With the development of today’s technology, information exchange between different regions has become more convenient, and the boundaries between the Eastern and Western worlds are becoming increasingly blurred, and the whole world is developing into a global village. Psychology from different countries and different schools of psychology are tending to integrate, and psychology will develop into an all-human, global psychology. At the same time, the psychology of each country is also trying to maintain and develop its local characteristics in order to serve local audiences more effectively while standing in the world of psychology. In the midst of these two trends of integration and localization, the study of Chinese medical psychology faces a huge problem and a bottleneck in its development of integrating the ancient and the modern and connecting the east and the west. In seeking various ideas to solve the problem, the humanities and social science perspective provides a unique perspective for observation and reflection, which helps to grasp the direction of the development of Chinese medical psychology at a higher level.
1. Humanities and social science view of Chinese medicine
Humanities and social science, by nature, is a science about human beings. It has become a consensus in the medical field for many years to view human health from biological, psychological and social aspects. Treating human nature similarly requires that people be viewed as biological, psychological, and social beings. Medicine and psychology serve human beings, and the highest level category in their attribution should be anthropology, not simply regarded as a natural science as opposed to humanities and social sciences. Chinese medicine has always valued the biological, psychological, and social aspects of patients, diseases, doctors, and medical practices. This is the advantage and characteristic that Chinese medical psychology should play. The biological aspect is not necessary to be mentioned, but two examples are given below to illustrate the social and psychological aspects.
1.1 The Art of QI Huang
This is a synonym for medicine in ancient China. Qibe was a minister of the Yellow Emperor, but he was ranked before him, which shows that the respect for medical experts was better than that of the emperor. Throughout the ages, many famous doctors lived in official positions, such as the “Sage of Medicine” in the Eastern Han Dynasty Changsha Taishou Zhang Zhongjing practiced medicine in the public hall. Later generations therefore called the pharmacy “so-and-so hall”, in which the practice of doctors called “sitting hall”. The names of doctors, “dafu” and “langzhong”, are derived from official names. The motto “If you are not a good doctor, you are a good doctor” became the motto of many doctors. All these show that the profession of doctor has included the inescapable social responsibility since ancient times.
1.2 A man without constancy cannot be a witch doctor
This is a proverb quoted by Confucius (from the Analects of Confucius, Zi Lu). The word “constancy” is a requirement for the mental quality of a person, which is equivalent to the quality of will in psychology. The juxtaposition of witchcraft and medicine indicates that both are specialized professions practiced by people with high psychological quality. Witchcraft focuses on psychological treatment, while medicine focuses on somatic treatment. There is a crossover between the two professions, such as the ancient word for “doctor”, which is written as “t” and “thin F渥笊系摹耙健比缤氨ú”, and the word for “wan”, which is used to describe a person who has been struck by an arrow. The “Shu” on the right is the hand (and) holding the blade (several), which is equivalent to surgical debridement. Below the two characters (You, witch) means: the patient is unbearable pain, then by drinking wine (You) anesthesia, or through witchcraft analgesia, equivalent to hypnotherapy.
2, the humanities and social sciences view helps the positioning of Chinese medicine psychology
Chinese medical psychology is a concept introduced in the 1980s. Whether as a branch of Chinese medicine, or as a branch of psychology, or as a cross-discipline between Chinese medicine and psychology, it is a young discipline under development. The healthy development of the discipline requires a clear orientation and a clear direction. If we take a high level view of humanities and social sciences when planning the development of the discipline, the construction of the discipline may be twice as successful with half the effort. This can be seen from the name and objectives.
2.1 The right name
When it comes to “psychology”, it is often misunderstood as a concept opposite to “body”, which seems to be independent of the body, and this will inevitably fall into the empty talk of materialism. Chinese medicine has always maintained its unique simplicity and scientific nature with a materialistic dialectical view, but the compound term “Chinese medical psychology” has caused conceptual and even positional confusion, making it difficult to make a clear disciplinary orientation for Chinese medical psychology. The humanities and social science perspective provides a solution to the problem. The Chinese word “psychology” was first coined by the Japanese scholar Nishijou in 1875 as a translation of the English word Mental. Today, the word “mental” can be translated as “psyche,” “mind” and “spirit. The word “mental” is literally an eccentric structure, which is slightly less scientific. Although “thought” is a parallel structure, “think” refers to the memory of the past, which can easily lead to depression, so-called “thinking hurts the spleen” (Su Wen – Yin Yang Ying Xiang Da Lun). “Thinking” refers to longing for the future, which can cause anxiety, and “thinking” is obviously a pathological mental process. The term “spirit” is the most representative translation of the characteristics of Chinese medicine, as the kidney collects essence and the heart collects spirit, and the juxtaposition of essence and spirit reflects the functions of the kidney and the heart, which is both materialistic and dialectical. With such a clear translation, even if it is not necessary to change “Chinese medicine psychology” to “Chinese medicine psychiatry”, it can still have a proper positioning.
2.2 Clear objectives
Just like medicine and psychology, the goal of TCM psychology is the health of human beings. The description of the state of health in TCM is “the spirit is the cure when the yin is calm and the yang is secret” (Su wen – The Treatise on Anger and the Tongtian) and “the spirit is guarded internally, the disease is safe” (Su wen – The Treatise on Shanggu Tianzhen), in short, “the spirit In short, the word “spirit”. The word “spirit” is also used in a positive sense to represent health, while the word “spirit” is used in a derogatory sense to represent mental disorders. From the humanities and social science point of view, the essence is water, which is hidden by the kidney, and the spirit is fire, which is hidden by the heart. Water flows downward while fire burns upward. Spirit for the water fire, the two intersect for both, balanced and healthy; God essence for the fire underwater, the two do not intersect into unhealthy, imbalance and disease. Laozi said “good as water”, it is very difficult to do; Liu Wansu said “foolish as fire”, it is difficult to do. The heart and kidneys do not intersect, mental unease has become a common psychological disorder, or even cause disease. For this reason, the clinical practice of TCM psychology provides various methods to regulate the essence and calm the mind, and to maintain health and wellness, the general goal of which does not deviate from the pursuit of mental health, and the humanities and social sciences make this pursuit a common ideal for all human beings.
3. Proper understanding of the psychological thought of Chinese medicine through the humanistic and social scientific view
China is one of the birthplaces of psychological thought in the world, and psychological thought is everywhere in Chinese culture, concentrated in the thought of Chinese medical psychology. For thousands of years, the psychological thought of TCM has not only influenced the health of the public and the personality of individuals, but also the culture of society. Today, mining the treasures from TCM psychological thought will not only help the development of TCM psychology, but may even influence the progress of psychology in the world. For various reasons, the current understanding of the psychological thought of TCM is either biased or inadequate. The humanities and social sciences view provides favorable tools for the correct understanding, discovery, and utilization of the psychological ideas of TCM. Let us try two examples.
3.1 Mind and Brain
Chinese psychological thought talks more about the mind than the brain, so it is often accused of being backward, unscientific or even teleological because it does not clearly state that “the brain is the organ of the mind”. Chinese psychologists regret this. In fact, it is not that the ancient Chinese were not aware of the brain as a mental organ, but that there was not enough evidence for it in later times. To illustrate the awareness of the brain in Chinese psychological thought, at least three examples can be found through the approach of humanistic social view.
3.1.1 Etymology
The Chinese used to use the word “thought” when talking about the psyche, as opposed to “body”. The character “思” is a synonym, and the word “心” below indicates its mental function, while the word “田” above is a pictogram of the head, and the word “田 The character “十” in “田” represents the cranial suture on the skull. Since the character “Si” has been created for thousands of years, it can be inferred that the Chinese already had the awareness that the psyche originated from the mind in that era.
3.1.2 Ancient Qigong
Ancient qigong literature is a treasure trove of psychological thought in Chinese medicine, in which Taoist internal qigong systematically describes the practice of psychological sublimation. This practice, which is translated as “alchemy” in the West, is based on “refining essence and transforming qi, refining qi and transforming spirit”, and is based on the three treasures of the human body: essence, qi and spirit. The essence is hidden in the kidney and the spirit is hidden in the heart, so the cultivation process is from the kidney to the heart to stop the process. The Taoists have the motto “If you want to stay old, return the essence to the brain”, but not “return the essence to the heart”, which shows that qigong has already clarified the mental function of the brain in practice. The text of “return essence to nourish the brain” is found in Cao Zhi’s (192-232) poem “The Flying Dragon” during the Three Kingdoms period: “Give me immortal medicine, made by the divine emperor. Teach me to take it to restore the essence and nourish the brain.” The practice of Taoism far predates this poem.
3.1.3 Medical Literature
The general medical literature supports that Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty and Wang Qingren in the Qing Dynasty clearly mentioned that “the brain is a mental organ”. As early as in the “Su Wen – pulse to the essence of the theory” that has pointed out: “the head, the essence of the House. The head tilts to see deep, the spirit will take away.” Thus, the Chinese understanding of the mental functions of the brain can be pushed forward at least 2,000 years ago.
3.2 The mind and the spirit
In addition to the “mind and spirit”, Chinese psychological thought introduced the more important concept of “Yuan Shen”. The oracle bone symbol for “yuan” refers to the mind, and the oracle bone symbol for “yuan” is “man”. This symbol today seems to coincide with the neuron symbol “-<" in neuropsychology. After the evolution of the oracle bones, the pictographs were reduced, and the "" above the character "yuan" became "ii", which is consistent with the anatomical division of the brain into two hemispheres. In Chinese medical psychology, the mind represents the general psychological function, while the meta-shen represents the higher psychological function, which echoes the meta-concepts of meta-cognition, meta-language and meta-memory in recent cognitive psychology. Metaphysics is a philosophical term for "metaphysics" or "metaphysics". For example, Metaphysics is the philosophical term "metaphysics" or "metaphysics", and "what is above the form is called Tao, and what is below the form is called Weapon" (I Ching), so Metaphysics has the meaning of "Tao". The word "instrument" is translated as "physics" without the Meta. The "Tao" is higher than the "Weapon" because of the "Head", and Metaphysics is higher than Physics because of the Meta, while "Metaphysics is higher than Physics because Meta is the head, and Meta is synonymous with Head. Through this view of humanities and social sciences, "yuan" is used as a link between ancient and modern Chinese and foreign countries, which helps to understand the cultural connotation of Chinese medical psychology, and also helps to inspire scholars' interest and expand their thinking in theoretical teaching and research of Chinese medical psychology, and helps Chinese and foreign scholars to communicate widely in different aspects of cultural psychology.
To sum up, the significance of the humanities and social sciences view on TCM psychology is that it gives the metaphysical apparatus the guidance of the metaphysical Tao and gives the development of TCM psychology a soul. It is not difficult to imagine that, at the height of the humanistic and social science view, TCM psychology will have a broader space for development and will attract more outstanding scholars to join its own team in a wider range of fields, and it will eventually make positive contributions to the overall biological, psychological, and social health of all human beings in a globally integrated world.