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The books of psychoanalysis and papers for introducing the way of interpreting dreams and technique of free association were translated into Chinese from 1910s to 1920s. During that time, Dr. Cai Yuanpei, who had studied with Wundt in Germany, founded the first Psychology Institute in 1917 in Beijing. The Chinese Psychological Society was founded in 1921 in Shanghai. These two important events promoted the introduction of psychotherapy into China from Western countries. In 1930s, some papers on analyzing mental disorders using the principles of behavior therapy were published. When an American scholar, Dr. R. Lyman, took in charge in the neurology and psychiatry department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital in 1933, he had organized many training courses for the doctors there, which included training courses of psychoanalysis. Dai Bing-Heng had taught this course in the hospital (see Chen and Qian, 1997). In 1930s, there were psychological clinics organized by a psychologist, Ding Zan, in the Central Experimental Institute in Chong Qing, and Ren-Li Carpet Factory in Beijing. At the same time, one psychological treatment clinic for children was set up by the Psychological Association of DaSha University in Shanghai. During the World War II, all these developments were stopped. After the People's Republic of China founded in 1949, psychotherapy development still progressed unevenly in the years before the economic reformation in 1979. It has been gone over five phases -- initiative phase, void phase, preparation phase and primary developmental phase as the first four stages (Qian, 1994; Zhong, 1991), and developing and professional phase as the fifth stage according to the professionals and practitioners' work and their publications, as well as symbolic events in the area.
Initiative phase was from 1949 to 1965. Only a few professionals did sporadic psychotherapy in this period. Huang Jiayin, a psychologist in Shanghai, had published a few books and reported how to apply behavior therapy principles to treat children's problems (Huang, 1951,1952). In addition, some other Chinese psychologists had tried to use psychotherapeutic ideas to work with their patients in this phase. The most influential work in the initiative phase was the treatment work of applying Rapid Comprehensive Therapy for neurasthenias. The model was a short-term one, developed by some of Chinese psychologists and psychiatrists at the end of 1950s and the beginning of 1960s. At the beginning it was specially applying for treating neurasthenia, but later it's also used for treating the other kind of anxiety disorders. It combined medical treatment, physical exercises, thematic lectures and group discussion. The cause of neurasthenia in this model was interpreted by Pavlov's theory. Patients were treated by interpretation, encouragement, homework assignment and supportive method. According to the related articles, this therapy was very effective (Li et al., 1958; Li, 1960; Wang, 1961a, 1961b, Division of Medical Psychology, IPCAS, 1959), and it aroused interest in psychotherapy among professionals.
Before the Cultural Revolution, Freud's psychoanalysis theory was denounced as pan-sexualism. All the psychologists learned and used Pavlov¨s theory for treating their patients following the model of the former Soviet Union. During the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1977), psychology was criticized as antagonizing on science. None of universities could found any course on psychology at that time. Almost all the psychologists were forced to go to other working posts. Psychotherapy was in an even worse situation. Neither articles nor books related to psychotherapy were published for years, thus this time was named void phase.
Preparation phase lasted about nine years (1978-1986). The reformation and opening policy, raised by Deng Xiaoping, broke the ice-age in China. In this period there were only a few publications related to psychotherapy, while books written by famous Western psychotherapists, such as Freud, Jung and Fromm were translated and published. Also various workshops, training programs, and academic conferences related to psychotherapy were held. A group of ambitious scholars began to explore the profession of counseling and psychotherapy and some psychological clinics were opened in the beginning of the1980's.
Primary development of psychotherapy in China began from 1987 to 2001. Articles related to psychotherapy published in the professional journals increased rapidly. More and more people accept psychotherapy and the applied therapeutic theories and approaches were increasing (Chen & Qian, 1997). Another feature in this phase was that Chinese professionals developed their own theories and models based on the experience in their clinical practice and published their own works. Clinics of counseling and psychotherapy were generally set up at universities and comprehensive hospitals in the cities around the country, and there were professional centers for psychotherapy and private psychological clinics in this phase too. Not only did the training programs and workshops on psychotherapy increased in number, but also their quality improved. In addition, two professional committees of psychotherapy and counseling (one was the committee of psychotherapy and counseling, another was the counseling committee of college students) were founded by the Chinese Association for Mental Health in the beginning of the 1990s, and there was another committee founded in Chinese Psychology Society by the end of 2001 named Clinical and Counseling Psychology division. There were more academic activities organized by the committees and more communication on psychotherapy among Chinese colleagues in this phase.
Developing and professional phase began from 2002. Within this phase, the improvements of psychotherapy and counseling have happened in many aspects, while the marking events in the phase are that government departments have launched relevant requirements for the professionals.
Chinese Labor Ministry launched the qualification requirements in 2001, and began to apply it at 2002. In 2002, Chinese Ministry of Health and Ministry of Personnel worked cooperatively on the regulations of qualified examinations for psychotherapists who work in the health service area. After the economic reformation, almost all the major western theories and techniques of psychotherapy have been introduced to China since the 1980's. Psychotherapy and counseling in China are greatly affected by different perspectives of theories and approaches of psychotherapy from the West. However, Chinese practitioners try to apply them in according with Chinese culture background.
Zhao SM et al (2003) examined the publications in the CD Database of Chinese Biological and Medical Literatures (1981-2000), found an exponential increase in literature in all types of psychotherapy in China. They concluded that the psychotherapy was at a rapid development stage in China now.
Although psychotherapy and counseling in China have made rapid progress since 1987, there are many problems and challenges as well. For instance, the amount of professionals, especially those have been well trained, is insufficient. The professionals in China should be open-minded to all theories, methods, and techniques. Through learning the experiences from foreign colleagues, Chinese professional should also actively develop culturally appropriate theories and methods.
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Psychotherapy
in China