The Chinese government declared this year “The Year of Harmony.” The government is very concerned about the mental health of the Chinese people given the enormous pace of change there. It is sending psychologists all over the world to learn “best practices,” many graduate schools of professional psychology have opened (e.g., two new schools with 4,000 students each in Xi'an), each middle school is mandated to have one psychiatric social worker for every 300 children, and all psychologists must be certified. (There are three levels of certification and very difficult examinations.) When Jiang Zemin, the president of China, recently visited Yale University, he said that democracy could not exist without a middle class and that they were trying very hard to create one. Is this emerging middle class one source of China's interest in psychoanalysis?
In 1929, Freud wrote to the ex-minister of education in China (Zhang Shizhao): “I am pleased by your intention, in whatever manner you care to carry it out, be it that you introduce psychoanalysis to your native country China.”
Elise Snyder first went to China in the early 1980s with her two daughters as tourists. Because they were such a small tour group, they were not assigned a “watcher” and were able to move about freely. Six years ago, she was invited to give two papers on psychoanalysis in Beijing: one at a conference at Beida University and the other to the Academy of the Social Sciences. She had learned of a group interested in psychoanalysis in Chengdu, a city of 11 million people in Sichuan province. There she gave several lectures, to audiences of more than 100 people.
Actually, some Chinese are already “psychoanalyzing” patients as a result of their training in China and they are dissatisfied with that training—the reason they want analyses and supervision with Americans.
In the ‘60s and ‘70s, especially among literary scholars, interest in psychoanalysis was intense. During the Cultural Revolution, most overt publication and interest ceased, but now both literary and clinical interest is on the rise. There are essentially no psychoanalysts in China. Qin Wei, a major player in the Chengdu psychoanalytic group, visited the United States five years ago with funds Snyder raised through the American Psychoanalytic Foundation. He lived with Snyder and her husband, gave lectures at psychoanalytic venues on the East Coast and attended the APsaA meetings. When Snyder visited China again, she and Qin Wei each presented papers on narcissism at a conference in Beijing. He is now in Paris engaged in a Lacanian analysis. Snyder went again to Chengdu where she lectured, did brief supervisions and consultations, and established relations with a group in Xi'an. Shortly thereafter, Ubaldo Leli, an analyst affiliated with Columbia, visited China and began to analyze someone in Chengdu. Leli has returned to China several times since.
Chengdu has two related psychoanalytic groups. Recently, the Administration Institute of Chengdu University received permission from the national government to offer a non-clinical master's degree in psychoanalytic studies. In addition, the Chengdu Psychoanalytic Centre, a non-official organization affiliated with the Sichuan Philosophy Association, offers clinical training. One person in China who has had a partial Lacanian analysis is teacher, supervisor, and analyst of many of those interested in psychoanalysis in Chengdu.
APsaA members interested in China and working with Chinese are incorporating as a non-profit through Yale University Law School's non-profit clinic. The group seeks to provide analysis and psychotherapy for Chinese patients (predominantly mental health professionals) and to help spread knowledge about psychoanalysis in China. Groups of Chinese mental health professionals in Beijing, Xi'an, and Chengdu are interested in formal training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The China America Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA) will approach various foundations for money to pay tuitions at psychoanalytic psychotherapy training programs, such as those offered by APsaA institutes and societies. Money raised by CAPA will also help Chinese colleagues buy equipment for virtual classrooms (for psychotherapy training programs) and books.
American analysts are now analyzing seven people in China via SKYPE. SKYPE is a free, encrypted Internet audio and video protocol (). It is secure (unlike e-mail) if passwords are protected. For computer users who have webcams, it also has video possibilities. After initial glitches, SKYPE has worked well for all participants.
Shoshana Shapiro Adler, Ph.D., is a board member and secretary of the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance; assistant clinical professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; a graduate in child and adult analysis of the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis and faculty member there.
Elise Snyder, M.D., is president of the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance, APsaA councilor-at-large; president-elect, American College of Psychoanalysts; visiting professor, Sichuan University; associate clinical professor, Yale University School of Medicine; a graduate of the Western New England Psychoanalytic Institute; and a member of the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine.
Leli is analyzing two people and Shoshana Adler, Anna Burton, Thomas Hoffman, Molly Rothenberg, and Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau one each. Two others are about to begin their analyses. The patients range in age from 32 to 54. All of the analyses are going well. Surprisingly, cultural differences have had little or no effect on the development of transference or on the course of these analyses. Americans are also doing psychotherapy with three people (three, one fluent in French, are awaiting assignment) and supervising eight Chinese colleagues. Average fees are $6 to $9 a session. Money usually cannot be taken out of China, but can be deposited in a Chinese bank and used on visits to China or donated to CAPA.
Snyder discussed possible malpractice issues with a New York University law professor, who consults with national and provincial governments in China. Malpractice is not a prominent phenomenon in China nor is psychoanalysis a recognized, licensed profession there. As a result, the members of CAPA are considered to be doing counseling rather than psychoanalysis or psychotherapy. This lawyer said issues of malpractice were “immaterial.”
The question arises: Would Chinese patients and supervisees use their experience with us to analyze others? Actually, some Chinese are already “psychoanalyzing” patients as a result of their training in China and they are dissatisfied with that training—the reason they want analyses and supervision with Americans. CAPA members are not offering psychoanalytic training. What our Chinese colleagues do with their work with Americans is their decision. CAPA members are offering analysis in the context of counseling.
Cultural aspects of treating Chinese patients include the effects of the trauma of the Cultural Revolution, the dynamics of shame and losing face, the role of traditional Chinese medicine, and the tendency for Westerners and Chinese to idealize each other. Simpler problems also exist, such as time differences, i.e., daylight savings time does not exist in China, and holidays are different. Several CAPA members are looking into the possibility of doing research on transcultural analysis.
Please consider taking a Chinese analysand or supervisee or recruiting someone who will.
This is a fascinating and valuable adventure. Contact Snyder at , or call her at 212-533-0310.