Psychoanalysis comes to China: a discussion of Wang Xiubing’s “Some issues I have encountered on my path to becoming a psychoanalyst”

The author discusses Wang Xiubing’s “Some issues I have encountered in my path to becoming a psychoanalyst”. He applauds her achievement and that of her colleagues in coming into their own as analysts and analytic therapists, and discusses elements of controversy she discussed: distance analysis and differences in culture. He points out that analysis takes place neither in the office nor online, but between two persons and two minds, and most importantly in the mind of the analysand. He concludes that Chinese psychoanalysis is likely to have unique features, just as analysis has in each different locality in the past.

Developing expertise in psychoanalytic couple and family therapy in China

The author traces the development of a collaborative psychoanalytic training programme for couple and family therapists in China, launched through the shared efforts of Drs David Scharff, Jill Savege Scharff, Janine Wanlass, Fang Xin and Gao Jun, enrolling more than 400 students over the past twelve years. The stressors of economic change, greater interaction with the West, legacies left by the Cultural Revolution, challenges associated with the one-child policy, and escalating divorce rates created a need for therapists to intervene with Chinese couples and families exhibiting distress (Scharff, 2020, 2021). A training programme was conceived, including didactic teaching from an object relations perspective, a live clinical demonstration of psychotherapy with a couple or family, and small process groups led by Chinese therapists to help trainees integrate affective, cognitive, and behavioural learning components. The author contends that the success of this programme was largely dependent on a collaboration of cultures and personnel, as American teachers learned about psychoanalytic thinking from a Chinese cultural lens and Chinese administrators, faculty, and students discovered effective ways to address the mental health struggles of Chinese couples and families.

China’s new child psychiatry training programme

Chinese child psychiatrists have recognised a need to secure training that represents the most advanced ideas in their field. Turning to senior child psychiatrists in the United States, Dr Jianping Lu worked with them to design a training programme for child psychiatrists in Shenzhen, which then expanded to become a national model. This article details the reasons for the programme, its origins and history, and the outline of the current programme that now reaches child psychiatrists throughout China.

“Zhong De Ban” (German–Chinese class): training in psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy at the Shanghai Mental Health Center

German psychoanalysts have played a special role in the spread of psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy in China. This article describes the history of the training programme anchored at the Shanghai Mental Health Center, its specific design, the cooperation with Chinese colleagues, and the importance of self-experience in groups. It reflects on the sociocultural background of the involvement of German psychoanalysts and the promotion of the project by German institutions. Conscious and unconscious aspects of group dynamics on both the German and Chinese sides are presented and discussed.

Design and implementation of the child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy training programme by the International Psychotherapy Institute for Jiandanxinli

The author describes how her interest in China and Chinese families led her to direct an online two-year programme for training Chinese therapists in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy. She sets her work in its social and professional context. She outlines the design and discusses modification in teaching technique to suit this educational setting, in which time must be allowed for translation from English to Chinese, and from conscious to unconscious. She illustrates a clinical case consultation group to show the group mind at work, and concludes with oral and written evaluation from participants.

Research on the psychological root and transmission mechanism of rumours in major epidemics based on the perspective of psychoanalysis

Since the Covid-19 epidemic, many rumours have been generated under the main theme of a whole people fighting the epidemic together. From the standpoint of depth psychology, a psychoanalytic perspective has its own advantages and unique research value on the psychological roots of rumours in major epidemics and their mechanisms of transmission, which this article discusses, along with the anxiety and fear created by the life instinct, the elements of attack and projection under the death instinct, and conjectures how the role of Lacan’s postulation that the unconscious is constituted like language all play a role as main causes of a current epidemic of rumours. The transmission mechanisms of epidemic rumours are the following: the spreading of panic caused by the interruption of emotional connection, aggressive spreading of rumours caused by hostility in processes of identification, and problems in mechanisms of projective identification, and the combined effect of audiovisual media. Furthermore, the authors make specific suggestions on how to deal with rumours in major epidemics, so as to improve understanding and response to these in cases of major epidemics.

Little Streamer: learning the unconscious symbolism of computer jargon

A Chinese student of psychoanalytic child therapy, Hu Fangjia (HF), presented to a small clinical case consultation group an obsessional thirteen-year-old boy who spoke of nothing but equipment for streaming video games. A Western small group consultant, Jill Savege Scharff (JSS), encouraged the bored group to consider the unconscious symbolism in the boy’s obsessive communication in order to sustain interest in understanding his experience of loss and neglect as the eldest living boy in his family.

An introduction to the International Psychotherapy Institute’s adult psychotherapy programme in China

In response to an invitation from the Chinese mental health platform, Jiandanxinli, and its CEO Li Zhen, the International Psychotherapy Institute developed and implemented a two-year training programme, “Object relations psychoanalytic psychotherapy” to be held on-site in Beijing, and online weekly. This contribution begins with an example of the teaching intrinsic to the programme, and then describes the programme itself.

The Peony Pavilion as a picture of sexual individuation

The Peony Pavilion is a story central to Chinese gender identity. It vividly portrays a story of the path of sexual individuation of a Chinese woman. In comparison to female images in Western stories, Chinese women are the active ones in their intimate relationships with men. They have been oppressed for many years because they are recognised as the subject of desire and as having reflexive aggression. However, with enough love, a girl dares to separate from her natal family, to fight against the patriarchal system, and to be herself. Identifying with the father’s aggression can facilitate her in this process.