Letting off steam
Psychologist Li Zixun has created a stir with his TV talk show that encourages people to open up about their mental and emotional health. |
Wang said he had been following the program avidly for a year and wanted help with bringing his decades-long tense relations with his mother back on track.
Like other studio guests of psychologist Li Zixun, Wang and his mother exposed their true selves on the show. They quarreled when pointing out the other's faults and shed tears when the doctor hit a raw spot.
Li has been creating quite a stir with this TV program that is seeing steadily climbing ratings. The program has him offer counselling to his studio guests and has brought once-taboo subjects to the fore. His quiet bearing and sense of intimacy he conveys to his interviewees has made him a star in his own right.
Explaining the show's popularity, Li said a greater awareness of the psychological pressures on them had given people the courage to talk openly about their problems on air.
In the past, the Chinese tended to view depression as a nervous problem and tensions within the family as a reflection of one's weak character.
But now more people are realizing that they can get help from psychologists, Li said.
Marital problems and conflicts between parents and children are the most common issues that come up in the TV interviews. Li said the Chinese have long cherished family relations, but the influence of Western cultures in recent years has been stressed in traditional family roles.
Unlike the strong support network in Western countries, facilities for psychological consultations in China are still very weak. Li said his TV show held up a mirror to the audience to look into their own psychological problems.
"Helping interviewees find solutions to their problems is not the only aim. We try to come up with some generalizations from individual cases to benefit a TV audience that may find itself in a similar predicament," he said.
In one episode, a woman happened to find a used condom in her husband's pocket, confirming years' of suspicion that her husband was having an extramarital affair. The marriage seemed to be teetering on the brink of divorce.
After hearing her story, Li led her to evaluate her degree of satisfaction in the marriage from various aspects. It turned out that she was still reluctant about the decision to leave her husband. Li suggested she go back and introspect about the attitude of her husband and the marriage before making a final decision.
The doctor said what he did on television was different from a typical closed-door psychological counselling session. "In a private consultation, there isn't too much analysis and suggesting of what the patient should actually do," Li said.
Li said in the two years that he has anchored this program, he had managed to bring psychological issues closer to the people. This has also fostered his growing popularity, especially online.
He was named one of 2006's top four sexy men by netizens. Some netizens have even established a bar for him on Baidu Post Bar, a kind of message board for Internet users to exchange information, where Li's fans post his photos, lectures, articles, and videos.
Li claimed he has not noticed his growing fame but sometimes, was recognized by passers-by on the street.
Having taken up early retirement from hospital, he now devotes most of his time to training and to increasing awareness of psychology. Recently, he set up an online studio to provide an exchange platform for people with emotional problems.
Li has been practicing psychology for 16 years and has seen the tremendous growth in this field as a medical subject in China.
In 1989, Li, then a physician with the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, was sent for continuing education in psychology to the Peking University Institute of Mental Health. One year later, the hospital opened a psychology outpatient department, like most other large hospitals at that time.
However, there were few patient visits. Li spent most of his time organizing health checkups.
Those days, he often went to the wards to seek out potential patients. He also requested doctors and nurses in other departments to let outpatients know of his department if they suspected any of them suffering from depression and other mental or emotional troubles.
During exchanges with foreign counterparts, Li realized that what he was doing fell way behind international practice. "At that time, Chinese doctors simply prescribed drugs and gave a few words of psychological guidance," he said.
Then in 1997, participation in a three-year Sino-Germany Advanced Psychotherapists Training Program opened up a completely new world of psychology for Li. In fact, most of the big names in psychology in China nowadays are trainees of that program.
He was exposed to family therapy for the very first time. By studying patients in the context of different social relations, the psychologist tried to delve into their inner world, Li explained, adding that such therapy could be very effective.
Li believes in a low-profile role for the psychologist in therapy. He said battling most emotional troubles depended on the patients' own inner strengths.
"If one's mind is at a critical point and is seeking changes, a slight push from the psychologist can produce a big effect," said Li.
As psychologists deal with different kinds of emotional distress, this may trigger their own pains if they have similar experiences. So they often need to self-observe and mull their own problems.
Psychologists often sit together to assess one another's mental health and this, said Li, had helped him have a 17-year-long smooth career.
(China Daily 03/28/2007 page19)
