Authors
Wan-Chi Wong
Published in
Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences. Volume 62. Issue 3. Pages e70057.
Abstract
In clarifying that Spinoza is not the first person to share insights about the necessity of a contrary, strong emotion in transforming an emotion, the present article focuses on expounding this perspective as embedded in the classical texts of Chinese medicine, along with illustrative examples of emotion-focused therapy in the historical case records of Chinese master physicians. Key features of this kind of emotion-focused therapy include (1) designing a new scenario that provides the client with an embodied alternate experience in the real world, thereby eliciting a strong emotion capable of overcoming the previously indulged one, and (2) implementing the scenario through collaboration with a person close to the client, or by securing the client's full trust in the physician. A comparison between the role of emotions in the holistic system of traditional Chinese medicine and the philosophical system of Spinoza, as presented in Ethics, reveals more variability than commonality. Even though the role of emotion in human functioning is recognized in Spinoza's system of thought, his approach to emotion regulation is fundamentally rationalistic. A closer review of contemporary psychological science and psychotherapy further reveals that cognition plays an intriguing role in the regulation and transformation of emotions. Against this background, the contributions and limitations of emotion-focused therapy in traditional Chinese medicine are evaluated, followed by the elucidation of its principles and the consideration of its integration with advancements in contemporary psychotherapy.
PMID:
42296458
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 16 Jun 2026.
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