Dr. Wang Xuefu, a psychologist with over 20 years of experience in Christian counseling, believes that “cultural analysis” is one of the important tools that can help pastors understand groups with psychological disorders.
“A person’s psychological, spiritual, and personal issues have deep cultural roots. We specifically emphasize cultural roots because presently China and the world tend to emphasize biological and genetic reasons, with the dominant treatment approaches based on biomedical models when trying to explore the causes of psychological abnormalities," said Dr. Wang. He pointed out that emphasizing solely biological and genetic factors has led to the simplification of psychological disorder treatment by relying on medication, but many complex human problems cannot be solved by medication alone.
Dr. Wang, the founder of Zhimian Institute For Counseling and Psychotherapy, Nanjing, holds a Ph.D. in literature from Nanjing University and a Master of Psychology and Counseling from Andover Newton Theological School in the U.S. He was given the Charlotte and Karl Buhler Award for 2013 by the American Psychological Association and has authored books including The Wounded, The Road to Growth, and Healing Heart.
Therefore, he called on the church to pay attention to the impact of culture on individuals.
“In pastoral care work, pastors need to understand the manifestations, nature, and causes of psychological abnormalities. On this basis, they can better help the brothers and sisters in the church," said Dr. Wang.
Dr. Wang first introduced Freud’s psychoanalysis, which mostly analyzes the subconscious mind, where there reside a large number of childhood traumas, especially biological instincts such as sexual and aggressive impulses that include the instinct for survival and death. It is incompatible with culture or civilization. These repressed things are the roots of symptoms, which are only reactions to the conflict between the “id” and the "superego," causing the “ego” to fall into anxiety or confusion.
However, Dr. Wang said, “I believe that a more appropriate understanding is that the root of psychological difficulties is culture.”
Therefore, Dr. Wang advocated his theory of “cultural analysis.” He defined culture as “all those things that have a direct and indirect impact on us from childhood to adulthood.” From birth, a person is influenced by cultural factors around them. They are parents’ attitudes, treatment of children, habits, language, personality, values, the way they respond to infants’ needs, establishing relationships with children, and the relationship between themselves. These cultural factors constitute a “family cultural ecology.”
Dr. Wang introduced four levels of confrontational psychological counseling: cultural conditions, cultural responses, cultural patterns, and cultural roles.
Although culture has the deepest impact on individuals in their early years, it cannot be said that early-year influences are deterministic. Dr. Wang encouraged pastors and ministers who attended his lecture by saying, “Even if a person has experienced trauma in the early years, including threats, beatings, abandonment, etc., and seems to have a bad past, if we love, support, and appreciate them as much as possible, the impact of the early years can be weakened and dissolved. There is a desire and potential for growth in the deepest part of life, and if we use good culture to awaken, guide, and change, it is possible. This is the meaning of pastoral care work.”
Dr. Wang pointed out that even after a person has become a Christian, the impact of past experiences can still last a long time, and it can be difficult to care for such individuals in the pastoral ministry. Pastors and ministers need to be mentally prepared, have good training, or be well-equipped in counseling.
As we grow up, we gradually learn how to identify and respond to the culture around us, which is called cultural response or cultural interaction. Dr. Wang encouraged parents to not just teach their children but also ask questions that can awaken their inner wisdom and encourage them to engage more with society, explore the world, interact with people, and establish close relationships to develop richer cultural experiences. “Only when culture is abundant will life be healthy," he emphasized.
“The first two levels of cultural examination mentioned above are easily presented in pastoral care and counseling. However, when our counseling progresses to the third level, the examination becomes more difficult.”
When a person makes emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to various factors in the cultural environment, habits, and even patterns will form as the responses increase.
“For instance, if a person is well taken care of in infancy and receives sufficient emotional nourishment and satisfaction of attachment from parents, they will have a sense of security and trust in themselves. These will influence their natural cultural responses to environmental factors and enable them to fully develop healthy aspects of their lives. This good cultural response will further develop into good cultural patterns, such as thinking patterns and relationship patterns. Their health will be better maintained and developed. The opposite is also true. Therefore, in counseling work, we need to systematically understand a person’s life and cultural interaction process.”
The fourth level of cultural analysis is cultural roles. “Cultural roles also gradually emerge from the cultural development of the previous three levels. The cultural role also has an explicit and implicit part. The explicit part can be called a social role, while the implicit part is the inner self. Social roles and inner selves are not necessarily aligned, but most often, people are unaware of this misalignment.”
“The deepest root of psychological symptoms may lie at this level, manifesting as a severe divergence between a person’s external role and inner self. For instance, when a person reaches a certain age, they may marry and have children as socially expected. By social status, they become a mother or father, but their mental maturity may not have caught up, perhaps even staying in a childlike state. This creates a stark contrast between their external identity and inner self, making it difficult for them to truly fulfill the role of a mother or father.”
Dr. Wang encouraged pastors to view individuals from multiple perspectives, understand the root causes and essence of problems, and “administer appropriately” to bring about different outcomes in their ministry.
- Translated by Charlie Li
做主内心理辅导超过20年的心理学家王学富博士认为，“文化分析”是帮助牧者理解有心理疾病群体的重要视角之一。
“一个人的心理问题，精神问题，人格问题，背后有很深的文化根源。我们专门来讲这个文化根源，是因为当今中国和世界在试图探索心理异常的根源时，更侧重强调生物遗传原因，主导性的治疗方式是生物医疗模式。”王博士指出，强调生物遗传的结果是，对治疗心理异常人士的方式被简化成吃药，但人的很多复杂问题，不是吃药就能解决的。
因此，他呼吁教会需要重视文化对人造成的影响。
王博士说：“做教会牧养工作，牧者们需要了解心理异常有什么表现，其本质是什么，以及背后的原因。在这个基础上，可以更好地帮助教会的弟兄姐妹。”
王博士先介绍了弗洛伊德的精神分析大多是对潜意识进行分析，而潜意识里有大量的幼年创伤，特别是生物本能中的性冲动与攻击冲动，包括求生本能与求死本能等，它们不兼容于文化或文明。这些被压抑的东西是症状的根源，症状只是“本我”与“超我”的冲突的反应，这种压抑导致“自我”陷入无所适从的焦虑或困惑之中。
而王博士说：“我认为，更适当的理解是，心理困难的根源是文化。”
因此，王博士提出了他的“文化分析”之说。他给文化下定义：“从小到大，所有那些对我们造成直接和间接影响的东西，就是文化。”人一个人从出生开始，他周围的文化因素都在影响他，这些文化因素包括父母对待孩子的态度和方式，父母的生活习惯，语言，个性，价值观，父母在怎样回应婴孩的需求，与孩子建立怎样的关系，父母之间的关系等。家庭由各样的文化因素构成了一个“家庭文化生态”。
王博士介绍了直面心理学辅导的四个层面：文化条件、文化回应、文化模式和文化角色。
虽然文化在人的早年对人的影响最深，但不能说早年的影响是注定性的。王博士鼓励听讲座的牧者传道人说：“即便这个人早年经历了创伤，包括被威胁，殴打，抛弃等，看起来底子不好。但是我们尽力爱他，支持他，欣赏他，早年的影响也会被削弱、消解。生命最深处有成长的渴望与潜能，如果我们用好的文化去唤醒、辅导，改变都是有可能的。这是牧养工作的意义所在。”
王博士指出，即使在一个人信仰之后，曾经的遭遇带来的影响会持续很久，牧养这样的人也会很困难，牧者传道人有心理准备，也需要在辅导上有好的训练或装备。
而伴随成长，我们渐渐学习如何辨识和回应周边的文化，这个层面叫文化回应或文化互动。王博士劝勉做父母的人，在养孩子时不要只是教导，可以多多向孩子发问，开启孩子的内在智慧，并且鼓励孩子多接触社会，探索世界，与人交往，建立亲密关系，从而发展出更丰富的文化经验。“只有文化丰盈，生命才会健康。”他强调说。
“前面讲到两个考察文化的两个层面，在牧养关怀与辅导过程中很容易呈现出来。但是，当我们的辅导往下进行，进入到第三个层面，考察就不那么容易了。”
当一个人会对文化环境里的各种因素做出情绪的、认知的、行为的回应，随着回应的增多，就会形成习惯，甚至形成模式。
“举例而言，一个人出生之后，在婴幼儿时期得到了好的照料，有充分的情感滋养，从母亲和父亲等亲人身上得到了依恋的满足，他内心就有安全感和信任感。这些会影响他对环境因素自然而然做出好的文化回应，也使他生命中的健康部分更充分地发展。这种良好的文化回应会进而发展成为好的文化模式，如思维模式，关系模式等，他的健康就得到更了的维护和发展。反之亦然。因此，在辅导工作中，我们需要系统性了解一个人的生命与文化互动过程。”
文化分析的第四个层面就是文化角色。“文化角色也是从前面三个层面的文化发展中慢慢形成的。这个文化角色也有外显的部分和内隐的部分。外显的部分可以称为社会角色，内隐的部分就是内在自我。社会角色与内在自我并不一定是一致的，但大多数情况下，人们看不到这个不一致的部分。”
“心理症状的最深根源可能在这个层面，显示为人的外在角色与内在自我的严重分歧。举例来说，一个人长到了一个年龄，就按社会要求结婚生子，按社会身份，他成了一个母亲或父亲，但其心智并不成熟，甚至还停留在小孩子状态，这形成了外在身份与内在自我的强烈反差，这个人就无法真正做一个母亲或父亲。”
王博士鼓励牧者从多角度地看待一个人，去了解问题产生的根源及其本质，也可“对症下药”带出不一样的事奉果效。
心理学家王学富博士：”文化分析“在教牧辅导中的重要性
Dr. Wang Xuefu, a psychologist with over 20 years of experience in Christian counseling, believes that “cultural analysis” is one of the important tools that can help pastors understand groups with psychological disorders.
“A person’s psychological, spiritual, and personal issues have deep cultural roots. We specifically emphasize cultural roots because presently China and the world tend to emphasize biological and genetic reasons, with the dominant treatment approaches based on biomedical models when trying to explore the causes of psychological abnormalities," said Dr. Wang. He pointed out that emphasizing solely biological and genetic factors has led to the simplification of psychological disorder treatment by relying on medication, but many complex human problems cannot be solved by medication alone.
Dr. Wang, the founder of Zhimian Institute For Counseling and Psychotherapy, Nanjing, holds a Ph.D. in literature from Nanjing University and a Master of Psychology and Counseling from Andover Newton Theological School in the U.S. He was given the Charlotte and Karl Buhler Award for 2013 by the American Psychological Association and has authored books including The Wounded, The Road to Growth, and Healing Heart.
Therefore, he called on the church to pay attention to the impact of culture on individuals.
“In pastoral care work, pastors need to understand the manifestations, nature, and causes of psychological abnormalities. On this basis, they can better help the brothers and sisters in the church," said Dr. Wang.
Dr. Wang first introduced Freud’s psychoanalysis, which mostly analyzes the subconscious mind, where there reside a large number of childhood traumas, especially biological instincts such as sexual and aggressive impulses that include the instinct for survival and death. It is incompatible with culture or civilization. These repressed things are the roots of symptoms, which are only reactions to the conflict between the “id” and the "superego," causing the “ego” to fall into anxiety or confusion.
However, Dr. Wang said, “I believe that a more appropriate understanding is that the root of psychological difficulties is culture.”
Therefore, Dr. Wang advocated his theory of “cultural analysis.” He defined culture as “all those things that have a direct and indirect impact on us from childhood to adulthood.” From birth, a person is influenced by cultural factors around them. They are parents’ attitudes, treatment of children, habits, language, personality, values, the way they respond to infants’ needs, establishing relationships with children, and the relationship between themselves. These cultural factors constitute a “family cultural ecology.”
Dr. Wang introduced four levels of confrontational psychological counseling: cultural conditions, cultural responses, cultural patterns, and cultural roles.
Although culture has the deepest impact on individuals in their early years, it cannot be said that early-year influences are deterministic. Dr. Wang encouraged pastors and ministers who attended his lecture by saying, “Even if a person has experienced trauma in the early years, including threats, beatings, abandonment, etc., and seems to have a bad past, if we love, support, and appreciate them as much as possible, the impact of the early years can be weakened and dissolved. There is a desire and potential for growth in the deepest part of life, and if we use good culture to awaken, guide, and change, it is possible. This is the meaning of pastoral care work.”
Dr. Wang pointed out that even after a person has become a Christian, the impact of past experiences can still last a long time, and it can be difficult to care for such individuals in the pastoral ministry. Pastors and ministers need to be mentally prepared, have good training, or be well-equipped in counseling.
As we grow up, we gradually learn how to identify and respond to the culture around us, which is called cultural response or cultural interaction. Dr. Wang encouraged parents to not just teach their children but also ask questions that can awaken their inner wisdom and encourage them to engage more with society, explore the world, interact with people, and establish close relationships to develop richer cultural experiences. “Only when culture is abundant will life be healthy," he emphasized.
“The first two levels of cultural examination mentioned above are easily presented in pastoral care and counseling. However, when our counseling progresses to the third level, the examination becomes more difficult.”
When a person makes emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to various factors in the cultural environment, habits, and even patterns will form as the responses increase.
“For instance, if a person is well taken care of in infancy and receives sufficient emotional nourishment and satisfaction of attachment from parents, they will have a sense of security and trust in themselves. These will influence their natural cultural responses to environmental factors and enable them to fully develop healthy aspects of their lives. This good cultural response will further develop into good cultural patterns, such as thinking patterns and relationship patterns. Their health will be better maintained and developed. The opposite is also true. Therefore, in counseling work, we need to systematically understand a person’s life and cultural interaction process.”
The fourth level of cultural analysis is cultural roles. “Cultural roles also gradually emerge from the cultural development of the previous three levels. The cultural role also has an explicit and implicit part. The explicit part can be called a social role, while the implicit part is the inner self. Social roles and inner selves are not necessarily aligned, but most often, people are unaware of this misalignment.”
“The deepest root of psychological symptoms may lie at this level, manifesting as a severe divergence between a person’s external role and inner self. For instance, when a person reaches a certain age, they may marry and have children as socially expected. By social status, they become a mother or father, but their mental maturity may not have caught up, perhaps even staying in a childlike state. This creates a stark contrast between their external identity and inner self, making it difficult for them to truly fulfill the role of a mother or father.”
Dr. Wang encouraged pastors to view individuals from multiple perspectives, understand the root causes and essence of problems, and “administer appropriately” to bring about different outcomes in their ministry.
- Translated by Charlie Li
Dr. Wang Xuefu, Psychologist Promotes 'Cultural Analysis' in Pastoral Counseling
