Healing attitudes in contagious times: the experience of practising psychotherapy in China during the pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic is a challenge for any human being. Realising this simple psychological fact, the China Society for Analytical Psychology launched a "Garden of Heart & Soul 2020" volunteer campaign, providing psychological care to those in need whether or not they had had previous experience with counselling or psychotherapy. This article describes principles and practice of Jungian analysts, analysts in training, sandplay therapists, and other practitioners in China seeking to apply Jungian analytic techniques with regard to exposing and working through psychological complexes to the problems that have emerged for people facing the epidemic. Emphasis has been placed on developing a conscious, compassionate attitude towards the cultural complexity the epidemic has activated in China, which has therapeutic aspects based on the traditional wisdom of Chinese culture. Contemporary Ci-bei (compassion) therapy has added to these the contemporary Jungian emphasis upon playing, active imagination in the form of art making and authentic movement, and attention to the feelings of the inner child. With people facing a pandemic and its many problems, the use of Chinese myths and legends that involve facing collective challenges with resilient ingenuity is also helpful. They can be retold to contemporary people caught between fear of isolation and fear of contagion in such a way as to awaken the archetypal energy of the individual self that is needed to reconcile these opposites. In applying these Jungian techniques and concepts, we have been able to witness their power even in relatively shortterm crisis intervention, to foster transformation of attitudes and healing in populations facing cultural stress who would not have imagined that consulting a Jungian practitioner could be so helpful.