ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the history and development of Chinese psychology. It examines the similarities and the differences between Western and Chinese psychology provides useful insight and furthers the development of a more universal, global psychology. The chapter briefly describes some of the concepts from traditional Chinese medicine of relevance to psychology including Chi and yin and yang. It discusses the influence of the Chinese Medical Model on the development of Chinese psychology, particularly on the areas of abnormal and counseling psychology. The chapter also discusses the impact of the formation of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese psychology and the impact of China’s Cultural Revolution on Chinese psychology. It also examines the development of psychological science in China, which, while at times readily accepting of ideas imported from the West, is built upon a philosophical and scientific base that is very different from the “Socratic,” Judeo-Christian-Islamic roots of Western psychology.
