Letters from China

Psychoanalysis is a 19th century Viennese development of the Western mind. As it travelled to other countries and continents, it has been changed by the differing mentalities of place and time. Sometimes the changes were subtle, sometimes more radical. What can we expect now of the journey that psychoanalysis is beginning in China? China's philosophical and social systems are unlike those of the West, and unlike those of old China. We must expect that there will be change as it becomes a Chinese analysis, and in all likelihood that change will be more radical than the changes psychoanalytic theory and practice underwent in spreading from Austria and Europe to Great Britain and the Americas. China is a large and influential country and culture. We should expect that the Chinese experience of analysis is likely to change psychoanalysis itself.

In the four “Letters from China” that follow, we can see the beginnings of such a process. In this collection, two recently graduated analysts from the United States recount the experience of their first encounters with colleagues in China, and two young Chinese women, one a psychiatric resident, one a recent PhD in psychology, tell of their exposure to and growing interest in analysis. We can see the beginnings of reciprocal influence of our cultures in these reports that speak of mutual curiosity, interest, and respect. But there is also a quality of puzzlement mixed in with the wonder as they approach these new experiences. It is a privilege to read these personal stories of our colleagues from East and West as they grapple with understanding how analytic ideas and psychoanalytic treatment will work in China.

David Scharff

International Psychotherapy Institute, Washington, DC, USA

My Journey to the Orient

This would be my first voyage ever to the Orient so I wanted to make the most of it. As I imagined this unique opportunity, my mind transported me to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tian'anm