“Hotbeds of Psychopathology”: Psy Sciences and the Critique of the Family in Republican China

Abstract

Abstract From the mid-19th century to the first few decades of the 20th century, the critique of traditional families in China gained momentum from various sources. Apart from its social, political, and feminist critiques, different forms of family were subjected to psychiatric and psychological analyses. Historians have underlined the historical contexts in which the family became the subject of medical and psychiatric attention. However, the ways in which families were conceptualized in Republican China as the cause of mental and emotional disorders have yet to be clarified systematically. By focusing on psychiatric and psychological discussions of the dysfunction of families and society and its impact on mental health, the current work looks into the ways in which Chinese psy scientists interpreted Western theories and Chinese social reality in connection with the contemporary debates about national reform and scientific modernity. The present study shows that, while firmly believing in scientific professionalism, these psy experts were keen followers of May Fourth radicals in problematizing traditional morality and social structure and proposing new methods of self-management.