Breathing Spaces : Qigong, Psychiatry, and Healing in China

The charismatic form of healing called qigong, based on meditative breathing exercises, has achieved enormous popularity in China during the last two decades. Qigong served a critical social organizational function, as practitioners formed new informal networks, sometimes on an international scale, at a time when China was shifting from state-subsidized medical care to for-profit market medicine. The emergence of new psychological states deemed to be deviant led the Chinese state to "medicalize" certain forms while championing scientific versions of qigong. By contrast, qigong continues to be promoted outside China as a traditional healing practice. Breathing Spaces brings to life the narratives of numerous practitioners, healers, psychiatric patients, doctors, and bureaucrats, revealing the varied and often dramatic ways they cope with market reform and social changes in China. Anthropologist Nancy Chen Examines The Cultural Context Of Medicine And Healing Practices In The Prc, Taiwan And The United States And The Pages Of Her Book Come Alive With The Narratives Of The Numerous Practitioners, Healers, Psychiatric Patients, Doctors And Bureaucrats She Interviewed. 1. Introduction -- 2. Fever -- 3. Riding The Tiger -- 4. Qigong Deviation Or Psychosis -- 5. Chinese Psychiatry And The Search For Order -- 6. Mandate Of Science -- 7. Transnational Qigong -- 8. Suffering And Healing. Nancy N. Chen. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [199]-232) And Index. CONTENTS......Page 8 PREFACE......Page 10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 16 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION......Page 20 CHAPTER TWO FEVER......Page 54 CHAPTER THREE RIDING THE TIGER......Page 80 CHAPTER FOUR QIGONG DEVIATION OR PSYCHOSIS......Page 96 CHAPTER FIVE CHINESE PSYCHIATRY AND THE SEARCH FOR ORDER......Page 126 CHAPTER SIX MANDATE OF SCIENCE......Page 158 CHAPTER SEVEN TRANSNATIONAL QIGONG......Page 178 CHAPTER EIGHT SUFFERING AND HEALING......Page 204 GLOSSARY......Page 208 NOTES......Page 212 BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 218 INDEX......Page 252 A DEEP BREATH of fresh air was always on my mind when I began field research on psychiatric practices and mental health care in Beijing during the winter of 1990.