My first encounter with Naruto was disappointing. I remember people fighting while riding enormous animals: a toad, a slug, a snake. The anime did not grab my interested. My second encounter was much better: Teenagers fighting in a circular arena with a sparse grassy carpet on the ground. I was very impressed by the power of the blows exchanged, and the marks the young ninja left on the ground.
It is as from this moment that I started to take interest in the history of Naruto Uzumaki. I went from surprise to surprise. Not only did the anime and the manga remind me of my childhood superheroes but they put in picture elements of individual psychology: early trauma & their elaborations, trans-generational developments and group dynamics.
I also discovered that with some of my patients, Naruto could be used as a proxy. For example, on the hall leading from the waiting room to my office, a child makes the invocation jutsu of Gamabunta. I point out that to call such a powerful creature for an appointment shows apprehension in the situation. He denies it, but a bond between the therapist and the child is created. It will make it possible to speak about extraordinary abilities, prohibited and allowed invocations and the challenge in their study. Naruto will be used here as a proxy and will make it possible for the child to speak metaphorically about his own difficulties.
Another child will finally make his psychotherapy by drawing a cartoon inspired by the symbiot (Spiderman), then of Dragon Balls and then of Naruto Uzumaki about whom I will discover that he is an extraordinary expert. Nothing escapes him, neither Akatsuki's rings, fox the demon's number of tails, nor Shikamaru's complex techniques. It is with the latter that it is identified: He lives in a world where, he thinks, any problem can be solved thanks to the power of pure thinking.
Some children cannot make use of the metaphor. They are more interested in Naruto's extraordinary abilities. The manga, full of such powers. Control of the elements, invocation of creatures, shape shifts, controls of the body or mind of others… It seems that no fantasy no anguish is spared by the author's imagination.
We obviously all have our favorite character. And obviously, this choice is deeply related to subconscious positions. The type powers, shape, its effects on others and self and the offensive or defensive nature of the character, all speak to each of the imaginary and subconscious bond which connect us to others and to ourselves
All of Naruto seems to be an extraordinary tool to tell the ways of subjectivation in their successes as in their failures.
It is an invitation which seems to be made for a psychoanalyst.
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