Life behind Walls: A Mixed-Methods Research on Italian Hikikomori

The aim of the following contribution is to analyze the phenomenon of Hikikomori in Italy. First identified and described in 1998 by Tamaki Saito, the Hikikomori syndrome occurs in the dual condition of prolonged isolation for more than six months and lack of other psychopathologies associated with the person (Li, Wong, 2015). Currently, there is still no unambiguous diagnosis to identify this disorder (Kato et al., 2011), the DSM classified Hikikomori as a “cultural syndrome” in 2018, related exclusively to the Japanese context. During the years, there has been some research in other countries such as Belgium (Vanhalst et al., 2015), Spain (Malagon-Amor et al., 2011) and Italy (Pierdominici, 2009) that have shown that the phenomenon is not unique to Japan. Moreover, these studies showed how the Hikikomori phenomenon has different and distinguishing features in the Western culture. Starting from this consideration, our main research question aims at exploring and describing the Hikikomori disorder in the Italian context, specifically in a southern region, aby applying a Mixed Method approach (Campbell, Fiske, 1959) in order to integrate different perspectives within the same research path. The methods used are the Focus Group (Merton, Kendall, 1946) and the Delphi Survey (Linstone, Turoff, 1975). Results highlights how crucial the role of school and family is in the personal growth of today‟s adolescents and traces the Hikikomori phenomenon to what Ian Hacking (2000) called temporary psychopathologies.