Focus

Screens and dreams fuel Freud fever

By Li Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-22 07:47

Chinese turn to online psychology training as box office smash aids resurgence in Austrian's theories. Li Li in Beijing reports.

Zhong Juntao closed his living room window, pulled the curtains, put on some soft piano music and laid down on the sofa. "I'm walking down some stairs," he said to himself gently, his eyes closed. "A door opens at the end of the stairs. I see a beautiful seaside beach."

The 27-year-old accountant tries to hypnotize himself at least two or three times a week.

"I might not be able to have multi-layered dreams like they do in the movie," he said, referring to the Hollywood blockbuster, Inception, "but I want to know more about my subconscious."

Although critics tipped sci-fi thriller Inception to fall flat in China, the movie has been a smash hit, grossing almost $70 million by the end of October. Its success came as little surprise, however, to the country's mental health experts.

Following several tragedies this year, such as the Foxconn suicides and the kindergarten stabbings, a growing number of Chinese are studying psychology to gain a better understanding of their own state of mind, with many even seeking professional help.

The man most are turning to is Sigmund Freud.

The Austrian neurologist's 1899 work, The Interpretation of Dreams, is one of two books Zhong keeps readily at hand in his Beijing apartment. The other is Everyday Magic Hypnotism by Liao Yuepeng.

"I've started to write down my dreams. Then I try to find an explanation in Freud's book," he said.

Freud was introduced to China in the 1920s, when his work was translated by famous Chinese scholar, Zhang Shizhao. His theories fell out of favor during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) but returned to the public's attention when the country began opening up in the 1980s.

Today, his work is enjoying a massive resurgence.

In the months after the Sept 2 release of Inception, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a man who can explore other people's dreams, Chinese libraries and bookstores reported a sharp rise in demand for Freud's work, as well as that of other psychologists.

"Sales of Everyday Magic Hypnotism went up 300 percent a month after the movie came out," said Yang Xiaoye, a public relations officer for Amazon, the online retailer. "The movie has driven up the sales of many books."

All 15 Chinese copies of The Interpretation of Dreams kept by the library at Beijing Normal University were loaned in the second half of September. The college has one of the country's finest schools of psychology.

"It's rare to see all the copies of a non-textbook checked out at the same time," said Lei Juxia, director of the library's circulation desk. "All the books are on reserve, too."

Staff at Tsinghua University's library, which has 13 copies, reported a similar situation, while Freud's works now also hold prominent positions in many bookstores.