Fox, Satoyama, and Mental Illness: Toward an Animistic Ecology

Mahoro Murasawa

Although demonic possession, as known from the film The Exorcist, seems to have disappeared from Western societies for a few decades or even centuries, possession does persist in them. In psychiatry, possession is referred to as a “culture-bound syndrome,” a mental illness closely linked to the local culture. However, in many local cultures, possession is often seen as an event that occurs when a nature god or spirit delivers someone a message, the possessed person playing an important role in the corresponding society. Fox possession, observable in Japan since ancient times, is one such phenomenon.

The foxʼs habitat is the area between the mountains and the villages. For this reason, the fox has been regarded as a messenger of the mountain god. Furthermore, as the natural environment of the mountains provides people with a source of livelihood, the fox has also been equated with the “god of food” (Inari). Fox possession was a phenomenon that mainly occurred when most Japanese people lived a self-sustainable economy in villages rather than in cities. When villagers neglected mountain management, over-cut forest trees or over-exploited rivers, the mountain god, outraged by this, would send his sub-deity, the fox, to possess the villagers and deliver warnings. When the villagers perform a ritual to express the mountain god their regret, the possession ends, and the possessed person is respected by the villagers as an important link between the god and the people ‒ this is how traditional fox possession works.

Behind this phenomenon lies the natural environment known as satoyama, which was the basis of rural livelihood and the animist culture that supported it. The is not a wild natural environment that is independent on humans (primary nature), but a natural environment that people have modified and managed to make it convenient for their lives since long ago (secondary nature). It is a natural environment that has co-evolved with humans and at the same time is an interface or buffer zone between humans and (primary) nature. People care for the mountain because they cannot survive without it. On the other hand, the mountain also cannot survive without the people’s care. Fox possession is a spiritual phenomenon that arises from such communication between humans and nature.

However, from the 1960s onwards, as Japan’s mountain villages modernised, fox possession rapidly declined and almost became extinct. With the spread of piped water, gas and electricity and people’s access to daily necessities through supermarkets and mail order, the mountains became a mere landscape. The satoyama thus became the stage for the development of dams, housing and golf courses.

Consequently, the satoyama nowadays is the cause of various environmental problems such as landslides, pollen allergy and water pollution. Hence, with the disappearance of fox possession and the development of the satoyama, the community collapsed and was replaced by crime (robbery and murder) and modern urban mental illness.

In brief, what lies at the root of mental illness and environmental and social problems is the shrinking or disappearance of the ties that connects humans and nature. The recent Covid and avian influenza are typical examples thereof. What are those ties and how can they be regained? From another perspective, how are the mental, social and natural ecologies tied together and how can they be restored?

In this presentation, I will present my thoughts on the above issues with reference to the early modern philosophy, in particular to the idea of mind-body parallelism (Spinoza, Leibniz) and of several philosophers that have variously built on it (Bergson, Guattari, Latour, etc.).

Facilitator, Mahoro Murasawa: I am professor of sociology at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan, vice-director therein of the Research Centre of Satoyama (Socio-Environmental) Studies, and researcher in psychotherapy, sociology and environmental philosophy. After studying Lacanian psychoanalysis, I carried on fieldwork on traditional possession phenomena and gradually moved on to the study of Félix Guattariʼs thought. In parallel, I studied the ideas of the 19th-century French sociologists, especially that of Gabriel Tarde, and in the process introduced the writings of another Tarde scholar, Maurizio Lazzarato, to Japan. In the 2000s, I criticised the neoliberal reforms that were in full swing in Japan at the time and conducted research on the political consciousness of the supporters of populist parties, especially in Osaka. Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, I have been working on environmental issues and have applied Guattariʼs theories to environmental conservation practice. Among my recent books: Félix Guattari and the Contemporary World, To Have Done with the Judgement of City: Spirit, Society and Nature in the age of “Anthropocene”, Satoyama studies: Socio-Ecological Considerations on Cultural Nature. Among my recent papers: “Guattariʼs Constructivism and the Theatre Machine of Revolution”, in Félix Guattari and the Ancients: Theatrical Dialogues in Early Philosophy, and “The Contemporary Ecological Crisis and the Philosophy of Bruno Latour,” in Gendai-shiso.