ABSTRACT
Several leaders in Chinese mental health have said that as psychoanalysis comes to China, it will be modified to take on Chinese characteristics. Modern object relations theory, for instance, stresses the importance of relationships throughout life, it also promotes an autonomy that is foreign to traditional Chinese thought. In China, Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist traditions still hold sway despite the attacks on them for most of the Maoist period. Chinese think of themselves as members of groups—the national group, the family group, and the work group. Other Chinese psychologists have added to the view of the Chinese cultural and social mores that underlie psychic organisation. The one-child policy has wrought enormous change to family structure. China has suffered almost continuous national trauma leading Plankers to suggest that it should be considered a traumatised society. With evolution towards new standards of morality in China, both national personality and individual conflict are in flux.
