What does "empathy" mean in psychiatry? Based on studies in medical anthropology, I first examine how different forms of empathy have been shaped in biological, psychotherapeutic and psychopathological traditions. Secondly, I illuminate the ways in which mental illness can be understood as an "interactive kind," where a clinician's gaze can have significant impact on the experience of a person with the illness as well as the phenomenon of the illness itself. Thirdly, I discuss changes brought about both by Japanese doctors' attempts to remedy the stigma of schizophrenia and the "neuroscientific turn" that has given rise to new ways of talking about the brain. Further discussing the rise of tojisha perspectives, I consider different directions that psychiatric forms of empathy may take in the future.
 Author's abstract