Psychological concepts and mental diseases in ancient TCM bibliographies

Abstract

Guided by a systemic and holistic theoretical framework, traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a long tradition of emphasizing the mind-body connection and the interplay between emotional distress and somatic symptoms. To address the somatization tendency among the Chinese people, TCM addresses mental health problems in a strategic manner, i.e. relieving the associated somatic symptoms as the point of engagement. As early as in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), a sophisticated specialist system had already been in place in ancient China, including Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Orthopedics and Acupuncture. There was no specialty in psychiatry as mental health problems were tactically incorporated into various disorders in the stream of Internal Medicine. The stagnation or “yu” syndrome is a good example of the thoughtful approach which takes both individual illness behavior and societal stigmatization schema into account. In contrary to the Western psychology, TCM does not label specific emotions as positive (e.g. happiness) or negative (e.g. anger). Instead, TCM considers all different emotions (e.g. happiness, anger, fear, contemplation and sadness) as natural and necessary. With reference to the “Yin Yang” and “Five Elements Theory”, different emotions are in dynamic equilibrium and they regulate one another. Furthermore, emotional and somatic systems are interconnected. Deviation in a particular emotion is pathogenic, which can in turn affect other emotions and the associated somatic systems. Based on such systemic model, TCM has unique emotional mechanisms which aim at rebalancing the emotional system as well as the somatic system. In addition to the common herbal, acupunctural and other physical treatment for addressing the somatic symptoms, TCM offers an exemplary strategic-integrative approach in treating people who suffer from psychological distress.