This week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy discuss mental health in China with George Hu, a Shanghai-based clinical psychologist who serves as president of the Shanghai International Mental Health Association and leads the United Family Mental Health Network. George describes how American ideas of psychiatry and psychology have shaped the way Chinese mental health professionals understand mental wellness and mental distress, resulting in the importation of approaches to diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders that may not always be the best fit with China’s cultural, sociological, and historical realities.
5:14: – Trying to assess the scale of mental illness in China
9:45 – How mental health is diagnosed and classified in China
19:00 – Mental health and the extraordinary competitiveness of life in China
28:09 – The growing focus on the intersection between culture and mental health in China
37:21 – Issues faced by American students in China
46:17 – Mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic
50:42 – Bicultural therapy
A transcript of this interview is available on TheChinaProject.com.
Recommendations:
Jeremy: Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
by Merlin Sheldrake
George: Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche by Ethan Watters
Kaiser: Awakening from Dukkha from the Inner Mongolian band Nine Treasures
