Culturing Psychotherapy, Transforming Selfhood in Postsocialist China

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Dr. Li Zhang, of the University of California at Davis, will undertake research on the impact of rapid socioeconomic transformations on the remaking of psychic life and concepts of what it means to be a person. The research will be carried out in China, where the breathless pace of market reforms has engendered profound changes and ruptures in not only economic and social structures but also the mental and emotional lives of Chinese citizens. Faced with the increasingly competitive and stressful lives, more middle-class urbanites are turning to professional psychological counseling and therapy to grapple with their anxiety, mental distress, and personal problems. Thus postsocialist China provides an ideal setting in which to explore a phenomenon that is taking place worldwide.To investigate this "inner revolution," Zhang will focus on one of China's emerging psychotherapy movements. The research will be conducted in the city of Kunming in southwestern China. Data will be gathered through a mix of social scientific methods, including: participant observation of counseling sessions, semi-structured interviews with therapists and clients, illness narratives, media analysis, and archival research. Her research will address the following questions: Why do some Chinese people today seek psychotherapy and how do they make sense of their experiences? How are Western-originated psychotherapy models altered and adapted to suit Chinese cultural sensibilities? What kind of therapeutic relationship is emerging? How do Western therapeutic notions of the private self intersect with Chinese understandings of the socially embedded self? What are the implications for these individual-level changes for Chinese society more generally?This research is important because it is addressing a worldwide phenomenon. By integrating psychology, psychiatry, and anthropology, the researcher will be able to illuminate the complex relationship among illness, culture, healing, and personhood in an increasingly interconencted world. By suggesting a culturally sensitive way of grappling with emotional disorders, this research has a transformative potential to improve mental health practice and policy in a country of increasing global significance.