Psychoanalysis in China Before 1949: Freud in China: the Variable Reception of

Psychoanalysis
Author(s): GEOFFREY H. BLOWERS
Source: China Perspectives , MARCH / APRIL 1997, No. 10 (MARCH / APRIL 1997), pp.
33-39
Published by: French Centre for Research on Contemporary China

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 CHINA/SPECIAL FOCUS

Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysisinin
China Before
China 19491949
Before

Freud in China:
the Variable Reception of
Psychoanalysis
GEOFFREY H. BLOWERS

transformed under indigenous pressures ？ Is it funda

reception in China. Although only a handful of his mentally rejected? The case of psychoanalysis, as a
Freud's
worksideas havein translations
have appeared had a limitedthese were and variable Western psychological sub-speciality, provides an his
first taken seriously by intellectuals during the May torical example from which we can see at close quarters
Fourth movement in 1919. The initial enthusiasm with how a culture, at a key historical moment, seizes upon a
which they were greeted was based in part upon a selecset of ideas external to itself, and how, in spite of initial
tive perception of Freud's view of development, and this
enthusiasm, larger, more intractable forces serve to con
was subsequently used to justify socialization practices tain them.
in Chinese families. The radical sexual element was by
and large rejected. But this serious omission did not preThe initial impetus
vent later misreadings of Freud by behaviorists and othAlthough a few works written on Freud's ideas appeared
ers, and these gave rise to further attacks on his ideas,in China in the second decade of the century (e.g. Zhang
which lost favour during the early years of the Xichen, 1913，Lu Kefeng, 1917) it was not until the
Communist takeover. While the wholesale rejection of advent of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and the
pansexualism and the attempts to socialize Freud for reception given to the philosophers John Dewey and
Bertrand Russell lecturing there in 1919 and 1921, that
political ends can be seen as a distortion of the original
ideas the renewed interest in Freud's works is only like such ideas were taken seriously by China's intelligentsia.
The May Fourth Movement was a cultural develop
ly to bring a change of attitude if further works find their
way into translation. ment which sought to overthrow the feudal system and
Against the turbulent events with which China has reevaluate traditional thinking. Although it began with a
been buffeted this century, the question of the impact student demonstration at the University of Peking, it was
upon it of Western psychology must seem trivial. Yet, supported
as by large numbers of Chinese students educat
previous accounts have shown, it has gained a foothold ed overseas who had more than a taste for modern intel
lectual developments in the West and felt the need for
and is a regular part of the curricula of many institutions
of higher learning (cf. Petzold, 1984; Lee & Petzold, reform at home.
1987). Taught primarily in schools of education and seen It was a time when in the West materialistic and spiri
as an adjunct to good teacher training, it serves primaritual culture were in deep conflict. People had lost their
ly as a technology for social improvement, even thoughconfidence over the future, were obsessed by the gener
its underlying metaphysical assumptions and values con al deterioration of the world, the large-scale destructive
tinue to have little impact and are construed as alien. ness of human nature and the onset of much psycholog
The gap between Western theory and Asian practice ical anxiety一the end products of the horrors of the First
contributes to a familiar tension in the discipline in theWorld War. The 1920 Hague conference marked the
form of a pressure to indigenize, that is, to utilize con
advent of psychoanalysis crossing its traditional bound
cepts wholly from within a culture, and forces the sub aries in medicine and psychology, into the fields of
social science, literature and art. As it was gaining in
ject, if not to undergo a metamorphosis, to at least bend
with the wind in an effort to sustain its utility. influence it drew the attention of Chinese intellectuals,
What contributes to these tensions ？ To what extent who, caught in their own intellectual crisis, were keen to
CHINA/SPECIAL FOCUS

Dewey had recommended Chinese scholarsquasi-psychological

to read and educational publications e.g.
Semi-Annual
Russell, and Russell himself, lecturing in Peking in 1921 Psychology Journal (Xinli ban nian kan),
on the Analysis of Mind, referred to the unconscious.
and numerous student and artistic magazines and literary
journals. These essays and numerous other secondary
Ironically, neither Dewey nor Russell was particularly
enamoured of Freud. Dewey lectured on education and
source translations gave an energetic student population,
moral reform, Russell on William James's 1890 work by the slow rate of post (1911) revolutionary
disaffected
Principles of Psychology. Seeing psychology reform,as some
an satisfaction to their craving for modern
‘scientific’ ideas from the west, which it had come to
empirical subject with data drawn from experience,
believe
Russell derided psychoanalysis for its lack of would speed China on its path to democracy.
suitable
Psychoanalysis
definitions. He saw ‘desire’，for example, as a causal law was initially heralded as a means of
of actions, not a definite ‘thing’ existing in overturning
our minds ideas about traditional child-rearing prac
tices and justifying new approaches to education.
(Russell, 1921). Ironically, to an audience unfamiliar
with psychoanalytic ideas, Russell's lectures However,
sparked the
a subject was being read through layers of
curiosity about Western psychology in general (1)，due to unauthorized and unsupervised transla
distortion
tions.
including psychoanalysis, and he is credited with giving
Freud the impetus his ideas obtained in the wakeItofwasthe
not until the late twenties that Freud's actual
May Fourth Movement (2). works began to be translated into Chinese, and even as
recently as the early eighties, only fourteen translations
The forum for Freud
of isolated works of his have appeared. Several of these
By the 1920s the path was becoming clear for the dis have come through translations of other translations—
semination of Western psychology in Chinese universi into English or even Japanese (5). Along with the sec
ondary sources these have been the means by which
ties. The first laboratory had been established at Peking
National University in 1917，the first psychology depart intellectuals, keener on overturning the existing social
ment at Southeastern University in Nanking in 1920. order than on providing insight into the neurotic condi
Within ten years other departments had opened at tion, uni have carried Freud into China.
versities in Canton, Shanghai, Amoy and Tianjin (Chou， Most notable amongst these was the philosopher and
1927a, 1932). By 1928 the Institute of Psychology was social reformer, Zhang Dongsun. As one of the chief
founded within the Chinese Academy of Sciences. representatives
A of the modern Chinese bourgeoisie, he
Chinese Psychological Society was formally established had been responsible for inviting Russell to tour China.
in 1921 and the following year began publishing a jour As a socialist, he was concerned about the possible
nal. Between 1922 and 1940 some 370 psychology
spread of communism into China following the October
books were published (3). Russian revolution, and saw in many of Freud's ideas a
As with the situation in the West, however, the formal
way of furthering his critique of Marxism. He began
channels of communication in academia were not the cautiously by providing little more than summarized
main avenue by which Freud came to be known in introductions to Freud's works. In 1921, in the magazine
China. In the first four years of its appearance, the People ys Bell (Min duo), he wrote his “Comment on
Chinese Journal of Psychology published only four artiPsychoanalysis”，mentioning Freud's collaboration with
cles on psychoanalysis. Its main emphasis reflectedBreuer,
the the 'talking cure，，the theory of repression and
contemporary mainstream of psychology in the Westcensorship,
in and Freud's psychological construction of
which many of the Chinese students educated abroad the conscious, preconscious and subconscious. He
had been steeped. The outlook was primarily behav stressed Freud's verification of the latter, his links to
iouristic, and educational testing and measurement general psychology and the continuity between the nor
mal and the abnormal, although he downplayed the
formed a large part of the initial concerns (Chou, 1927b).
Psychology departments dealt only marginally with stress in his theory on sexuality. Although uncritical, his
essay served as a useful introduction, and proved such a
Freud. Courses in psychoanalysis were taught primarily
talking point amongst his contemporaries that it was
in medical schools, a situation which prevails in China
reprinted in his own magazine Newspapers on Current
today (4). It was left to the enthusiasm of radical student
intellectuals bent on social reform to take up the Affairs
chal shortly thereafter.
lenge to traditional Confucian values posed by Freudian Eight years later he was to provide a more detailed
ideas. Like their counterparts in psychology, many introduction
of in his book Psychoanalysis ABC (Zhang
them were trained overseas and were fluent in German Dongsun, 1929) — a volume in a popular series aimed at
or other languages in which Freud's work had appeared ‘‘giving people opportunities to acquire various kinds of
in translation. Once their interest was kindled, articles
academic knowledge" (6). Although it was a slim 100
about psychoanalysis appeared in news digests such as pages, Zhang was sufficiently conversant with the works
Eastern Magazine (Dongfang zazhi)，general magazines of Freud, as well as Adler and Jung, to be able to provide
 CHINA/SPECIAL FOCUS

not theory,
He found much to praise in psychoanalytic worth serious study. Freud was jianghupai
dawang—'king
thinking that, apart from medical science, it also made a of quacks' (Guo Renyuan, cited in
new contribution to psychology, sociology, Zhang ethics, Yingyuan,
and 1989).
education. Freud's deterministic view of forgetting Huang Weirong,
and while equally committed to the
slips of the tongue was, for Zhang, something behaviourist
‘‘beyond cause and staunchly anti-Freudian, was
the explanatory power of general psychology". His dis in his remarks. Huang felt that the popu
more tempered
covery of the primitive fundamentally remade laritythe sub came about because of his extensive writ
of Freud
ject. But Zhang's obvious enthusiasm was tempered by which was attractive to people who had
ing on sexuality,
his grudging acknowledgement of the theory no of scientific
sexuali training (Huang Weirong, 1929, p.19). He
ty, believing that, although there were “manywas firmly of the view that Freud's concepts were
incorrect
points" in it reflecting a "bias without much truth",
shrouded in mysticism and not verifiable. He thought the
Freud must have had his reasons. Without speculating libido theory
on was groundless, and that it made men's
these Zhang attempted to corroborate a saying wishes from
mysterious and unintelligible. Concepts such as
Chinese Buddhism—”the greatest wickedness is licen 'censorship'一two vital aspects of dream
‘symbol，and
tiousness" (wan e yin wei shou)—using Freud's theory the “mystery of mysteries" because Freud
theory一were
for the “elimination of human desires" (jue "looked ren yu). at things
In through coloured spectacles".
the process he both distorts Freud's meaning of the
However, unable to offer any alternative explanations or
mechanisms of defense and offers sublimation as a any rigorous theorizing of his own, he succumbed to
viable means of social reform. peppering his essay with several acrimonious barbs.
Zhang came to believe that providing everyone underFreud was "a pest in the psychological field", his theory
stood psychoanalysis, reviewed themselves in the lightwas “like a soap bubble" that “should be overthrown"
of this knowledge, analyzed their thoughts and under(Huang Weirong, 1929, p.19). These comments were
stood their own character, they could begin to improve typical of those scholars educated abroad and critical of
themselves by removing the baser aspects of their naturetheir own folk culture with which, in some respects, they
through sublimation. Social problems such as promiscualigned Freud.
ity and murder would then disappear. According to this
Rescuers
view, social problems are the product of individual mis
conduct and can be corrected merely by inner-directedIn spite of the popularity in the twenties of behaviouris
self improvement. As Yu Fengao has pointed out (Yuin China, Huang's essay prompted a response from
Fengao, 1987)，as a means of tackling the social probQing—a polemical writer who was once a leader of t
lems of the China of his day, Zhang's ‘feudalistic，thesis Communist Youth League but later severed his relati
evades the problems of poverty and backwardness which ship to the party. Ye countered that "Huang's criticism
feudalism brought in its midst. By making Freud's theo the subconscious is purely the viewpoint of forma
ry a panacea for society's ills, he strips it of its social siglogic". Ye focussed on the formation of dreams to cr
nificance, leaving it individualistically bound and asocize Huang for his inappropriate reproach (Ye Qing
cial in outlook. 1934). The investigation of Freud's work, with t
exception of the Oedipus complex, was appropria
Early resistance because it was both materialistic and ‘‘dialectical，’. Ye's
Notwithstanding the failure to fully comprehend Freud position is interesting for his misreading of Freud, but
by those enthusiastically receptive to his ideas, not all
also for his correct observations. He mistakenly thinks
intellectuals of the period were enamoured of him. EarlyFreud believed that repression is the sole basis of mental
resistance to psychoanalysis came by way of two illness, and he wrongly asserts that Freud refused to
American-educated psychologists reared in the behav blame human suffering on society. But he correctly
iouristic tradition. Guo Renyuan was enthusiastic about observes that Freud discovered the possibility of psychic
experimental science and laboratory methods and waslife determining biological disorders and that individual
the most hardline opponent of psychoanalysis (7). Hispsychologies can influence the shape of society. Freud
main stance was that the discipline of psychology shouldwas not a revolutionary in the political sense, although
be separated from philosophy, through which it hadhis ideas have been used as the basis for such by others
become ‘poisoned’. For him this problem had arisen (Ye himself, and of course, Wilhelm Reich).
from both Western and Chinese philosophy which By the 1930s, more psychologists began to enter the
encompassed varied viewpoints about xinxing—the debate as Freud's work appeared in translation and his
nature of mind. Writing with sharp words in the early ideas spread. One psychologist in particular not only
thirties, real psychology, for Guo, was not “like the mysproduced a critical view of Freud, but was responsible
terious Freudian psychoanalysis which relied on a pack for several of his definitive Chinese translations. Gao
of lies such as the unconscious to mystify behaviour"Juefu translated the Introductory Lectures and New
CHINA/SPECIAL FOCUS

Putting
delivered to Clark University. He believed that Freud to use
people
who had not studied all of the schools of psychology
should reserve judgment about any particularThe school
element of social reform remains strong in the uses
(Gao Juefu, 1926). Gao (1933) avoided personal to which Freud's work were put, particularly in the field
attacks in his own writing on Freud, yet the motive for of education. Traditional Chinese educational practices
his meticulous translations was apparently "to tell thestressed the need for students to be submissive, unque
readers what a strange man Freud was". In a paper writtioning, in control of their impulses and to be passively
ten in 1931 he drew attention to three aspects of receptive to whatever the teacher thought important
Freud's theory of which he approved (Gao Juefu, Freudian theory, according to Wu Fuyuan writing in the
1931). There was the question of a rationality underly thirties (Wu Fuyuan, 1934)，fundamentally overturne
ing all human action, as Freud argued in his description these ideas, inverting the beliefs that lay behind them
of the parapraxes in The Psychopathology of EverydayFreudian theory stresses a need for a rational approach t
Life. The covering up effects of these actions demon sex education, alerts teachers to students special need
strate the power of unconscious mechanisms at work. and may enable teachers to channel students' desires by
Gao also favoured Freud's determinism, which stated appropriate forms of sublimation. The notion that desire
that phenomena which could not be explained by tradi can be directed rather than followed or ignored was not
tional (Wundtian) psychology such as slips of the lost on Zhang Dongsun, who argued for psychoanalyti
tongue, jokes, mental disorders, etc., are ‘subject to ideas being made available to parents if only to stress to
causation' and these in turn give powerful support to them the importance of the first five or so years of deve
the possibility of a scientific psychology. opment, and the need to allow children to play (an activ
ity which was strongly discouraged) (Zhang Dongsun,
Ambivalences
1929). According to Zhu Guangqian, since Chinese chi
As with other Chinese readers of Freud before him,
dren were segregated in many schools and their sexua
Gao decried his pansexualism. ‘‘It seems that apart desires repressed, its reemergence leads to a devouring
from sexual instincts, humans have no other instincts，，. of melancholic and ‘sour’ literature by the young. H
He thought Freud developed this view because of pre
therefore proposed a new curriculum: one given over to
conceptions that deterred him from making aesthetics objectiveand guidance (Zhu Guangqian, 1921).
observations and judgments. It was Gao's viewInfrom spite of the intentions of many to introduce
his reading of the Oedipus complex in Freud's Freudian
case hisideas for reform and as a combatant to supe
tories that it was the father's intervention and educa stition, its impact on psychology in the thirties was min
tional pressures from the family that were the cause of imal due to the dominance of behaviourism. One plaus
the child problems which did not originate with instinc ble reason for this was the way in which not only certai
tual wishes. Freud's theory was "workable" in thatworks it rather than others were selected for translation,
could be used to ‘‘work out the direction that sex edu but the nature of the translation process itself, which
cation could take"—an ironic and ominous forecast for transformed many of Freud's fundamental concepts.
the removal of the radical elements of the theory (Gao
Problems of translation
Juefu, 1931). Gao, one of Freud's foremost translators,
reveals his ambivalence to psychoanalysis in many Yan of Yongjing (1989)，in his preface to the first book
his own essays, and captures something of the dilemma psychology ever translated into Chinese, (Jos
that these ideas presented for Chinese who were tradi Haven's Mental Philosophy Including the Intellec
tionally conservative in sexual matters, and who could Sensibility and the Will，1889) describes the difficul
view sexual expression as a direct threat to the stabili Chinese translators face.
ty of family relations. "Many ideas have not been discussed in China and
Although Gao did not appear to be motivated by any have no compatible Chinese terminology. All I can do is
specific political position, Freud's ideas nevertheless to connect words together and give them new meanings.
developed in China against a shifting political back Outwardly, it may look ambiguous, but if one studies it
ground. During the early twenties the alliance between with care, one can find logic in it."
the Nationalist and Communist parties provided littleIn spite of attempts by the Commercial Press and the
direct political comment. During the thirties and fortiesMinistry of Education to standardize these translation
when they expanded, some attacks came by way of equivalents, there was a certain free rein amongst trans
Soviet critics in articles translated into Chinese and lators of Freud's early works which created problems of
printed in left-wing journals. These attacks were consistency.
pro Freud's name itself appears in ten different
mulgated more against the bourgeois ideology of which forms, coming through transliterations of Japanese
Freud's ideas were a part, although there were some katakana一’ furoyito’^or of the German name Freud.
also some attempts to link them with Marxism (Zhang Others come from mispronunciations of his name (e.g.
 CHINA/SPECIAL FOCUS

fiction. More
Japanese, for which they already had other meanings in serious, however, were the revisions which
that language. occurred to many of psychoanalysis、basic premises,
The 'unconscious', for example, was rendered in those dealing directly with sexuality. In
particularly
Japanese (using Chinese characters) as muisiki which
many in these, often as not, were radically revised or
works
Chinese is wuyishi and means ‘without consciousness'. omitted altogether. Thus, in writing of the cause of hys
Translators debated whether to use this or coin a new teria in 1936, the female author, Yongqin (1936)，specu
term, and subsequently several different variants werelates
in that, under social pressure, people “have to model
use. It is now commonly expressed as qianyishi, which their behaviour according to social expectations, but at
means hidden, latent or submerged conscious. ‘Oedipus the same time, their biological instincts cry for satisfac
tion and
complex', which existed in Japanese, was not used fulfillment. When such a conflict between the
because the term was not an allowable phrase in two reaches a certain point, neurosis occurs. Such a sit
Chinese. The term is usually translated as lian muuation is particularly common among us women.”
qingjie一’the romantic/sexual love of mother'. She goes on to say that most women are under greater
Most of Freud's translators were not psychologists, butsocial pressure than men and are hence more neurotic,
by dint of their broad training in the humanities pro and that the way to combat this is to transform the soci
duced interesting ‘creative revisions' of the original ety that has caused it. This is a far cry from Freud, but
texts. The social reformer Zhang Shizhao, who was thenot so far from his own followers and the transforma
only Chinese intellectual to correspond with Freud tions which they undertook of their master's ideas in the
(Blowers, 1993)，translated Freud's SelbstdarstellungWest.
from the German (Zhang Shizhao, 1930) and produced a
text very heavy in classical Chinese allusion, often to theModern developments
point of distorting or diminishing the force of the origiThe war against the Japanese at the end of the thirties
nal. For example, his term for ‘paranoia，，huaxu kuang,and the political upheavals that accompanied the
derives from an ancient myth about an emperor, Huang Communist revolution gave intellectuals little time for
Di，who has a daydream in which he journeys in thefurther speculations on Freud or any other figure from
kingdom of Huaxu. As this land is thousands of milespsychology. Institutions teaching the subject or engaged
from his residence, he cannot possibly reach it in a day. in psychological research were closed down or evacuat
Zhang employs the term to mean someone who has delu ed. The Psychological Society suspended practically all
sions of grandeur (one of the symptoms of paranoia), butits activities including publication (Lee & Petzold,
this doesn't capture the plethora of meanings Freud 1987). Following the founding of the People's Republic
intended. In many places in this translation the clinical
in 1949 a broad program of socialist reform was ushered
references are replaced with Chinese historical and culin. At this time it was widely held that psychology, based
tural terms, and a number of Zhang's own judgementsupon Western ideas, had to be revised to fit better into
rather than Freud's are apparent (Zhang Yingyuan, the new social and political milieu. Like other intellectu
1989). Zhang was associated with the Tongcheng schoolals, psychologists had to study Marxist philosophy, and
of philosophy, which looked to pre-Confucian models of their discipline had to be practiced according to two
thought, and believed his translation of Freud was a wayprinciples : that psychological phenomena are a product
of realizing ancient and Confucian teachings rather than or function of the brain, and that mind is a reflection of
new Western ideas. But whereas Zhang required an outer reality. These were drawn from Lenin's theory of
adherence to classical Chinese to fully comprehend his
reflection in his Materialism and Empirio-criticism and
work, Gao Juefu (1933, 1935), in his translations of the Mao Zedong's On Contradiction and On Practice (Jing
Introductory and New Introductory Lectures on Qicheng, 1980). Soviet psychology had to be studied,
Psychoanalysis, was scrupulous in avoiding vague or notand Western psychology, in its various schools, includ
widely understood terms. If they appeared more distant ing psychoanalysis, had to be critically examined for its
and clinical, they were also more comprehensible to a failings (Lee & Petzold, 1987).
wider Chinese audience. Thus, 1949 brought a halt to the teaching and practice
If translation presents problems of how to select of theWestern psychology on the mainland (Chin & Chin,
1969). The new blueprint, inspired by the works of
right words, it also deals implicitly with censorship, by
way of editing or paraphrasing. This can be relatively Vygotsky, Luria and Leontev, made dialectical material
innocuous, as in Zhang Jingsheng's (1932) translation ism
ofthe central philosophy underlying all permissible
the 600-odd page Interpretation of Dreams which came psychology. From this position consciousness was an
out as a 52 page Chinese text. It retains many of the historically and developmentally formed mental product
essential points of the original, but lacks the rangesoof that its objects could not be thought of as separate
examples. It was also an attempt to popularize Freud andfrom the reflection process (fan she) which brings them
into being. This contrasted with certain idealist tenden
characterize him as a storyteller of continually climaxing
CHINA/SPECIAL FOCUS

Japanese,
a separation of subject and object, or mental image and which also prevented the formation
objective reality. Chinese psychoanalytic association. In line with w
hasterm
An effect of this position was to introduce a new been claimed above, Dai, in his teaching, d
for consciousness, zijue neng dongli, ‘active conscious
played the role of Freudian metaphysics and did
ness', which is formed in the activities of people stress
in soci instinctual impulses, “for the Chinese, by
ety in concrete actions. Mental processes cannot belarge,
studhave a rather natural attitude towards their bi
ied devoid of the contexts in which they ical
occur.
needs，，.

Dai, who trained under Harry Stack Sullivan

Consciousness was seen as the supreme force governing
human behaviour unchallenged by (and therefore grantseems to have been a lone exception. Typicall
Chicago,
ing no status to) competing forces such as theFreud's
preconideas have not been used as the basis of a clini
scious or unconscious. It was capable of self-reflection,
cal practice in China. Rather they have been selectively
used
that is, awareness of its own changes, and by all oftoits
bolster arguments for social reform, and it is
clearbeing
activities it increased its knowledge, the process that some of the discussions have been furthered
known as renshi, ‘cognition，. Ding Zuan (Tingonly at the expense of misrepresenting him. This
Tsang),
the secretary of the Chinese Psychology Society, reformist
which element may not be as strong now as it was the
thirties
was reformed in 1955, said in an article published a year but the new enquiry is causing some rethinking
later that there was little room within this framework fortraditional attitudes, particularly to sexuality.
about
Freud's ‘mysterious sexual drives'. Paradoxically, psy
Freud's ideas have certainly contributed to this, but the
range and complexity of his ideas may not be fully
chotherapy一a direct offshoot一gained respectability
only when its theoretical justification was presented in unless and until a translation of his complete
appreciated
works isto
Pavlov's system of an ordering of reflexes responding undertaken.
verbal stimuli (Ding Zuan, 1956). It would appear that psychoanalysis has not taken root
These ideas were variously debated and criticized dur in spite of the initial enthusiasm for some of
in China,
ing the Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1957，but thedissen
central tenets of Freud's theory. Yet it has not been
sion was quickly counteracted in the Anti-rightist totally rejected. Indeed, the evidence from a close read
Movement which followed. Psychoanalysis again ingcame
of some translations, and from the writings of its
under attack because of its “bourgeois” tendencies. early
Withadvocates, would seem to indicate that its reception
the Great Leap Forward, psychology, which had has been
beenvariable due to variations in the political cli
seen as a laboratory-based science, was now to mate, concern and occasionally distorted by more deeply
itself with practical problems, but approached in entrenched
the 'sci beliefs in the need for stability in family life
entific' manner advocated at the start of the revolution. even at the expense of individualized expression. This
Psychoanalysis was still not back on the agenda. account suggests that the selection of texts and their
Since 1978, following a 12-year period in which virtutranslations are powerful means whereby a culture can
ally all intellectual development stopped, there has been exert considerable control over the dissemination of for
a reemergence of interest in Freud's works. More trans eign ideas, just as the belief systems of a culture operat
lations have appeared, and the debate about his ideas ing through its commentators provide the means where
continues. However, psychoanalysis as therapy hasby the foreign is made palatable. These factors should
never taken root in China. According to the psychoanatherefore be taken into account in any future evaluations
lyst E. D. Joseph (1987)，who visited China in 1982, this of the development or impact of any aspect of Western
is because there is no tradition of expressiveness in the psychology in non-Western cultures, just as they high
doctor-patient relationship in China, and, as has been light the need for a continual sensitivity to indigenous
stated in many places elsewhere, the doctor in a tradi views. ■
tional Chinese setting typically adopts an authoritarian
attitude towards patients. Joseph also alludes to the * Earlier *versions Earlier
of this paper were presented at
breakdown of traditional hierarchies in the Chinese fam XXVXXV International Congress of Psychology, Int Bruss
ily and how these have been replaced by power positions July July
1992 and the First Asian Conference 199 in Psycholo
of commune leaders upon who individuals must rely for Singapore，October
Singapor 1992.
mobility and advancement, so that talking to strangers
becomes risky. However, in the same volume, Bingham
1. For
1. some of thisFor
background, and the sources,
some I am beholden t
Dai (1987) reports on his own experiences of teaching Cornell Cornell
University PhD dissertation of Zhang Yingyuan
Uni (1989). Ma
psychotherapy at Peking Municipal Psychopathic the the
papers I quote are written
papers
in Chinese, and I have to secure transla
I

Hospital (allied to the Peking Union Medical College) in order

in to read them.
order
Sources are scattered, and few on
topsychoanaly
China are available. The above thesis has a list of the materials available
from 1935-1939 (Dai, 1987). He intimates that this was
in Chinese. For a listing of works in English about developments in
in line with then current orthodoxy (i.e. was not an psychology in China, however, I recommended Petzold (1984) and lee ans
attempt to school analysts in authoritarianism) and Petzold (1987).
 CHINA/SPECIAL FOCUS

REFERENCES
Lee, Impact
Wolfgang Bauer, H. von, & Hwang Shen-chang (1982)，"German H. W.，& Petzold, M. (1987)，"Psychology in the People's Republic of
on
Modern Chinese Intellectual History", a Bibliography of Chinese
China", in G. H. Blowers and A. Turtle (Eds.), Psychology Moving East: The
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Chinese. His analysis of Mind first appeared as a translation by Sun Fuyu of Hysteria (transl. Wen Jungong); Three Essays on the Theory of
Xin zhi fenxi, Beijing, Xinshe shushe, 1922, and his lectures were written Sexuality (transl.Lin Guoming); (1975) Totem and Taboo (transl. Yang
up in newspaper articles at the time under the same heading in Guomin Yongyi). Although many essays and secondary source translations related
ribao (National Daily) 1920-21 and Shishi xinbao (Daily News) March to Freudian psychoanalysis have appeared since 1982,1 have been unable
April 1921. to uncover any further translations of Freud actual works, save that of Gao
3. The estimate, cited in Lee and Petzold (1987), is taken from Pan Shu, Juefu's revised translation of the New introductory lectures.
Chen Li, Wang Jinghe and Chen Darou (1980). 6. Quoted in Yu Fengao (1987). This article, in Chinese, has provided
4. Jing Qicheng, personal communication. much useful background commentary.
5. These are according to Wolfgang Bauer & Hwang (1982), (1929) Group 7. Guo Renyuan (Kuo Zing-yang) made a considerable impact in the
Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (transl. Hsia Fu-hsin); twenties in the field of behaviorism by publishing a series of articles
Psychoanalysis (The Clark lectures) (transl. Gao Juefu); (1930) attacking the concept of instinct. Beginning with 'Giving Up Instincts in
Selbstdarstellung (Autobiography) (transl. Zhang Shizhao), and again in Psychology' an 1921 (Journal of Philosophy, 18，645-664)，he followed
1969 by Liao Yufan); (1933) Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis up with several papers in the twenties in the Psychological Review. In the
(transl.) Gao Juefu twice, also in 1968; (1932) The Interpretation of thirties his papers on embryological developments in the chick embryo
Dreams (transl. Zhang Jingsheng), and, again in 1973 by Lai Chi wan and were published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology. A summary of his
Fu Zhuanxiao); (1935) New Introductory Lectures in Psychoanalysis work appears in his book The Dynamics of Human Behavioural
(transl. Gao Juefu twice, also in 1985); (1971) Dora : Analysis of a Case Development: An Epigenetic View (New York, Random House, 1967).