Translation of psychoanalytic texts is notoriously complex, amplified by differences between Western languages and cultures and those of China. Freud (1905) labelled the process of translation “traitorous.” A more recent challenge is the trend in some professional translation to diminish or even eliminate hierarchies of accurate and inaccurate translations (Park, Alter). Our paper argues for the importance of accurate translation to transmit psychoanalytic concepts in Mandarin Chinese. The English Standard Edition involved unfortunate choices to “Latinize” key Freudian terms; for example, Es, Ich and Überich were rendered as Id, Ego and Supergo, instead of their more experience-near common language equivalents in English, “it, I and over I.” Similarly, some recent translations of German and English psychoanalytic terms into Mandarin Chinese have also tended to perpetuate intellectualized distancing from Freud's original vivid words. Here, we focus on seven critical terms that embody core psychoanalytic concepts: “Ich/I, Es/it, Überich/superego, Transference (Übertragung), Countertransference (Gegenübertragung), Psyche/Soul (Psyche/Seele), psychoanalysis and (surprisingly) schizophrenia. We suggest that the currently popular oral-aural translations from English into Mandarin perpetuate this distancing and lead to mis-translations that obscure our foundational concepts. We propose alternative Mandarin translations for some of these terms and discuss the broader cultural challenges involved in transmitting the heart (and soul) of psychoanalysis to Chinese colleagues.