Letters from China

Psychoanalysis is a 19th century Viennese development of the Western mind. As it travelled to other countries and continents, it has been changed by the differing mentalities of place and time. Sometimes the changes were subtle, sometimes more radical. What can we expect now of the journey that psychoanalysis is beginning in China? China's philosophical and social systems are unlike those of the West, and unlike those of old China. We must expect that there will be change as it becomes a Chinese analysis, and in all likelihood that change will be more radical than the changes psychoanalytic theory and practice underwent in spreading from Austria and Europe to Great Britain and the Americas. China is a large and influential country and culture. We should expect that the Chinese experience of analysis is likely to change psychoanalysis itself. In the four “Letters from China” that follow, we can see the beginnings of such a process. In this collection, two recently graduated analysts from the United States recount the experience of their first encounters with colleagues in China, and two young Chinese women, one a psychiatric resident, one a recent PhD in psychology, tell of their exposure to and growing interest in analysis. We can see the beginnings of reciprocal influence of our cultures in these reports that speak of mutual curiosity, interest, and respect. But there is also a quality of puzzlement mixed in with the wonder as they approach these new experiences. It is a privilege to read these personal stories of our colleagues from East and West as they grapple with understanding how analytic ideas and psychoanalytic treatment will work in China. This would be my first voyage ever to the Orient so I wanted to make the most of it. As I imagined this unique opportunity, my mind transported me to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square, and the Bund, the architectural symbol of Shanghai's European past on the western bank of the Huangpu River. I was excited to experience firsthand the wonders of China's history, its peoples, and its cultures. I had no doubt that I was about to experience an amazing adventure, but little did I realize just how meaningful and transformative this journey would prove to be. In writing this letter, I hope to convey my newfound love for China and the Chinese peoples, and to express my thanks to all those who afforded me such memorable encounters. Looking back, I realize that my curiosity and interest in Chinese culture probably began when I was a little girl. I can remember meeting various visitors to our home in Canada, scientific colleagues and friends of my parents who were visiting from China. Reliably, they would gift us with extraordinary teas. It was rare though that I would actually participate in these tea-tasting ceremonies, which seemed then like a sophisticated grown up activity. Rather I loved to collect the tea canisters decorated with their brightly colored, intricate designs. Sometimes they even doubled as a good hiding place for my candy collection, a secret I treasured. Several years later, as an adolescent in the late 1970s, my respect and admiration for the Chinese peoples grew even further, when I attended Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific, a United World College inspired by the late Canadian Prime Minister Pearson, where teenagers came to live and study with each other from all over the world, including China and other parts of Asia. In his Nobel Peace Lecture in 1957, Pearson said, “How can there by peace without understanding each other, and how can this be if they don't know each other?” About a decade later, the global community was riveted to the media reports of the 1989 massacres in Beijing's Tian'anmen Square. As a young adult, I felt particularly close in to the scenes of student protests and massacres, since fellow Pearson College alumni, Loreen Pindera, documented the daily stories as a radio reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. So all these experiences fostered my interest in making it to the Orient, one day perhaps, but why now? Last fall, when I was a candidate of the International Institute of Psychoanalytic Training (IIPT) at the International Psychotherapy Institute, I was taken by the idea of attending the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA), which was hosting the first-ever Asian Congress in Beijing from October 21–24, 2010. This conference entitled “Evolution and Change: Psychoanalysis in the Asian Context” would celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the IPA by Freud, where psychoanalysts from East and West would come together, united by their shared passion and commitment to the growth of analysis in China. Before long, I had booked my ten-day tour that would begin with the IPA Congress in Beijing. Then I'd venture onwards to Shanghai to participate in sightseeing and visit the Shanghai Mental Health Center. Then I'd travel back to Beijing where I'd do more sightseeing, and ultimately, conclude my trip by touring and teaching at the Capital Medical University in Beijing. My friend and mentor, Maryland Pao, MD, a child psychiatrist who supervised me more than a decade ago at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, put me in touch with Dr Hong Xing Wang, Director of the 3 rd Department of Clinical Psychiatry at the Capital Medical University in Beijing, who in turn put me in touch with Drs Lin Yi and Jue Chen, psychiatrists working at the Shanghai Mental Health Center. These Chinese colleagues warmly welcomed me to meet with them, tour their hospitals, and teach them about psychotherapy. I was aware that many IPA members had been supervising and teaching psychoanalytic psychotherapy to teachers in China over the past 15 or so years. Close to home, I was inspired by IIPT faculty, Drs David and Jill Scharff who had been teaching and supervising extensively in China for many years. After much planning and many imaginary voyages, on October 20, 2010, I boarded my flight from Washington to Beijing. After a 13-hour flight, I dropped off my bags at the China People's Palace Hotel in Beijing. Moments later, I headed out again to find a cab that would take me to Peking University to hear Prof. Claudio Laks Eizirik, Former President of IPA, give the IPA pre-conference lecture on “Psychoanalysis and Culture: Contemporary Challenges.” Waves of fatigue quickly began to descend upon me, but I knew there was nowhere else that I would rather be. My taxi driver seemed to understand that I needed him to take me to Peking University. But that was all that we managed to communicate to each other. Curiously I felt happy for these feelings of disorientation, welcoming feelings of otherness as a minority in a culture that fascinated me so much. An eternity later, or so it seemed, my cab driver dropped me off seemingly in the middle of nowhere, a couple of miles from the School of Life Sciences where Dr Eizirik was speaking. Now, it was undeniable that I was a foreigner! Planted right in the heart of the Peking University campus, I was surrounded by the night-time student hustle and bustle, teenagers and young adults perched in twos aboard bikes made-for-one, lovers embracing nearby, and eager students racing on foot to their night classes. Phew! By some miracle, I found the lecture hall where I needed to be, and amazingly, I was on time! The venue was filled to capacity, overflowing in fact. There I found a seat amongst maybe 350 Chinese students, a foreigner amongst many enthusiasts sitting on the floor, many crouched in corners and wherever any place could be found. Excitement soon overcame my jet lag. Dr Eizirik gave an amazing lecture about the contemporary challenges we face in a globalized world, and the contributions that analysis can offer to understanding and responding to such cultural maladies as hatred, prejudice, and violence that are transmitted inter-generationally. At long last, I had arrived! The next day, the IPA Congress commenced in full gear. The Program Committee used an to from and There were Chinese the next four I was in the experience of this I felt to take in many and and to Chinese with from all over the I particularly a by of the IPA China entitled of for Chinese in the of and by a psychoanalytic of about personal and the for the Chinese of their of psychoanalysis that would be a good for Chinese culture and an from Western I this was an to we that our of analysis be an Asian and cultural and the this of the the cultural of I that psychoanalysis had been in China the and as Chinese As a to the growth of this over the past 15 there are now Chinese in all teachers some of I had the to meet at a social at at the of the Congress was the as in We in of for on two I felt right at home in these as this approach me of the that was a of my at the International Psychotherapy My came from and from such countries as and and by from and Dr from with by from China. At the our that the members were But this East and West quickly gave to a when we all came the of a of a Chinese We all at how this had the to us some of our cultural many to parts of this in to each other. the of my visit to China, I in Shanghai and Beijing, the Shanghai Mental Health Center and the Capital Medical Department of Clinical I many with psychiatrists and a child and I was by the work of the psychiatrists who managed large with many as and but also as social young to me with the of about how was from home, been two seemed to me know that felt and by one of the a to me about his that could be with his that his and and me how felt that his psychiatrist was to to his day day, and My tour of Beijing's Capital Medical University with my to students in and psychiatrists on and to I the of this by by with Dr Hong Xing over the to the of the and students in his of the had attended the IPA I was by the and of the many of seemed in psychoanalytic they had a of my the students of the I was to this of one the other, which me of a Western when I felt a of and a with these It was an Now, many later, I the Chinese that I come to for the canisters but also for their which in me of my encounters with these Chinese I I arrived! Psychoanalysis had been a for My first came from its in of those I some Chinese of of and my years in and it was there I my of the mind. As an in in my first at Shanghai Mental Health my experience was in I had in and the of of and their and my and my interest At the as a student of who has been in psychoanalytic in China, I in the work of some and on this The psychoanalytic of me, though it was a for My of place in by the I at the and my in an in which The to how we had been working in China, in I was working with child in and other We had many about and the of the I attended for including some by IPA President and other in with read of psychoanalytic and my personal is but it my mind. These experiences me and to me to my in the years to After my in I came back to China and to the IPA in Beijing where I for the of Drs David Scharff and on Psychoanalytic and In I for of psychoanalysts at Shanghai University. these I of all from all over China who were with their or Psychoanalysis was to China in the but its influence in the of with no influence on the with development in China, are at a a of in China. This interest has in our I the that in China psychoanalysis is or by the and by Shanghai Mental Health Center is in psychoanalytic and its psychoanalytic psychiatrists are psychiatrists from or are even its practice in Psychoanalytic a of our and there is no of the of analysis. Chinese psychiatrists that psychoanalysis is a of personal like a and that it is the scientific of our time. of them that its meet the of our daily It is for the psychiatrists in this large psychiatric to psychoanalysis as a But even as an understanding of our Chinese are with analysis to I in In work is also more and more and many psychiatrists are to psychoanalysis as a they about analysis a of are But in China psychiatrists psychoanalysis in since been to it or it in China, it is as though we over a of psychoanalytic influence and headed for a new with development of new and scientific We hear about psychoanalysis in our There are in for the the and the where we and where psychoanalytic are to work and are there is a long to are in it is to there are no working in the now to with to of and It that psychoanalysis is more The psychoanalytic on the Chinese for and and quickly its of There are on Freud, and by young and on no which are welcomed by and the It is that psychoanalysis is for but we can see there is a in China. I of the Chinese of We grew up in a place where us changes and and the our parents the We are to be the new of hope and But that is all that to as our and and there are for to The of our parents and their with no of a for that should be to in to us of the no how much they The that has just to their now encounters from such as and social and from our We are for but are one of my for young who just had first child a ago was for a of in our of in with a about In a with and I in the with many the and the of the which would tell that a without My was loved and by beginning since parents had to work a After to home, for including My this In the the my at like a I said, I I had for one of other We no in the the found a and will which is the This is a good of the Chinese These when to their There is no doubt that China is in of more and In the our and the of the I that psychoanalysis can find its cultural but in my it is more an to than it is a to the of psychoanalytic ideas our I remember the of a psychiatrist in who had been for over some years of just find out that don't and then turn to In late October 2010, I to Beijing to at the first International Association in and to teach a on psychoanalytic couple with David in Beijing, I was by this of in the of the old and the of a National of contemporary and of in all the of the the of the Great Wall, and a Forbidden that and my Chinese of old and new China, a that would my in my personal and my encounters. The IPA in China, a an at theory to a from an culture. At it felt a like a where and to find a to lecture was by on large in on one of the and in Chinese on the other. In the large the to a of the cultural to the and to the we the about the experience of the in this shared I was I did to be as the and a in a country by What did China from the IPA a or a What of could we read their as and the the planning and and found a seat at the This quickly for me, as my on Psychoanalytic and an David Scharff and I our teaching together, but a travel on his me on my The was a of and Chinese all on a young Chinese to us our in and culture. the changed the us to more to our for to to in the and to the as a to teach the ideas rather than a the a couple who and on the As the couple they began to their and the they of the other. In a the this couple as our shared and began to the cultural I was as much as to the and of the Chinese and and for I was ideas such as found in and culture of ideas I was aware of the and the to China. I had read about these and them in As I attended the IPA conference and a couple for Chinese by of Peking I the of my I had the of these and on Chinese couple or I was by and from Chinese colleagues who of with and In a with just one it is more to I could see that the one child the of for two parents and four and the to the this of is in Asian the seemed to the or and and the or in or this is by a cultural and of by the of the I that many parents were to work in the their were in work a of or a this cultural and our work with and in China? In a I at the IPA I a child who was of the a for that would for the of parents and for the that had and The Chinese with this little of their personal and experiences with who an or the for this to just the but the little that feelings be wanted this to be to I was with the idea that was for the many Chinese who the and seemed to understand the of this In the the IPA David Scharff and I a on psychoanalytic couple treatment for Chinese the of couple and with the of our Chinese we one each day, with a Chinese the to and from this this couple was young to the of and in their couple I found about the their and their as a and the was about the of young from by attending for the first time. As the couple we began to understand the of an from In who had been in with and now was to for the was there to his and to understand how to But of his that as the the of and was the country to the for an and a had no to was of the his a that had in his I if his were a of making up for his In this the was and the of and cultural the this couple to find and that in our and the the couple the and the the to speak of their and to the couple I a in the so I experience teaching analytic students by the analytic What by the What is I doubt the are much in the us to a or this of Chinese were more to or the of the couple us I was by the of the their understanding of the and their to make of I began to wonder how much of we were to China with psychoanalysis was actually we were teaching to this of and new in China, even in This as we working with the there was a of shared understanding I had particularly since I was so on to to By the of two in China, I could speak two of but I felt like the foreigner at a my me and of the IPA, about the the IPA would to China, I found how China will change psychoanalytic In other will China to our I was in a culture so from my I began about how much culture how and cultural and the of and that culture. I China much like a student of an a I would like to David Scharff me I would like to my personal experiences of and psychoanalytic I had an more a this is to be I would like to begin my with this and on with come to It was in the October of at a of an for psychotherapy in Beijing. or psychoanalysts from parts of the were their personal experiences of an I was the for Chinese It was the most I had and ever or psychoanalysis has been a for me, with other But this was more than a It was The first that the should be by of rather than as a began to his practice on a day, from from one of his to his personal and I grew more and more and even I could make of was was I to was to there was no two or even the first and of the The a when I felt as if the of my mind After I just I and gave up to understand was I could my for I in a But at no one came to me to about the of seemed to the in a good It will a to me how the Chinese those two This experience a for it be for psychoanalysis to be Chinese and by Chinese It is a to Psychoanalysis is my and just like a it feelings in me, such as curiosity, and It has been years since I my first in the Training Program in I find it to psychoanalysis The has many many from differing As to the they are to understand and to the my experience has been I of feelings when and psychoanalytic I my understanding of or is I by to convey in the of their such as the and the of the It is like the of in in the of psychoanalysis is so so It to and it would be to some about my first with I the I was and in the first of my in psychology, with to be a and the of the and about I could in this Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy were The in this approach were the in China with other such as those in or of the Chinese seemed to to be with one all the students in my were in this me was about psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. at that I could tell the psychoanalysis and I the that it was the theory for understanding and the of for I even “Psychoanalysis has hope to “Psychoanalysis will our from the of the It and since I was an young and was eager to find my place in this world, I the to be a though I knew little about psychoanalysis and and had no idea I I did realize how this commitment would be or how the journey My journey is from I now I can it as a of an and of to when that We are all to from a century of in China. The is that of these we with and in our culture and The social and of the years has for Chinese been to find from those Western to peace and back to our Psychoanalysis is one it I do know the I will close with some to my I remember how in or when or analysts they were surrounded and by many Chinese I was one of We all wanted our taken with There was for our What is this eager I there is our to the theory and the from those as if they knew when they they did know it more It seemed to be so to they did know I in a by a I a that was for I wanted his and out that I did the and that my analytic had from the I was so and that I I felt like a little who to live up to I felt and even a I felt did give me did give me any I remember I as the for an who a to the of psychotherapy. that psychoanalysis and in were was the of I felt so and that I had to my to my work as I remember at the of one long in a to me in a rather that from now on would to that that psychoanalysis was the to all and that our was I remember two one one that the of psychoanalysis to with Chinese said, and don't know why it of these speak for that all our The of but that there are we can do to our is a but it to me it is working

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