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Fang Duan: As someone from China who is now learning psychoanalysis in the US, I am very curious about your “reverse” journey. What brought you to China?
Arlene Richards: I always wanted to visit China. I am Jewish. Several of my good friends here in the US spent years of their childhood in Shanghai, China. During WWII some Jewish people fleeing the Holocaust ended up in Shanghai. They were welcomed and treated very well. The Chinese people shared food with Jewish refugees when they barely had enough for themselves. I am very grateful and I want to do something for the Chinese people as a way of giveback.
FD: The relationship, remote or not, started early. You have personal reasons to bring psychoanalysis to China.
AR: Yes, I do. I first visited China shortly after Nixon's visit in the late 1970s with a group organized by the American Psychoanalytic Association. To our surprise, when we visited the Shanghai No. 1 Mental Health Hospital, we saw quite an amazing system of care: they had “heart-to-heart” talk (individual therapy), family therapy, and in community therapy they even invited neighbors. They tried to understand every aspect of the patient's mental and emotional disturbance. And there were also many activities, including music, dance, and occupational therapy. Unfortunately, these services were available only to the very “valuable” few.
FD: Very sophisticated.
AR: Yes it is. Then in 2006, I received a phone call from Dr. Tong in Wuhan. She had read my work on female psychology and development. They had a big problem they thought I could help them with. Young women, only daughters of a class that had power in China, were dying by suicides. These women were expected to continue the family line. Also, because their parents had achieved so much, they were expected to excel and make their parents proud. Not everyone is equipped to accomplish that much. Besides, many of these only daughters did not grow up with their parents who had been busy working. Now as adults