The following comments on Dr. Lifton's paper will not concern themselves with the validity of his observations about the imagery of historical change in contemporary Japan – I would hardly be competent for such a task. My concern will be exclusively with the conceptual premises of Dr. Lifton's study, and, by implication, with the method of his observations. If psychology is used to explain change, can it be done by means of such categories as those Dr. Lifton has chosen? They, in turn, must inevitably refer to the more basic relationship between individual motives and trans-individual social determinants; or to the distinction between concepts pertaining to psychological,
and to social systems. Thus, my comments would be much the same if Dr. Lifton had in a similar manner studied post-war changes in the Netherlands or in Italy.