Psychoanalysis in China

'The edited volume by David Scharff and Sverre Varvin is a wonderful new addition on the topic. Spanning some 30 short chapters, the book provides snap shots of the cultural, theoretical, and practical issues associated with introduction of psychoanalysis in China from the vantage points of both Western and Chinese participants.'

-- Kris Yi PHD PsyD, 'Psychoanalytic Psychology', 2017, (34)(2):242-245

'This book thoroughly demonstrates the latest developments of psychoanalysis in China. All of the foreign and Chinese contributors to the book are psychoanalysts and psychotherapists actively involved in the training, learning, and practice of psychoanalysis in China. They share and demonstrate their enthusiasm, experience, and thinking from various perspectives. The most commendable part of the book is the cultural perspective; and the contributions of psychoanalysis concerning the nature of human beings, mental health, and psychotherapy are formidable. However, with thousands of years of civilisation, the complexity of Chinese culture has a lot of special features. The practice of psychoanalysis in China presents a great collision between western and eastern cultures, and the experience and thinking of the authors offer important starting points for the development of useful theory, methods, and techniques for the development of mental health within the context of Chinese culture. Perhaps it will be most valuable in promoting the penetration of psychoanalysis into China, but China will also contribute new power to psychoanalysis around the world. This book is especially important because it witnesses this mutual process.'

-- Jia Xiaoming, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, and Vice- Director, Psychoanalytic Committee of the China Association for Mental Health

'This fascinating book presents the most complete, enlightening, and up-to-date contribution on the new bridge between psychoanalysis and contemporary Chinese culture. Highly qualified and actively involved specialists, from both western countries and China, explore the complexity and richness of this growing, exciting exchange, which is now possible thanks to the significant shift in Chinese attitudes towards subjectivity. While reading these pages, it is easy to deduce that this will not be a simple one-way intercultural process: we can envisage for the future a mutual cross-fertilisation between the most revolutionary western discoveries about the human mind and the immense, millenary depth of Chinese tradition and philosophy.'

-- Stefano Bolognini, President, International Psychoanalytical Association

'It is a challenge to describe how remarkable this book is. In the first place it provides a near comprehensive and inclusive review of psychoanalysis in contemporary China. Although many authors focus on particular issues, the sum of individual interests comprises a fascinating collective voice that reflects modern China. Unlike so many works by oriental and occidental writers interested in psychoanalysis, this new work does not promote an occidental agenda. The editors are to be congratulated for their remarkable skill in facilitating chapters that integrate oriental and occidental thinking. In that respect, this is a book that should become required reading for psychoanalysts in the East and the West for generations to come.'

-- Christopher Bollas, author of ‘China on the Mind’ and ‘Catch Them Before They Fall: The Psychoanalysis of Breakdow