Anxious China : inner revolution and politics of psychotherapy / Li Zhang.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Psy fever -- Bentuhua : culturing psychotherapy -- Therapeutic relations with Chinese characteristics? -- Branding the Satir Model -- Crafting a therapeutic self -- Cultivating happiness -- Therapeutic governing -- Epilogue.

"The breathless pace of China's economic reform has brought about deep ruptures in socioeconomic structures and people's inner landscape. Faced with increasing market-driven competition and profound social changes, more and more middle-class urbanites are turning to Western-style psychological counseling to grapple with their mental distress. This book offers an in-depth ethnographic account of how an unfolding "inner revolution" is reconfiguring selfhood, psyche, family dynamics, sociality, and the mode of governing in post-socialist times. Li Zhang shows that anxiety--broadly construed in both medical and social terms--has become a powerful indicator for the general pulse of contemporary Chinese society. It is in this particular context that Zhang traces how a new psychotherapeutic culture takes root, thrives, and transforms itself across a wide range of personal, social, and political domains"-- Provided by publisher.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.