ASPECTS OF EGO-EXPERIENCE OF JAPANESE ADOLESCENCE IN THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY: AS SEEN IN SURVEYS FROM 1982 AND 2005

“Ego-experience” is a subjective experience, engraved in the memory, of the awakening of the ego, and was posited by German adolescent psychologists in the early 20th century. In this study, I report on survey results for 215 respondents to a 2005 questionnaire on ego-experience, one of two I administered to students of the same girls’ school, as well as a comparison over time for 622 respondents to a 1982 questionnaire. The results showed that there was no change in the percentage of girls who recall some ego-experience, and those who recall the age of initial experience as about 10. On the other hand, some remarkable changes were observed. Particularly, fewer respondents chose experience in the “ego-consciousness” category as core experiences, suggesting that the subjective world of contemporary adolescents is characterized by less internal confrontation and dialogue. Finally, this paper examines the necessity of taking these changes into account in psychotherapy.