作者 ｜
巫毓荃(天主教耕莘醫院新店總院精神科醫師)
摘要 ｜
本文試圖探討日治晚期臺灣殖民精神醫學對於男性心氣症的論述，特別是在台日人與本島男性之間的對比。當時以中脩三為首的臺灣精神科醫生，認為在台日人的心氣症導因於思念日本文化的鄉愁，以及對於陌生人文自然環境的恐懼。他們以此反駁日本內地對於殖民地生活可能導致日本民族精神與體質退化的質疑，認為這些身心症狀其實反映出在台日人並未忘卻自己的國家民族認同，並且保有追求完美的民族性格。相對地，本島人的心氣症則被指出有更多的性功能障礙症狀，例如夢遺、早洩與陽痿。精神科醫生認為這些「性症候群」反映出本島男性對性的念慮與執著，以及本島文化對於個人或家族後裔昌盛的重視，這樣只知追求一己或家族之私的性格，使其心氣症多少帶有「女性的」或「歇斯底里」的性質。
無論是思鄉病或是性症候群，在台日人與本島人的心氣症，同樣需要接受治療。以殖民事業的總技師自許，中脩三等精神科醫生以森田療法為基礎所提出的治療，除了緩解個人的痛苦之外，同時也呼應著帝國政策的需求。一方面，他們希望將殖民地日人打造為無所畏懼、隨遇而安的南進前鋒；另一方面，對於只關注一己之私的本島男性，他們則希望能使其更有國家意識，以成為可以安定後方或隨時上戰場效力的本島皇民。
最後，除了精神醫學的論述與實作之外，本文還將嘗試從另一個角度詮釋這些殖民時期不同民族男性所感受到的身心痛苦。無論在台日人或本島人，作為緊密結合的政治權力與精神醫學權力的對象，他們的疾病並不只是權力的建構，同時也反映出個人在時代脈絡中的心理痛苦。
關鍵字 ｜
心氣症、熱帶神經衰弱、歇斯底里、中脩三、森田正馬、殖民精神醫學
Title ｜
Nostalgia and “Sexual Syndrome”: Hypochondriasis and Masculinity in Late Colonial Taiwan
Author ｜
Yu-Chuan Wu(Department of Psychiatry Cardinal Tien Hospital)
Abstract ｜
This paper examines racially discriminative psychiatric discourses on male hypochondriasis in late colonial Taiwan. The Japanese colonizers’ hypochondriasis, also known as tropical neurasthenia, was attributed by a team of mostly Japanese psychiatrists led by Naka Syuzo, to the colonizers’ nostalgic longing for their homeland’s culture and their fear of the tropical climate. This theory repudiated the then prevailing viewpoint of metropolitan psychiatric circles that considered neurasthenia to be a sign of degeneration, which partly resulted in the public’s opposition to the Japanese colonization of southern Asia.
The Japanese psychiatrists argued that colonizers retained their original national characteristics as attested by their neurasthenia. On the contrary, highlighting the disproportionately high incidences of sexual symptoms in Taiwanese hypochondriasis, such as nocturnal emission, premature ejaculation, and impotence, the Japanese utilized this theory as an evidence of sexually oriented mentality and egocentric character of the Taiwanese. While characterizing the Japanese hypochondriasis as “Orientally masculine,” they labeled the same disease suffered by the Taiwanese as hysterical and feminine.
In the eyes of the Japanese empire, both nostalgia and sexual syndromes became obstacles in its expansion, and as such, had to be treated. Elevating themselves to the roles of the colonial enterprise’s head technicians, psychiatrists in Taiwan proposed the Morita’s therapy, a form of psychotherapy, as a method of cultivating colonial subjects. On the one hand, they hoped to transform the anxious and hypersensitive Japanese colonizers into the bold and confident pioneers of imperial southern adventure, and on the other hand, they hoped to mold the selfish and egocentric Taiwanese into loyal subjects of the Japanese emperor.
However, both nostalgia and sexual syndrome were disorders brought about by colonization. Subjected to colonialism, both the colonizers and colonized suffered from serious psychic pain, as evident in their mental illness. Beyond the scope of psychiatric discourses, hypochondriasis therefore needs to be interpreted in the historical and political context of colonialism.
Keywords ｜
hypochondriasis, tropical neurasthenia, hysteria, Naka Syuzo, Morita Shoma, colonial psychiatry