News from the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance

Here is an update on the activities of the Alliance. We are a completely volunteer organization. We have NO hired employees. We need help in a variety of capacities.

1. Psychoanalyses (20 in progress), Psychotherapies (4 in progress) Individual Supervisions (20 in progress). Now we will be screening all patients thoroughly. (Gardner Jacobs and Lana Fishkin will be doing these screenings.) VOLUNTEER FOR THE SCREENING COMMITTEE. We have people waiting for psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and individual supervision and we will have many more in September. VOLUNTEER TO ANALYZE, DO THERAPY AND SUPERVISE.

2. Two Year Psychotherapy Training Programs:
A. Massachusetts General Hospital, thanks to Scott Wilson, will be teaching one and possibly two programs in China starting this September. We will be providing much of the individual supervision and psychotherapies.
Continue reading News from the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance

Video-conferencing in China

Dear Colleagues,

For members interested in teaching international groups through video-conferencing, I would like to report an academic experience of a lifetime.

As part of the Chinese American Psychoanalytic Alliance educational program, last Friday I held a two-hour clinical conference from my home office in Port Republic, Maryland for 12 Chinese psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers in Shanghai, China. This class will alternate bi-weekly with a similar group of 12 mental health professionals.

The students, most in their mid-thirties with several years experience as psychotherapists, were open minded, eager to learn, and highly excited about gaining knowledge of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The experience is a refreshing change from the frustration of facing the intellectually muscle bound and emotionally unaware students we often encounter when teaching, for example, modern day American psychiatric residents. 

“How do ‘self-knowledge’ and ‘self-understanding’ (my terms for the benefits of psychoanalysis) help a patient?” one student asked early on, then responded thoughtfully to my “Knowledge is Power” illustrations. The group was particularly impressed with the psychoanalytic discussion that unfolded as the case presenter reported the patient’s ongoing complaint of mental helplessness when the she was faced with feelings she could not describe. The entire class, even the child therapists, responded with awe as they observed, “I would never have thought of that,” as I went into considerable detail to show how such an adult experience could have originated in the pre-verbal period of one’s life, a time when a child experiences feelings but has not yet gained the mental capacity even to conceptualize the feelings’ existence, much less identify and articulate them. Although many Chinese psychotherapists are widely read in psychoanalytic literature, clinically they remain largely innocent.

I was motivated to teach these conferences to express my gratitude to the team of 24 mental health therapists who wanted to translate my book, Now It All Makes Sense, into Mandarin. The book is composed primarily of explicit dialogue between analytic therapist and patient and is especially suited to their needs. We expect, however, that the classes will stimulate the student’s interest in enrolling in the two-year psychoanalytic psychotherapy programs that CAPA will begin in September 2008. This prospect appeared validated when, as the session ended, the presenter eagerly asked, “Can I present again next time?” to which the other members yelled, “No, I want to.”  

If you have questions , please contact me

William Stockton wjstockton@rcn.com

The effects of cultural differences between Chinese and Americans on analyses and supervisions

CHINA AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

American Psychoanalytic Association at

The Waldorf Astoria Hotel

January 17, 2008

The effects of cultural differences between Chinese and Americans on analyses and supervisions

Charles Fisher, M.D.

1. Carole Rosen, MA. MSW, LCSW

Overview of Some Cultural Differences and History with Some Comments on Clinical Implications

My comments reflect my experience with Chinese immigrants and my own life in China in the late 1970’s, and also being part of a Chinese family for 7 years.

The motivated patients who are in treatment or supervision with CAPA members are an unusual group in China. While the historical aversion to psychotherapy is changing, much psychotherapy in China is conducted in groups. For example, a group focused on road rage. To go outside the family with personal matters has been considered shameful. The Chinese “ego ideal” emphasizes interdependency and intergenerational bonding, in contrast to the Western ideal of separation/individuation. [Editorial note: The very term “ego ideal” contains the Western idea of ego.] Cultural change in China creates a problem for young people relating to traditional elders. Their internal conflicts between filial piety and desires for self-sufficiency and personal fulfillment, lead to guilt. Some individuals seek treatment with Western psychoanalysts in order to minimize their conflict about acting “more Western”. Cultural values de-emphasize open discussion and challenges to authority. Clearly this is relevant to clinical work. Continue reading The effects of cultural differences between Chinese and Americans on analyses and supervisions

French Chinese Movie

I just saw a preview of the Chinese/French movie “Summer Palace”. During the discussion following the showing there were passionate reactions to the film–split 50/50 for and against. I thought it was a very brave film that depicted the journey of a young, depressed teen-aged woman from her home town to Beijing University, before and after the 1989 uprising. A hand held camera, took me, and those who agreed with my experience, inside the mind and bodies of the protagonist and her lovers. The pain and passion were palpable and with the camera lingering as it did, one could not escape the emotions that bubbled up. I won’t say more, other than it gave me a deep look into the student, dormitory life at Beijing U. and everyday existence that I missed when I was in China last May for a Wu Tai Chi gathering for practitioners from around the world.

Reactions from the Cannes film festival were also split but somewhat tilted to the negative side. I have a feeling that analysts will load up on the side of intense engagement with the film. Click here to read a review that captures the essence of the film.

Myron S. Lazar, Ph.D.

The Richie Boys

Am I the only one who has never seen–or maybe the only one who has seen–a documentary called The Richie Boys? It is about some young German, French, Austrian…who escaped the Nazi’s in 1933-1939. When the war broke out, they enlisted–or were drafted. The Army fearing it had a batch of enemy aliens in their midst assigned most of them to kitchen duty. Later they realized they had a great asset and sent them aa to Camp Richie where they were trained in military intelligence and landed in Normandy and were put to work interrogating German POW’s. It is a fantastic film, even more so when you compare these interrogators to the ones at Abu Gareb.

Report from China #1

I have just returned from 21 days in China. I don’t think I have ever worked so hard or eaten so well. If anyone is interested, I will send you a list of the places where I spoke and the people whom I met. A lecture in China usually lasts for 3 hours. Almost every night there was a banquet and often one at lunch too. Most of these arrangements were made by Zhang Haiyan. She is the young psychiatrist who was in analysis with one of our group and who is now in Canada. There, she has just begun her psychoanalytic training at the Toronto Institute. Her professor in China was Richang Zheng, a nationally famous psychologist who seems to know every one in China interested in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. I was passed on from one person to another all issuing invitations for me to speak—so that before I left for China, there were only two free half days in my schedule and these were filled when I got there.

I did a large number of supervisions and also consultations as well as speaking to many heads of departments and programs and individual psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors. This is a very long email so I will put a table on contents here and you can print it out and read it at your leisure or skip the parts that are of no interest. Tomorrow I will try to post a description of what is happening with the two-year training program. Continue reading Report from China #1