According to ordinary people, mental health means no psychological problems, and psychological problems are unhealthy. In other words, there is a clear boundary between mental health and psychological problems. Therefore, using psychological theory to analyze people's words and deeds, judge people's psychology, define, explain and solve people's psychological problems, and make people live in a healthy state without psychological problems, it seems to become a correct, noble, sacred and irrefutable "kingdom". is a Western psychological diagnostic standard, treatment technology and various "psychological diseases" 's professional term swept the world like a tide and poured into the country. However, people are living in complex and complex society, and their psychology is not in a state of black or white. With this idea, I thought and explored...
I once discussed that "popular values" are an important reason for the current psychological problems [1]. ”
Li Cheng, a psychiatric psychotherapist at the Royal Hong Kong Hospital, said: "Psychological illness cannot exist alone without social background [2]. "Psychopathologist Mr. Xu Youxin believes that: "The investigation and research of mental disorders cannot be separated from the perspective of cultural history [3]. ”
So when thinking about current psychological problems , cannot be isolated from the current social background and culture to find the reasons. If you do a theory without these two, your theory will easily become arrogant, deviate from objectivity, and may also cause new problems to others. Most of the popular psychological theories and consulting technologies in China are imported from the West, and it will take longer to test, modify, and break through. Even local psychological theories and consulting technologies require time to verify. Because any kind of thing can bring both positiveness and negativeness. Below I would like to talk about how some people use Western psychological theories to create the problems they want.
The first point is to create and define problems in the closest relationship.
For example, the "original family theory" was first proposed by Morey Bowen of the United States. Its original intention was to keep psychological workers neutral and assist visitors to understand the relationship and emotional entanglement in the family, not to ask the bottom of the family. It is worth pointing out that Mr. Bowen is an original family based on American cultural values, and the original family is not a causal relationship. However, some people in China regard "original family theory" as an absolute causal relationship to understand the family, thus forming many of which are inconsistent with the traditional Chinese family education .
I remembered that A few years ago, someone raised an absolute view such as "all parents in the world are harming", "children's problems are all parents' problems", and "all children's problems come from the original family". Because children are born and raised by parents, many people are confused and at a loss. In fact, many consultants have found in practice that some clients have become more inconsistent with the family because they read books on original family theory or listen to such publicity. If "original family theory" is a causal relationship, there are too many places to reflect on.
For example, the mother of psychologist Maslow is rough and often kills small animals in front of him. However, why is Maslow so outstanding in such an unfortunate native family? What? In reality, even if a couple in a family has a few children, each child has different personalities and personalities, and the achievements in society are also different. Some people define divorced families as "incomplete families", also known as "single-parent families", artificially define it as a flawed family. In other words, children from single families live in an incomplete family, which is problematic. However, ancient Chinese Confucius , Mencius , and former US President Obama are all outstanding figures who grew up in single-parent families. These all show that "original family theory" cannot be concluded as a causal relationship. Because people are individuals with self-function.
Western family education advocates individualism, open-minded personality, and equality of generations.Traditional Chinese family education advocates collectivism, modest character, respect the elderly and love the young, have high or low generation, and individuals need to make certain sacrifices when necessary for the interests of the family. In terms of relationships with children, Chinese families have far more energy and material resources than Western families. The education costs of a child are mainly borne by the family, and the children's adulthood, such as getting married or buying a house, are mainly supported by their parents' savings. In such a brother-in-law family relationship, is it really objective if we copy Western psychological views as a standard to analyze our own family?
Some scholars believe that the introduction of "original family theory" is an attempt to set interpersonal boundaries in Chinese families, thereby challenging the collective model that has long existed in Chinese families. Because it is easiest to find problems in the closest interpersonal relationships, because what is not suitable for you can be defined as a problem. The only thing that has no problem is that it has nothing to do with you. In the most intimate interpersonal relationships, we constantly use the original family theory constructed according to the value of Western culture as the standard, dig deep and define various problems in Chinese families, and try to reconstruct family relationships in this way. Is this model really suitable for Chinese family education? The conclusion may be too early. Nowadays, based on the theory of original family propaganda, most families have various problems.
The second point is to use cultural differences to create and define problems.
The spiritual psychology of each nation cannot be separated from its original cultural shaping. The difference in emotional expression and behavior is not necessarily a problem.
"Western people talk about autopsychology , which may be a disguised cultural colonization. ( Chen Canrui : Psychologist)"
For example, Chinese people often say: "This child is so pitiful, I feel sorry." And this "heartache" is difficult for Westerners to understand.
For example, Westerners usually call their parents directly, while Chinese call their parents directly is extremely disrespectful to their parents. In order to keep up with the trend, some domestic TV series also have scenes where children call their parents by directly calling them to attract audiences in the character dialogues in the drama. There are even some programs about family education where some psychological educators are teaching such a context, believing that this is an equal dialogue between parents and children, which is conducive to improving the relationship between parents and children. In fact, this is to transplant the Western humanistic values into the Chinese humanities, which itself is to create conflicts or create problems. Under the impact of Western culture, although we seem to use our own culture every day, we are just using Chinese language to tell the Western social values, social etiquette, cultural education and personal words and deeds. These are all guided by Western values as the standard, which will inevitably lead to opposition and conflict with the collective subconscious that has been rooted in our deep national culture for a long time, and create new psychological problems consciously and unconsciously.
"In Western culture, autonomy and boundaries are valued, so close parent-child relationships are regarded as problematic. In Chinese culture, close parent-child relationships are acceptable, and this intimate relationship has always been there until the child becomes an adult (Zeng Wenxing, Psychiatrician 2002)."
For example, in order to establish a good relationship with others, a person may be accustomed to saying beautiful and nice words, but this will be judged by some psychologists as deviating from the "pleasant personality" of normal personality according to Western psychological standards and need healing. In Chinese culture, it is at most called "flattering" and "fashioning others", which is a normal phenomenon in communicating with others. When a certain behavior is considered normal in social groups, the person's words, deeds and psychological state are relatively natural and normal. For example, once it is defined as a problem, the person's psychology will naturally change in the direction of a problem, and it also feels that it is consistent with being diagnosed as a "problem" by others. Psychologist Waters believes: "Any other mental illness is inseparable from the influence and shaping of cultural information and cultural expectations [4]." He further believes that psychological illnesses around the world are being gradually coplanned by the West.
The mainstream Western psychology classifies sorrow into mental and psychological diseases, and sets a diagnostic standard for sorrow "PGD". As long as it meets this standard, treatment is required. However, psychologist Kaori Wada pointed out: "The emergence of PGD is not based on scientific discoveries... The diagnosis of PGD represents the core of mainstream psychological theory, that is, it tends to regard behaviors that deviate from Western cultural norms as "unhealthy" [5]." She pointed out without hesitation that there is a conflict of interest in this diagnostic standard, and the world's world's measurement of whether a person's psychological condition is scientific and objective in a few minutes by using Western PGD psychometric tables has always been controversial in the industry. Moreover, when it comes to dealing with sadness, each nation has its own method.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong has conducted a brain wave experiment. The brain wave reaction when a person reads English is different from the brain wave reaction when he reads Chinese characters (psychologist Xu Jun). Since the reactions are different, the emotional feelings will also be different.
The third point is to define people’s preferences and emotions and behaviors as problems.
For example, a boy likes more mothers and less fathers. Some people define the boy as having an "Oeda complex" according to Western psychological theories. People’s preferences are a very normal emotional behavior. Once they are defined as a mentality with some problematic nature, they may really become psychological problems, which are the so-called “inducing traps”. Because people often think that if I like my mother more, would I be a person with the "Oedipus complex"?
The author of Joseph Woodys (a fragment of Freud's analysis) once said: "Freud's psychoanalysis has created many of his patients [6]." He further pointed out that " psychoanalysis theory is a special understanding and explanation of life, but cannot be used as a causal explanation [7]."
psychoanalysis assumes a psychological model, but the pain caused by psychological conflicts in the model is not necessarily a problem. Once a psychoanalyst called creative writers "hysterical patients" and said that although they are creative, they are not healthy. In fact, this is a prejudice. Because psychologists are also creative people. Mr. Xu Youxin said it well: "It is also painful psychological conflict. It is abnormal to have sparks of philosophy, science or culture and art due to pain, but it is abnormal and undesirable to do nothing for many years due to pain. [8]." (Hysteria: generally refers to emotional disorders after being stimulated.)
The famous psychologist Mr. Lu Kunwei said: "Western psychology regards emotions/emotions as a force of disturbance, and believes that cognition and reason are needed to regulate. In contrast to the former, Chinese culture believes that humans have the ability to feel emotions is a positive quality. , it should be strengthened by extending consciousness [9]. "
A person will experience sourness, sweetness, bitterness, spicyness, joy, anger, sorrow and happiness throughout his life, and "pain" belongs to Chinese traditional culture , which is regarded as the best recipe for tempering a person's mental growth. Therefore, the ancients said: "Therefore, when God will give a great responsibility to this person, he must first suffer his mind and will, exhaust his muscles and bones, and starve his body." However, under the definition of Western psychology, if someone now "hangs the beam and thorns" to study, it will definitely be defined by some people as "self-abuse" with psychological problems.
The fourth point is popular culture education, unconsciously creating new problems.
All popular psychological education, such as "family education", "excellent child training base", "how to become a qualified parent", "elite education", etc.... are all popular cultural education categories. In fact, Western psychological and cultural value orientation is everywhere, which makes many families think that they do not meet this standard and have problems, so they participate in such popular culture education. The reason for this is that people's current confusion and anxiety caused by unclearity, distrust, faults, or major deficiencies in their own subject culture, can only find alternatives in Western culture to quench their thirst and fill their hunger. That is, under the prosperity of Western culture, the psychological phenomenon of common problems is constructed.Philosopher Michel Foucault pointed out that "social and national culture is particularly easy to be influenced by new psychology when experiencing widespread anxiety and conflicts in society."
The rise of these popular educational models with psychological theories with strong Western cultural values is, in a form, to modify Chinese culture into an educational carrier that is more inclined to the standards of Western cultural value. This will invisibly allow the educated to form a conflict and separation process with the inherent cultural subjects. In this process, problems will be created consciously or unconsciously, and lay a deeper foreshadowing for future psychological conflicts.
The famous psychologist and former director of the Chinese Psychological Society Han Buxin said worriedly: "The collective subconscious is broken and the family tradition loses its inheritance, and problems will arise. [10]"
Fifth Point Generalization of Western psychological diseases terms creates new problems.
In reality, there are many programs about psychology, such as movies, TV series, psychological interviews , personality education... These programs use many Western psychological diseases terms, and even some programs often violate ethical processes in order to attract attention and gain benefits.
Anthropologist An Mengzhu pointed out that "the popularity of autobiographical and confessional conversation programs has brought many psychological and psychiatric terms into the lives of ordinary people, creating new 'pain idioms' [11]." When many ordinary people use these term standards to diagnose others and themselves, it is possible to unconsciously create problems, because psychology often has the possibility of being suggested. Mr. Xia Linqing said: "Global dumping misalignment has brought about the flood of the 'application' of psychology." (Xia Linqing: Ph.D. in Psychological Counseling, Harvard University)
As far as China is concerned, the development of modern society has given people more freedom and independent pursuit and enjoy their own life, and pursue different types of cultures. However, in these pursuits, they have unconsciously caused distrust and gaps in their own inherent culture, and after excessively one-sided acceptance of Western cultural values, they have directly or indirectly caused many problems.
French philosopher Michel Foucault mocked: "Civilization constitutes an environment conducive to the development of madness [12]" means that the continuous progress of human civilization has created more mentally ill patients continuously. The pioneer of analytical psychology, Jung , once said: "The development of human civilization is the loss of human nature." The rationality brought by Western experimental psychology has gradually stripped away human spirituality and regarded humans as animals, but humans are spiritual individuals.
Whether people can live in a state without psychological problems forever, this is a controversial question. For example, we must draw a boundary. I think no matter what emotions a person causes, as long as he can manage his emotions well and not affect his life, then he will have no problem. If you have to define some internal emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and joy or words and deeds that are different from Western cultural values as problems, then it may be a problem that creates problems.
As this article is approaching the end of this article, a few reflections and suggestions are put forward again on the theory of the school of psychology:
(1) There is not only the only correct way to understand things.
(2) It is necessary to understand that anyone's understanding and thinking has limitations or blind spots.
(3) Understanding is a cyclic spiral (ascending) process. Even if it is correct at the moment, it is not the highest point.
(4)Everyone and every family are individuals living under different conditions and cannot be treated with unified standards.
(5) Since life is open and requires a lifetime to answer, do not regard the current theory as an absolute causal relationship.
The introduction of Western psychology may make people understand the current psychological problems from a different perspective, but if applied according to absolute causal relationships, it may be to create current or future problems.Therefore, while absorbing Western psychology experience, we need to have discernment, reflection, and transformation. At the same time, we must discover, refine, carry forward and create the essence in our subject culture, so that we can see life, treat life, and be friendly to others and ourselves without being impetuous and calm.
My teacher often says that it is best to look at any problem with a philosophical perspective. In his article " Contradiction Theory ", Mr. Mao Zedong pointed out: "Everything develops in contradictions", so as a psychological worker, in the wave of Western psychology as the standard, we need both conscience, reflection, and innovation...
Reference data:
【1】One and two of "A Brief Explanation of Popular Values", Zeng Hongbing 2020-2021 Baidu Jianen Mind
【2】《 Crazy Like Us 》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》 /Ethan and Waters, translated by Huang Xiaonan, Beijing Normal University published 2016
【3】》》》》》》》 2016
【3】》》》》》》 2016
【5】》》》》》》》》》 2016
【5】》》》》》》》》》》》》》》 2016
【5】》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》 2016
【5】》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》 2016
【5】》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》 Western diagnostic criteria for mental illnesses, may form new colonial violence. "Compiled by Chen Xinpei, Heart List 2022
[6] "Psychiatry" 2nd edition page 3, Xu Youxin, Peking University Medical Press 2011
[7] "Psychiatry" 2nd edition page 38, Xu Youxin, Peking University Medical Press 2011
[8] "Psychiatry" 2nd edition page 6, Xu Youxin, Peking University Medical Press 2011
[9] "Chinese Emotions" 2nd edition page 329, Mei/Lu Kunwei, translated by Xie Zhongyao, published by Peking University Normal University 2019
[10] "Han Buxin, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Reflecting on the mainstream psychology of misguided paths" Han Buxin 2022
[11] "20 Years of "Psychological Fever" in China: Standardization of Pain and Globalization of Treatment" by An Mengzhu, Heart List 2022
[12] "Crazy and Civilization" Law/ Michel Foucault , Sanlian Press
The author of this article Zeng Hongbing: Psychological Counselor, one of the initiators of Jianen Spirit Studio, registered member of the Guangdong Branch of the Chinese Psychological Society, member of Zhuhai Mental Health Promotion Association, public welfare counselor of Zhuhai Psychological Crisis Intervention Center, part-time counselor of Zhuhai Trade Union Workers Station, and positive psychology researcher. Orientation: Psychoanalysis (including dream analysis) + postmodern psychological therapy, poetry and psychology. Main guidance directions: neurotic depression, anxiety, compulsion; marriage and family, parent-child relationship, psychological crisis intervention, etc.
