I am a psychiatrist and the other day I encountered a case which sent a chill down my spine. Sometime ago a new family moved in my neighbourhood: a couple in their sixties and their son, who was about 30 years-old. The son was a so-called hikikomori(*) and was seldom seen outside his home. Naturally I couldn't ask the family directly but it was obvious that they had moved to the new place to escape from the social stigma.
Days had passed and the son went out less and less until he would not leave the house at all. He was now a complete hikikomori. Every night the mother was heard screaming at him in his bedroom. When I sometimes chanced to meet the mother she greeted me with a smile but she always looked pale and haggard.
A half year had passed since I last caught a glimpse of the son when his father came to me and said, "could I ask you to visit us tomorrow?" I had never been involved with them personally or as a doctor but since we were neighbours and neighbours were supposed to help each other, I agreed to come.
The next day when I visited them both father and mother welcomed me at the door. "Please, come this way," the mother said as she led the way to her son's room. When we came to the front of the room the mother suddenly shouted, "I'm going to open the door!" As soon as she burst in she shrieked, "why are you still sleeping? Get up!" She tore the duvet off the bed. I saw what was lying there and was struck dumb with disbelief. There was only one faceless, unclothed mannequin lying on the bed. Then the father told me, "the person I want you to see is my wife, who can not bear to accept the reality."
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Note:
*hikikomori - lit. "pulling away, being confined", i.e. "acute social withdrawal") is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive individuals who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement due to various personal and social factors in their lives. (Wikipedia)
Days had passed and the son went out less and less until he would not leave the house at all. He was now a complete hikikomori. Every night the mother was heard screaming at him in his bedroom. When I sometimes chanced to meet the mother she greeted me with a smile but she always looked pale and haggard.
A half year had passed since I last caught a glimpse of the son when his father came to me and said, "could I ask you to visit us tomorrow?" I had never been involved with them personally or as a doctor but since we were neighbours and neighbours were supposed to help each other, I agreed to come.
The next day when I visited them both father and mother welcomed me at the door. "Please, come this way," the mother said as she led the way to her son's room. When we came to the front of the room the mother suddenly shouted, "I'm going to open the door!" As soon as she burst in she shrieked, "why are you still sleeping? Get up!" She tore the duvet off the bed. I saw what was lying there and was struck dumb with disbelief. There was only one faceless, unclothed mannequin lying on the bed. Then the father told me, "the person I want you to see is my wife, who can not bear to accept the reality."
-------------------------------------------
Note:
*hikikomori - lit. "pulling away, being confined", i.e. "acute social withdrawal") is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive individuals who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement due to various personal and social factors in their lives. (Wikipedia)
Comments
I was expecting a rotting corpse. Nice twist."
yeah me too
I was expecting the hikikomori to acting like a psychopath.
I hope you are still checking comments Saya! Me and my friends in Australia love reading your blog posts!
The doctor said he saw the son moving in with the parents. He also said that the son comes out of the house less and finally becomes a complete hikikimori. So there could have been an actual living son...
Hikikimori. Maybe the mom was strict and did not allow him to go out, or maybe the mother was hurting him during childhood and even until adulthood so the son became socially withdrawn..
At this point i'm not sure if the son died maybe because of his mother's beatings, or he resorted to suicide because he can't handle the beatings anymore and then the parents may have hidden their son's death from the public... Or the son probably ran away, or moved out of the house, or got married and the mother could not handle this that's why he replaced his son with a doll.