal weight on cognition, emotion and action.

http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

Q: Are you a psychoanalyst? How does your approach differ from psychoanalysis?

A: The Lifetrack positive mental health approach differs significantly from psychoanalytic theory in that its focus is not on the diseased mind, but on the healthy mind.

Successful therapy is defined not as the absence of disease, but the presence of health and happiness.

Although my training in psychiatry taught me how to reduce or contain symptoms diagnosed as diseases or mental disorders, it had not helped me understand health to the same degree. “Successful psychological adjustment” was not better understood or practiced by traditional mental health experts than by ordinary people who have never heard of sophisticated psychological theories.

Departing from Freud Psychology to a Psychology of Health

If I was to be effective helping people, I knew I had to change the way I practiced therapy.

I stopped being a passive observer of patients divulging problem after problem.  Instead, speaking more than 70 percent of the time, I challenged what I was taught.

I actively tested and sought new insights on the mind.  To improve, revise and test concepts and their utility, I defined what I meant by self, intimacy and achievement, as well as a science of health, or a better understanding of wellbeing and symptoms of distress.

I used terms patients would use, and invented a simple means to measure or quantify well-being, distress or intimacy.

“And despite all that, I was surprised to find that people kick, scream, and yell all the way to well-being…”

It is only through persuasion, humor, perseverance, and a concerted effort that some individuals, according to their own Lifetrack self-rating, achieve and surpass a previous best level of adjustment or well-being.

The Lifetrack active approach to therapy differs both in substance and style to the classical psychoanalytic approach, which focuses on neurosis and bringing the unconscious to the fore through the method of free association.

The Lifetrack approach is human intensive (involving two-hour sessions).

During the first session, a case history is taken about their past and a key rapport formed. Patients are presented with an analysis of their problem.  I lay out the goal, method, and process of therapy; the expected course of therapy; and the required time and cost of therapy, which typically lasts from 3 to 6 months.  Emphasis in therapy is placed on changing the structure of one’s personality or mind through a process of breakthrough intimacy with someone who is already in the patient’s life — usually a spouse or equivalent important relationship.  Ideally, that person stays in the patient’s life long after therapy is terminated.

While for Freud sex was primordial in intimacy, for Dr. Yukio Ishizuka it is either 1/3 or 1/9 of the total experience of intimacy or closeness (see love definition).

Success is defined as surpassing a previous best by several times over.  The process of growth is focused and the graphs make feedback immediate, making therapy usually shorter than traditional approaches.

Visual models of Lifetrack concepts, as well as daily graphic tracking of patients’ subjective self-rating on parameters that build health accelerate the process of growth in their self, intimacy and achievement spheres.  The graphs, the therapist’s interpretation, and the patient’s life partner helps the individual overcome initial resistance and a fear of the unknown (greater happiness).

Freud insisted that health is love and work.  Dr. Ishizuka went further.  He defines and measures love (love definition), work (work definition) and  self  (self definition).  Through breakthrough intimacy, Dr. Ishizuka helps individuals make a fundamental breakthrough in their personality structure.

This personality change allows an individual to accommodate, balance and enjoy higher levels of self, intimacy and achievement.  Often, when health is built, the stress symptoms that lead individuals to seek help often disappear altogether or a reduced to only small and occasional occurrences.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Freud Psychology, Lifetrack Therapy, Current Psychology
A Japanese psychiatrist discusses Freud psychology, psychoanalysis and its differences with Lifetrack psychology, a psychology based on happiness and health.

http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com