In search of Chinese characteristics. Western therapy approaches in the People’s Republic of China

Authors

  • Annette Hillers-Chen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30820/8243.01

Keywords:

Psychotherapy, Chinese characteristics, Cultivation, Indigenisation, People’s Republic of China

Abstract

Western-style psychotherapy has become a booming market in China. Based on the current state of psychotherapy in the People’s Republic, it is almost impossible to tell what approaches would prevail or which of them are better or less suited for the country. Furthermore, the general discussion is based on abstract dichotomies as well as the three classics, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, which are increasingly struggling to reflect the complex and quickly changing China of today. The localisation of «Chinese characteristics» can quickly be reduced to absurdity. One solution is the bring the applied complexities and specific actions into the foreground to understand the reciprocal process of interpersonal friction not as cultivation effort of a form of treatment towards China, but as a mutual transformation process, i. e., the cultivation and re-cultivation of holistic therapy forms. The question regarding the Chinese characteristics becomes incidental.

Author Biography

Annette Hillers-Chen

Annette Hillers-Chen ist Associate Professor für Angewandte Psychologie und psychotherapeutische Beraterin am Zentrum für Gesundheitserziehung und -forschung an der Universität Nanjing. Sie arbeitet zum Themenbereich Akkulturation in China und hat eine China-Kooperation mit dem Institut für Integrative Gestalttherapie Würzburg seit 2009 mit aufgebaut. Ende 2018 wird sie nach Hangzhou an die Universität Zhejiang überwechseln.

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Published

2018-10-10

How to Cite

Hillers-Chen, A. (2018). In search of Chinese characteristics. Western therapy approaches in the People’s Republic of China. Psychotherapie-Wissenschaft, 8(2), 11–18. https://doi.org/10.30820/8243.01

Issue

No. 2 (2018): Kulturübergreifende Psychotherapie

Section

Titelthema: Kulturübergreifende Psychotherapie

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