The emergence of the psycho-boom in contemporary urban China

Abstract

During the past few years, the vogue enjoyed by psychotherapy in urban China has attracted the attention of Western media.1 e arrival of this ourishing scene was quick, unanticipated and in sharp contrast to Chinese culture during the Maoist period, when psychology as an academic discipline was rst repudiated as �bourgeois pseudoscience� and then abolished during the Cultural Revolution. e current welcoming of psychotherapy is also a dramatic shi from the earlier post-reform period in which it barely existed in the mental health care system. Although the extent to which psychotherapy has become a common treatment option is uncertain, it is indisputable that counselling or psychotherapy facilities have mushroomed in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, either as private agencies or as part of public institutions that include hospitals, schools and other government agencies. Additionally, there is a proliferation of short-term courses o ered by a growing training industry: many of the courses ll easily as people rush to learn about psychotherapy.