Emotional factors in the mechanism of Chiljeongsang(七情傷)

Abstract

This paper is about the emotional factors in Chiljeongsang(七情傷). To specify the collective term into specific categories, an examination of the meaning of emotion of the East and West was primarily undertaken. The importance of emotion lies in the fact that it provides a link between the individual and the outside world. Emotion was perceived as reflections of the human nature and mental activity by philosophers and psychiatrists throughout history. In the views of psychologists, the focus was on not emotion itself, but rather the emotional experience in human, and its psychological and physiological mechanism. In Traditional Medicine, problematic emotion is called Chiljeong(七情). The term Chiljeongsang(七情傷), which is a compound word of 'Chiljeong(七情)' and 'Sang(傷)' meaning 'damage', is used in referring to illness related to unhealthy emotions. It is used to describe illness caused by Chiljeong(七情) and mental disorders that result in emotional symptoms. It also refers to illness where Chiljeong(七情) plays a role in creating a more direct cause of illness in the larger pathogenic process. In the contents of Chiljeongsang(七情傷) in Traditional Medicine, emotion as causation of Gi(氣) disorder could be found the most, while explanation on the psychological process related to the creation of Chiljeong(七情) was insufficient. This tendency is related to the philosophical basis of Traditional Medicine. Out of the two patterns suggested, the mind-based Chiljeongsang(七情傷) pattern includes the psychological aspects of damage, in which key focus is on the cause that arouses problematic emotion, its process and the meaning this emotion entails. To explain this, concepts from psychiatry, especially Jung's theory on neurosis was adopted. In treating a Chiljeongsang(七情傷) patient, mere knowledge of the physiological changes of the body in terms of Gi(氣) is insufficient. This is because mental factors play a large role in Chiljeongsang(七情傷), and the more a condition is 'mental', the more complex it becomes and the more it influences life as whole. Therefore, the doctor must approach the patient with not only medical knowledge, but also overall knowledge on all aspects of human life.