A Woman with Demons: The Life of Kamiya Mieko

Kamiya Mieko, the Japanese writer, psychiatrist, professor, and mystic, was a far more complex and intriguing figure than her popular image as a philanthropic doctor for leprosy patients suggests. A Woman with Demons corrects the myths about Kamiya's life through a close reading of her major work, What Makes Our Life Worth Living (1966), her other publications and her unpublished writings in four languages. In the first biography of Kamiya in English, Yuzo Ota focuses on her journey of self-discovery and her struggle to recover from the loss of a sense of meaning in life caused by the death of her first love. Ota explores how this traumatic event led to her identification with leprosy patients and created her desire to work for them.