Contemporary psychiatry in China.

Abstract

From the period of Fu Hsi, the first legendary Chinese emperor (about 2852 bc), the recognised types of illnesses related to wind included paralysis, falling sickness (epilepsy), and excited insanity (hysteria).1 The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, of about 1000 bc, described hysteria in relation to excessive Yin and epilepsy as a surfeit of Yang.2 It stated that those who act contrary to the laws of the four seasons dissipate in their duties, and if Yin is not equal to Yang the pulse becomes weak and madness results. More recently Wang K'en T'ang in Standards for Diagnosis and Treatment (1602) recognised insanity, mania, fits, and three types of depression (those associated with anger, appre? hension, and melancholy).3 The first psychiatric hospital was established by Dr John Kerr at Canton in 1897, though by liberation in 1949 there were fewer than 2000 beds specifically designated for psychiatric patients through? out the country. The flavour of this period is well captured in a section from Behind Iron Bars, written in 1926 by McCartney: Mental patients constitute a very helpless class in China.4 If caught upon the streets doing anything wrong they are arrested and thrown into prison and treated as if they were criminals. If they are homeless and wander in the streets, they are mocked and laughed at and stoned.