The Yin-Yang of People, Geography, and Health

Life evolves as a force that dynamically transforms us without our awareness. Freudian psychotherapists and traditional Chinese medical practitioners are likely to agree on that. That force is psychic energy for Freud and qi for the Chinese. Freud used an iceberg to explain the interplay of the conscious, the unconscious, and the preconscious. The Chinese think of the body as a landscape full of five elements: fire, metal, wood, earth, and water. Just as a psychodynamic therapist would examine a person’s intrapsychic conflicts, a Chinese healer would manipulate a person’s qi through, for example, the placement of a potted plant or an aquarium. In discussing people or earth or sea, the Chinese focus on the issues of yin-yang (or opposing forces), the five elements, and the dynamic relationship between people and environment.