Psychoanalysis took root in many countries around the world in the twentieth century, but China has special significance. It was, of course, the largest country from which analysis was completely excluded, from 1949 until the Chinese opening up began in the 1980s. It was not only the banning of psychoanalytic thought that marked China in this period. There was also an absence of an effective mental health system during times of great need in China because of war, famine, industrial collapse, enormous population growth, and changes in social structure. This was followed with further changes in family structure through the one-child policy, new policies of entrepreneurship, economic growth, urbanisation, and increasing exposure to the West.
This journal is conceived as a meeting place of cultures, as a place in which the issues of this important world encounter can be documented and examined. It is intended to be an intercultural journal in which theory and clinical experience can be presented and discussed. At a practical level, the editorial board is composed equally of eminent Chinese and Western colleagues who share an interest in the introduction and development of psychoanalysis in China. It contains articles from both Chinese and Western contributors, with discussion of ideas, and is a must-read for those with an interest in the development of psychoanalytic therapy in China.
Includes contributions from David E. Scharff, Sverre Varvin, Mette Halskov Hansen, Cuiming Pang, Antje Haag, Tomas Plänkers, Hsuan-Ying Huang, Lin Tao, Li Ming, José Saporta, Elise Snyder, Alf Gerlach, Bent Rosenbaum, Yang Yunping, Zhong Jie, Shi Qijia, Wang Zhiyan, Anders Zachrisson, Irmgard Dettbarn, Rainer Rehberger, Alf Gerlach, Xu Yong, Qiu Jianyin, Chen Jue, Xiao Zeping, Ralph E. Fishkin and Lana P. Fishkin, Li Yawen, Siri Erika Gullestad, Gao Jun, Qi Wei, Liu Yiling, Caroline Sehon, Jill Savege Scharff, Shi Qijia, Janine Wanlass, and Hui-Wen Teng.
David E. Scharff, MD, editor-in-chief, Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in China; co-founder, former Director, and Chair of the Board, The International Psychotherapy Institute; Chair, the International Psychoanalytical Association’s Committee on Family and Couple Psychoanalysis; Director, Continuous Training Program in Couple and Family Psychoanalytic Therapy, Beijing; author and editor of more than 30 books, including Psychoanalysis in China (with Sverre Varvin); Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy (with Jill Scharff); Enrique Pichon-Riviere: Pioneer of the Link (with Roberto Losso and Lea Setton); and Family and Couple Psychoanalysis: A Global Perspective (with Elizabeth Palacios).
Sverre Varvin, MD, DPhil. Training and supervising analyst, Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society. Professor, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (OAUC), Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, University of Oslo. Research areas: trauma and treatment of traumatised patients, treatment process, traumatic dreams, and psychoanalytic training. Chair, IPA China Committee. Has worked for more than twelve years in China with psychotherapy and psychoanalytic training programmes.
Christopher Bollas, author of ‘China on the Mind’ and ‘Catch Them Before They Fall: The Psychoanalysis of Breakdown’ –
‘It is a challenge to describe how remarkable this book is. In the first place it provides a near comprehensive and inclusive review of psychoanalysis in contemporary China. Although many authors focus on particular issues, the sum of individual interests comprises a fascinating collective voice that reflects modern China. Unlike so many works by oriental and occidental writers interested in psychoanalysis, this new work does not promote an occidental agenda. The editors are to be congratulated for their remarkable skill in facilitating chapters that integrate oriental and occidental thinking. In that respect, this is a book that should become required reading for psychoanalysts in the East and the West for generations to come.’
Stefano Bolognini, President, International Psychoanalytical Association –
‘This fascinating book presents the most complete, enlightening, and up-to-date contribution on the new bridge between psychoanalysis and contemporary Chinese culture. Highly qualified and actively involved specialists, from both western countries and China, explore the complexity and richness of this growing, exciting exchange, which is now possible thanks to the significant shift in Chinese attitudes towards subjectivity. While reading these pages, it is easy to deduce that this will not be a simple one-way intercultural process: we can envisage for the future a mutual cross-fertilisation between the most revolutionary western discoveries about the human mind and the immense, millenary depth of Chinese tradition and philosophy.’
Jia Xiaoming, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, and Vice- Director, Psychoanalytic Committee of the China Association for Mental Health –
‘This book thoroughly demonstrates the latest developments of psychoanalysis in China. All of the foreign and Chinese contributors to the book are psychoanalysts and psychotherapists actively involved in the training, learning, and practice of psychoanalysis in China. They share and demonstrate their enthusiasm, experience, and thinking from various perspectives. The most commendable part of the book is the cultural perspective; and the contributions of psychoanalysis concerning the nature of human beings, mental health, and psychotherapy are formidable. However, with thousands of years of civilisation, the complexity of Chinese culture has a lot of special features. The practice of psychoanalysis in China presents a great collision between western and eastern cultures, and the experience and thinking of the authors offer important starting points for the development of useful theory, methods, and techniques for the development of mental health within the context of Chinese culture. Perhaps it will be most valuable in promoting the penetration of psychoanalysis into China, but China will also contribute new power to psychoanalysis around the world. This book is especially important because it witnesses this mutual process.’
Kris Yi PHD PsyD, ‘Psychoanalytic Psychology’, 2017, (34)(2):242-245 –
‘The edited volume by David Scharff and Sverre Varvin is a wonderful new addition on the topic. Spanning some 30 short chapters, the book provides snap shots of the cultural, theoretical, and practical issues associated with introduction of psychoanalysis in China from the vantage points of both Western and Chinese participants.’