Several years back, I had a friend who was going through a rough time.  They were burned out, marriage was busted, and was in need of someone to talk to.

The problem was, that no one was there, and that only added to the anxiety of the situation.

Psychologists and Psychiatrists in China at that time were few and far between, and the ones that were available were often poorly trained to boot.  this was highlighted during the 5.1 earthquake as NGOs around China began announcing their mental health programs… but were unable to find the counselors to do the job.

the article As stress grows, modern Chinese turn to Western psychotherapy, offers some interesting insights into the history of psychiatry in China and the hurdles it faces in gaining wider acceptance:

Psychotherapy, which gained an entry in China with the country’s first psychology institute in 1917, was disparaged as unscientific after the Communists took power in 1949. It was banned during the Cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong, which ended in 1976.

China’s traditional culture values “saving face,” which means emphasizing the positive and addressing embarrassing issues obliquely. This approach conflicts with the process of openly discussing problems that is inherent to most psychotherapy.

Where I see this as especialy troubling is that in no other country have I seen the levels of family displacement as I have seen in China.  families, particularly of the poorer regions, make huge personal sacrifices to attain economic benefit.

My first ayi was a perfect example - she worked in Shanghai for almost 10 years while her husband worked in Guangdong on a construction site.  Their 4 children were living with her parents, and the entire situation was hard on everyone.  Kids were acting out, rebeling in school, and she and her husband were not really living a life as husband and wife.  At the minimum, the children would have benefited, but no doubt were she and her husband able to afford it for themselves, a few sessions would have benefited them as well.

And this story is repeated millions of times over.

In the grand scheme of things, one of the keys to stability in China is the ability of its citizens to remain mentally balanced.

There are a lot of ways that China has incorporated a lot of unhealthy vents into the system to let off steam (alcohol, smoking, massage parlors, internet bars, KTVs, etc), but to achieve mental stabilty long term it will need to address the core issues that people face rather than gloss them over with a bit of “entertainment”.