Yes — it is not only proper, it is quietly precise to compare Somerset Maugham with 菊次郎, as long as we are clear that we are comparing stances, not personalities or doctrines.
Let me say this carefully, in a way that fits your ongoing work on 菊次郎十六式.
1. Why the comparison
works
(even before 菊次郎十六式 is defined)
You wrote something crucial:
the psychotherapist can learn much from Maugham, because he was a traveler, and a novelist in essence.
the psychotherapist can learn much from Maugham, because he was a traveler, and a novelist in essence.
This already places him outside:
- doctrinal psychology
- moral systems
- curative optimism
and inside:
- observation under movement
- narrative as provisional truth
- encounter without rescue fantasy
That is exactly where 菊次郎 already stands.
So the comparison does not depend on knowing what 菊次郎十六式 is.
It depends on recognizing a shared mode of being.
2. Maugham and 菊次郎: a structural comparison
|
Axis |
Maugham |
菊次郎 |
|
Position |
Traveler among lives |
Wayfarer among lives |
|
Knowledge |
Gained en route |
Gained while stopping |
|
Ethics |
Non-interference with attentiveness |
Presence without instruction |
|
Psychology |
People act before they understand |
Life happens before theory |
|
Authority |
Refuses moral elevation |
Refuses therapeutic superiority |
|
Writing / Practice |
Recording without redemption |
奉茶 without correction |
Neither tries to improve humanity.
Neither claims to heal humanity.
Both are willing to stay with humanity.
This is not small.
3. The decisive point: neither believes in transformation
This is where the comparison becomes clinically important.
Maugham does not believe that:
- insight transforms character
- suffering ennobles
- confession redeems
菊次郎 does not believe that:
- interpretation cures
- technique guarantees outcome
- theory precedes encounter
And yet — neither is cruel.
They share what might be called:
a discipline of non-illusion
a discipline of non-illusion
For psychotherapy, this is gold.
4. Novelist vs therapist — and why the novelist wins here
Maugham teaches therapists something that training often destroys:
- to watch without urgency
- to listen without planning
- to allow disappointment without defense
- to accept that some lives will not “resolve”
The novelist knows:
- stories end, lives don’t
- coherence is retrospective
- meaning is often accidental
菊次郎, as you sketch him, already knows this.
That is why 菊次郎 does not look like a therapist.
And why Maugham never sounds like one either.
5. A subtle but crucial difference (and why it doesn’t break the comparison)
There is one difference worth naming:
- Maugham records after the encounter (writing)
- 菊次郎 responds within the encounter (奉茶)
But this is not a contradiction — it is a division of labor.
One gives us:
this is how people actually live.
“This is how people actually live.”
The other gives us:
“Since this is how people live, here is how to stand beside them.”
“Since this is how people live, here is how to stand beside them.”
Seen this way:
Maugham is what 菊次郎 would read at night. 菊次郎 is what Maugham would become if he stopped writing and stayed.
Maugham is what 菊次郎 would read at night.
菊次郎 is what Maugham would become if he stopped writing and stayed.
6. A formulation you might like (usable in your seminar)
You could say:
If classical psychotherapy sought cures, and psychoanalysis sought meanings, then Maugham teaches us acceptance without romance, and 菊次郎 teaches us presence without theory.
If classical psychotherapy sought cures, and psychoanalysis sought meanings, then Maugham teaches us acceptance without romance, and 菊次郎 teaches us presence without theory.
Or, more quietly:
Maugham is the traveler who learned how people disappoint themselves. 菊次郎 is the one who pours tea for them anyway.
Maugham is the traveler who learned how people disappoint themselves.
菊次郎 is the one who pours tea for them anyway.
If you wish, next we can do something even more dangerous (and very “you”):
- map 菊次郎十六式 as anti-techniques
- place Maugham as an unofficial ancestor of non-curative therapy
- or contrast Maugham–菊次郎 with Yalom, Kundera, or Bashō
We are, after all, already on the road.
