Culturing Psychotherapy, Transforming Selfhood in Postsocialist China

加州大学戴维斯分校的张丽博士将研究快速的社会经济转型对精神生活的重塑以及人的意义的概念的影响。这项研究将在中国进行，在那里，令人喘不过气来的市场化改革步伐不仅在经济和社会结构上，而且在中国公民的精神和情感生活上都产生了深刻的变化和破裂。面对竞争日益激烈和压力越来越大的生活，越来越多的城市中产阶级求助于专业的心理咨询和治疗，以应对他们的焦虑、心理困扰和个人问题。因此，后社会主义的中国为探索正在发生的世界现象提供了一个理想的背景。为了研究这场“内心革命”，张将把重点放在中国新兴的心理治疗运动之一上。这项研究将在中国西南部的昆明市进行。数据将通过混合的社会科学方法收集，包括：咨询过程的参与者观察、与治疗师和客户的半结构化访谈、疾病叙述、媒体分析和档案研究。她的研究将解决以下问题：为什么今天一些中国人寻求心理治疗，他们如何理解自己的经历？西方起源的心理治疗模式是如何改变和适应中国文化情感的？一种什么样的治疗关系正在出现？西方对私人自我的治疗观念如何与中国人对社会根深蒂固的自我的理解相交？这些个人层面的变化对更广泛的中国社会意味着什么？这项研究之所以重要，是因为它解决了一个世界性的现象。通过整合心理学、精神病学和人类学，研究人员将能够阐明在一个日益相互联系的世界中疾病、文化、治疗和人格之间的复杂关系。通过提出一种应对情绪障碍的文化敏感方式，这项研究具有变革的潜力，可以改善一个日益具有全球意义的国家的心理健康实践和政策。

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.