Epilogue: Psychoanalysis in China

Greenish the sagebrush, midway on the hill, I see the man, cheerful with rites.

Greenish the sagebrush, midway on the isle, I see the man, my heart rejoiced.

Greenish the sagebrush, midway on the mound, I see the man, gifted hundreds of cowries.

Sailing the willow boat, floating and sinking by the wave, I see the man, my heart is at ease.

Having grown up in Chinese culture, I saw that becoming “the man” is the ultimate goal for individual development. To be the man, Junzi in Chinese, means to be a man with integrity, with a sense of duty and responsibility for self, family and society, a concept embedded in the Chinese psyche since Confucius first advanced the idea two thousand years ago. The term is applied across genders nowadays, but it has lost little of its power. We can discern the influence of this concept on many of the patients described in the chapters you have just read. Psychoanalysis offers a new way for modern Chinese people to pursue their journey of individuation. I look forward to the flourishing of psychological transformation in China and to related research papers exploring this project in the near future.

By Hawlan Ng, Psy.D.

After reading these papers, I am amazed at how psychoanalytic thinking has been adapted to Chinese culture, with its long-established cultural norms. I hope that psychoanalysis can provide a refuge for contemporary Chinese citizens that their ancestors did not have.

As an American of Chinese heritage, I also have some dread. For much of my life living in American culture, I saw Chinese culture as inferior to Western culture. Reading these articles through the lens of my younger self, I imagine that some non-Chinese observers may view Chinese culture as highly pathological and oppressive to the individual. As many American Chinese experience the broader Western culture as freeing, I also see that the way psychoanalysis may be viewed by many mainland Chi