Love, Denial and Rejection: Responses of Chinese Families to Mental Illness

Abstract

For Chinese people, the importance of the family, the institution which has patterned the entire social matrix, can hardly be overestimated. It is the bastion of their personal and economic security; it provides the frame of reference for personal and social organization; it controls all the behavioral and human relationships of its members through a clearly hierarchical structure and sanctioned code of conduct; it transmits moral, religious and social values from generation to generation through role modeling, coercion and discipline. It also offers a haven for safety, rest and recreation; it maintains the altar for ancestor and religious worship. The influence of the family on the lives of its mentally ill members is no less profound than it is for anyone else. The handling of the mentally ill in Chinese society cannot, therefore, be considered without taking family context into account.