| Abstract: |
My research investigates the treatment of emotion-related disorders in a clinic of Traditional Chinese Medicine, particularly, how emotions and pathology of emotions are constructed and acted on in actual clinical situations. Specifically relevant to this investigation is the TCM category of <italic>qingzhi</italic> (emotion-mind) disorders. The research was carried out in Yiyuan hospital in the Beijing area. My observations confirm that Chinese patients habitually seek medical help in the clinics of TCM for what, in the West, is considered psychological distress or psychiatric disorders. However, my research also reveals that Chinese patients with <italic>qingzhi</italic> disorders come to TCM clinics precisely because they are aware of emotive factors in their illnesses, rather than, as claimed by previous studies, as a result of denying or “somatizing” emotions. Understanding that notions of body, mind, emotion, and illness are culturally constructed, my dissertation explores the Chinese everyday world of <italic>shenti</italic> (body-person), unravels cultural meanings of <italic>qing</italic> (emotion), and examines the ways <italic> zhongyi</italic> JCM) seeks efficacy in modern practice. It also offers a close examination of an actual clinical process, showing how a particular syndrome of a <italic>qingzhi</italic> disorder is defined through ordinary clinical work and how this process works to transform the patient's experience. Throughout, the TCM category of <italic>qingzhi</italic> disorders is presented and interpreted as embodied Chinese experience and interactional social phenomena in Chinese society. Although focusing on the local world of Chinese experience, this dissertation deals with fundamental issues of culture, health, andexperience, and thus contributes to the larger anthropological understanding of diversities of human culture and experience.
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