Traditional Confucian Concepts of Mental Health: Its Implications to Social Work Practice with Chinese Communities

Abstract

Traditional Confucian concept of mental health has a strong impact on the mental health of Chinese people. It stresses submissiveness of individuals to achieve harmony of the collective. Harmony is defined by the social order and authority figures in various social systems. It encourages people to restrain their emotions, avoid interpersonal conflicts and suppress individual rights so as to maintain a good harmony with others. Social workers should be aware of this cultural difference when working with the Chinese communities. They should recognise the dilemmas in, empowerment versus tolerance, changing of social environment versus suppressive collective harmony, cognition and emotional change versus rigid moralisation, self-actualisation versus self-sacrifice, emotional ventilation versus emotional restraint, self-determination versus self-defined by others, and mutual support versus egocentric preservation.