Normal And Abnormal Behavior In Chinese Culture (culture, Illness And Healing)

Our purpose in assembling the papers in this collection is to introduce readers to studies of normal and abnormal behavior in Chinese culture. We want to offer a sense o/what psychiatrists and social scientists are doing to advance our under­ standing of this subject, including what fmdings are being made, what questions researched, what conundrums worried over. Since our fund of knowledge is obviously incomplete, we want our readers to be aware of the limits to what we know and to our acquisition of new knowledge. Although the subject is too vast and uncharted to support a comprehensive synthesis, in a few areas - e. g. , psychiatric epidemiology - enough is known for us to be able to present major reviews. The chapters themselves cover a variety of themes that we regard as both intrinsically interesting and deserving of more systematic evaluation. Many of the issues they address we believe to be valid concerns for comparative cross­ cultural studies. No attempt is made to artificially integrate these chapters, since the editors wish to highlight their distinctive interpretive frameworks as evidence of the rich variety of approaches that scholars take to this subject. 'We see this volume as a modest and self-consciously limited exploration. Here are some accounts and interpretations (but by no means all) of normal and ab­ normal behavior in the context of Chinese culture that we believe fashion a more discriminating understanding of at least a few important aspects of that subject. Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii Front Matter....Pages 1-5 Selfhood and Authority in Neo-Confucian Political Culture....Pages 7-27 Suicide and the Family in Pre-modern Chinese Society....Pages 29-47 Normal and Deviant Drinking in Rural Taiwan....Pages 49-59 In the Presence of Authority: Hierarchical Roles in Chinese Spirit Medium Cults....Pages 61-74 Insanity in Imperial China: A Legal Case Study....Pages 75-94 Traditional Chinese Medical Beliefs and Their Relevance for Mental Illness and Psychiatry....Pages 95-111 Front Matter....Pages 113-116 Conformity and Deviance Regarding Moral Rules in Chinese Society: A Socialization Perspective....Pages 117-136 Childhood Psychopathology: A Dialogue with Special Reference to Chinese and American Cultures....Pages 137-155 Sex Difference in School Adjustment in Taiwan....Pages 157-165 Front Matter....Pages 167-170 Deviant Marriage Patterns in Chinese Society....Pages 171-201 Family and Community in the People’s Republic....Pages 203-212 The Effect of Family Pathology on Taipei’s Juvenile Delinquents....Pages 213-229 Front Matter....Pages 231-235 Overview of Mental Disorders in Chinese Cultures: Review of Epidemiological and Clinical Studies....Pages 237-272 Sex Roles, Social Status, and Psychiatric Symptoms in Urban Hong Kong....Pages 273-289 Mental Health Status of Chinese in the United States....Pages 291-310 The American Experience of the Chinese Student: On Being Normal in an Abnormal World....Pages 311-330 Mental Illness and Psychosocial Aspects of Medical Problems in China....Pages 331-356 Shen-K’uei Syndrome: A Culture-Specific Sexual Neurosis in Taiwan....Pages 357-369 Culture-Bound Syndromes among Overseas Chinese....Pages 371-386 Love, Denial and Rejection: Responses of Chinese Families to Mental Illness....Pages 387-401 Epilogue....Pages 403-410 Back Matter....Pages 411-436