Psychiatric training and practice in the People's Republic of China

Improved political relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China have led to closer contact in many areas. The authors trace the development of psychiatric training and practice in China with emphasis on the years after 1949. Since then, China has expanded psychiatric services to meet the needs of a vast population and has developed a theoretical approach to psychiatry that emphasizes sociopolitical factors. Additional information given to the authors in 1973 by psychiatrists in Nanking and Shanghai is presented and correlated with reports by other recent visitors to the People's Republic of China.