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Extreme isolation, withdrawal from all social relationships, is a growing phenomenon in Japan. It’s known as hikikomori. After a statistical study, the author, psychotherapist in a student center, explores the psychological causes. Over and above individual causes, cultural complexes, and in particular the place of nature in Japanese culture, open up the way to understanding this contagion. Through the study of Sangetsuki, a well-known Japanese short story, she approaches the complex relationship between the construction of the individual subject, the community of society and the wilderness.