Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines issues in Chinese culture and history that form a crucial background to mental health programmes, training, and intervention and the changing face of collective, family, and individual identity in rural Chinese youth. It discusses a primer on modern China that summarises a number of currents in modern Chinese history and society that affect many of the students and patients, therapists encounter. The book deals with the specific development of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in China and offers a conceptual piece on differences in behaviour and ways of thinking that influence the introduction of psychoanalytic therapies. It describes the problems with the way psychotherapy introduces conflict to patients and the authors’ experience with teaching about transference and counter transference in China. The book presents issues in forming training programmes and offering training in China.