Psychiatrists’ agency and their distance from the authoritarian state in post-World War II Taiwan.

Abstract

By the end of World War II and in the shadow of the Cold War, many Asia-Pacific nations developed their psychiatric disciplines and strengthened their mental health care provision. This article examines the activities of the first generation of psychiatrists in Taiwan during the postwar period, focusing on their self-fashioning during the transition of a medical discipline. At this time, psychiatry was imagined by the state and by professionals as a science serving different clinical and political objectives. Psychiatrists, however, enjoyed a relatively unrestricted environment that allowed them to gradually form a professional identity. At the height of the Cold War, the state attempted to use psychiatry for political ends. Because of its initially malleable nature and undeveloped content, psychiatry could be employed by various authorities for diverse purposes, including patient care, scientific inquiry, psychological warfare, and even political probes to obtain crucial information. Nevertheless, psychiatrists sought to create spaces where they could develop their professional autonomy and prevent exploitation amid complicated political polemics.

Managing Chineseness: neurasthenia and psychiatry in Taiwan in the second half of the twentieth century

“…With the shortage of staff, Lin focused his efforts on establishing neuropsychiatric education, conducting psychiatric epidemiological studies, and designing a mental health network for the entire island. The introduction of foreign aid to Taiwan and the trend of transnational scientific collaboration in the context of the Cold War, for instance the World Health Organization's project in developing a unified classification system of mental disorders, facilitated rapid movement of knowledge and personnel (Wu, 2014(Wu, , 2020. For example, Lin underwent postgraduate training at Harvard and London (Maudsley) in the 1950s.…”

“…They not only moved very easily from the central nervous model to the psychological model in understanding neurasthenia, but also actively participated in an international project of producing cultural knowledge of psychiatric maladies. All these had to do with their belief in scientific progress, their professional autonomy even at the height of the Cold War (Wu, 2020), the rising influence of the USA in the region, and a unique form of international scientific collaboration characteristic of the post-WWII era. In terms of their everyday clinical practice, these medical elites endeavoured to soothe and comprehend the psychological and physical effects of mass immigration and drastic social changes.…”

“… 3. The old neuropsychiatric case files of the National Taiwan University Hospital (1939–1953) are currently stored at the Academia Sinica, Taipei. For previous historical studies of Taiwanese psychiatry using the NTUH case notes, see Wu HYJ, 2014, 2020. …”