Freud in Asia East meets West

I have chosen to share with you the photo of Mao's imposing portrait at the entrance to the Forbidden City. Perhaps because this was the image of China printed in my brain: The Cultural Revolution, the Maoist communist regime, holding tight over China. But my own observation leads me to believe that a new generation of bright curious passionate generation is transforming the country, and creating opportunities, where, indeed, East meets West.

China's monuments of its past is awe inspiring: The Forbidden City, The Great Wall, The Temple of Haven, The Terra Cotta Warriors of Xian: There is such a thrill of being there (particularly walking on the Wall) feeling both exhilaration and disbelief: :am I really here?. But , at this stage of our travelling, and learning, the real joy and thrill is the Human connection.

There are few examples where human connection made me feel that East meet West. The first experience took place in a traditional Foot Massage Salon. We are very lucky having our friend Kevin, who is Beijing resident, with us, introducing us to the joy of Chinese foot massage. I hope we did not embarrass  Kevin too much, by not following the right process, exposing our big Western feet prematurely.

So here we were. Kevin, Sheldon, Meryl, Marcel and me, lying down, our tired feet and legs thoroughly massaged, each of us being pampered by a lovely young Chinese woman. My masseuse, looked at me with piercing intelligent eyes: "Me teach English"  she insisted. She pointed at the body part being massaged, and so the lesson began: One foot, 2 feet, one leg, 2 legs one finger, 10 fingers, and so it goes. After a while I did not have to repeat myself. My masseuse continued on her own, while vigorously massaging my feet: "One foot, 2 feet, hair, face, nose, mouth'.. So when you visit china and hear Chinese people speaking English with Israeli accent, rest assured that it is all my fault.

The most exciting experience of human connection, for Meryl and myself,, took place during the 2 days psychoanalytic conference that we have attended. My own recent experience, attending conferences in our part of the world is of "tried" and lackluster exchanges. But, here in Beijing, we felt like privileged observers, who witness some important transformation: The emergence of an engaged, passionate, curious psychotherapist community. In the lectures we have attended there were few Westerners. Most of the participants were young Chinese psychologists and psychiatrists, many of them look 15 years old!

One seminar had a very interesting multicultural flavour: A Taiwanese psychologist presented her paper, in Chinese. There was on screen English translation of her paper, but the follow up discussion was conducted mostly in Chinese, with some verbal English translation. We were 4 Western participants, in a room full of very engaged Chinese. The discussant/moderator was an Israeli psychoanalyst, who did an excellent job, conducting and facilitating the discussion.

There were a few other interesting seminars, but it is now very late in Tokyo  What was evident is that is very hard to conduct therapy in a society were the word "self" does not really exist. Yet, the most important message for me from the conference, is that despite all our cultural differences, we all felt connected through our belief in our universal needs: The need for belonging, safety and authenticity.

Oyasoominasai

Pnina