China is celebrating the 150th birthday of Sigmund Freud, but his interpretation of dreams and frankness with sexuality remain a bridge too far for most Chinese.
For the past month, the father of psychoanalysis - born in Moravia in the present-day Czech Republic on May 6, 1856 - has been remembered in books, newspaper articles, television programmes and seminars.
'Freudian theory had a significant impact on Chinese thought,' said Gao Xi , associate professor of history at Fudan University in Shanghai. 'But his sexual psychology has been accepted and applied more in literature than in medicine and psychology.'
Geng Wenxiu , professor of psychology at East China Normal University, said Freud's emphasis on sexuality and his theory of dreams were hard for Chinese to accept. In the west, Freud's legacy continues to be debated, with some academics dismissing him as a fraud, and others crediting and expanding his theories.
'In psychology in China, Freud is not the mainstream. US behaviourism is more accepted,' Professor Geng said, referring to psychology theory that seeks to explain behaviour by referencing only what is scientifically observable.
'It is a problem of money as well as culture. Doctors here do not have two, three or 10 years to treat someone. It is three-five times only.'
The two were speaking at a seminar organised on Friday by the Austrian consul-general to celebrate the life of Freud, who studied and worked for nearly all his life in Vienna, before fleeing Nazism to London, where he died on September 23, 1939.