Traditional Chinese Medical Beliefs and Their Relevance for Mental Illness and Psychiatry

Abstract

After more than one hundred years of contact with the West and importation of Western medicine into China, traditional Chinese health beliefs and practices continue to exert important effects on the symptom manifestations and health-related behaviors of Chinese patients (Kleinman et al. 1975, 1978; Topley 1976; Chan and Chang 1976). This is particularly true when the problems they experience are psychiatric or psychosocial in nature (Kleinman 1979). In this paper, I will review some key traditional Chinese health concepts, especially as they relate to mental illness, and discuss their implications for contemporary psychiatric practice among Chinese populations.