How can we imagine someone's experience of illness—even extreme cases, like, for example, psychosis—to the extent that we begin to empathize as if the experience were nearly our own? Based on 5 years of archival research and anthropological fieldwork, I investigate how different forms of understanding and empathy have emerged through the work of people living with dementia (dementia tōjishas), some of who have advocated for the cause in Japan. I show how those with dementia used to be regarded as incommensurable beings, who were sometimes romanticized as having a transcendental power, and how those who care for them have changed their perspectives as they began to see dementia tōjisha as possible versions of their future selves. I also describe the rise of the tōjisha movement and the ways in which it has raised questions about the limits of empathy and instead asserted rights as a basis of understanding. In doing so, dementia tōjisha may be questioning the very foundation of Japanese society, highly invested as it is in the virtue of empathy for maintaining social relations.

中文翻译：

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同理心的局限：日本的痴呆症tōjisha运动

我们怎么能想象某人的疾病经历——即使是极端情况，例如精神病——我们开始同情，好像这种经历几乎是我们自己的？基于 5 年的档案研究和人类学实地考察，我调查了不同形式的理解和同理心是如何通过痴呆症患者 (dementia tojishas），其中一些人曾在日本倡导这项事业。我展示了那些患有痴呆症的人过去如何被视为无法衡量的人，他们有时被浪漫化为拥有超凡的力量，以及那些照顾他们的人如何改变他们的观点，因为他们开始将痴呆症tōjisha视为未来自我的可能版本。我还描述了 tojisha 运动的兴起，以及它如何提出关于同理心的局限性的问题，而是将权利作为理解的基础。这样做，痴呆症 tojisha 可能是在质疑日本社会的基础，因为它在维护社会关系方面具有同理心，因此投入了大量资金。