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The Concept of Body-Mind Relationship in the Context of Chinese Culture

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Global Psychosomatic Medicine and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry

Abstract

In Chinese societies, mind-body dualism prevails more profoundly and extensively among folk people. They believe everything, including human being, has a soul, and the soul or spirit could leave the body and could exist after a person is dead. Ancestor worship is still widely practiced in modern China. However, mind-body monism dominates among the intellect groups consisting of thinkers, philosophers, officials and doctors. Traditional Chinese Medicine, still a major component of the health care system in China, holds a strong holistic perspective, taking human, human-nature relations and human health and illness from a holistic perspective, regarding human being as a whole, and even take human being as an integrate part of the nature, which is in sharp contrast with biological reductionism in biomedicine-dominated western medicine. This chapter illustrates the mind-body relation and psychosomatic medicine under the Chinese culture background from three aspects: traditional Chinese philosophy, folk belief and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Global Health, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China

    Shuiyuan Xiao

Authors
  1. Shuiyuan Xiao
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Correspondence to Shuiyuan Xiao .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry University of California San Francisco, CA, USA, Psychiatric Consultation-Liaison Service and Psychosomatic Medicine Program, UCSF Fresno, USA

    Hoyle Leigh

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Xiao, S. (2019). The Concept of Body-Mind Relationship in the Context of Chinese Culture. In: Leigh, H. (eds) Global Psychosomatic Medicine and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12584-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12584-4_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-12582-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-12584-4

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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