Paper
Is There any Traditional Chinese Psychology
- Authors:
- Arnulf Kolstad
- Abstract
- China has had a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for thousands of years, where holism and body systems have a central place. TCM has gained a foothold also outside China. But does China have an alternative psychology where psychological functions are perceived in a different way with that in the West? Are there specific therapies and treatment procedures based on this understanding? This is discussed in the article and there are given examples of how the traditional Chinese culture understands human thinking, emotions and minor mental health problems. The dialectical way to deal with life represents a different philosophy with the one most common in the West. The Chinese focuses on the whole, the context and the relational. The self-perception and perception of others is based on an understanding of human beings as inter-dependent and linked to each other. Good mental health depends on the perception of being included and integrated in a social network, and according to traditional Chinese view associated with the sense of self as dependent, integrated and relational.
- Keywords
- Traditional Chinese Medicine; Psychology; Harmony; Balance; Confucius
- StartPage
- 85
- EndPage
- 91
- Doi