Breathing Spaces : Qigong, Psychiatry, and Healing in China Hardback
by Nancy (University of California at Santa Cruz) Chen
Hardback
Description
The charismatic form of healing called qigong, based on meditative breathing exercises, has achieved enormous popularity in China during the last two decades.
Qigong served a critical social organizational function, as practitioners formed new informal networks, sometimes on an international scale, at a time when China was shifting from state-subsidized medical care to for-profit market medicine.
The emergence of new psychological states deemed to be deviant led the Chinese state to "medicalize" certain forms while championing scientific versions of qigong.
By contrast, qigong continues to be promoted outside China as a traditional healing practice.
Breathing Spaces brings to life the narratives of numerous practitioners, healers, psychiatric patients, doctors, and bureaucrats, revealing the varied and often dramatic ways they cope with market reform and social changes in China.
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Hardback
- Pages:256 pages
- Publisher:Columbia University Press
- Publication Date:04/06/2003
- Category:
- ISBN:9780231128049
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Hardback
- Pages:256 pages
- Publisher:Columbia University Press
- Publication Date:04/06/2003
- Category:
- ISBN:9780231128049