Other Therapies
Emotion Therapy of TCM
TCM believes that having seven emotions to an extreme extend can hurt people. Seven emotions refer to seven normal emotional activities, such as happiness, anger, anxiety, wistfulness, sadness, fear, and shock. They are different responses of the body’s physiological and psychological activities to external environmental stimuli and belong to everyone’s emotional experience. Under normal circumstances, they do not cause or induce disease. Only strong and long-lasting emotional stimulation, which surpasses the human body’s physical and psychological adaptability, damages the body’s visceral essence and qi, leading to dysfunction, or the human body’s weakness of righteousness, visceral essence, and weakened ability to adapt to emotional stimulation. When a disease occurs or is induced, the seven emotions are called “seven emotions internal injuries.” TCM emotion therapy is a medical psychology with traditional and cultural characteristics, reflecting the ancient philosophy of restraint of the five elements, and it is a perfect combination of classic theory and clinical experience.
In the face of COVID-19, anxiety and fear are inevitable. Wistfulness hurts the spleen; sadness hurts the lungs. And some patients even suffer from such uncomfortable symptoms as loss of appetite, restless sleep, palpitations, and chest tightness, which seriously affect their physical and mental health. Therefore, psychological intervention is essential for COVID-19 patients. In the course of thousands of years of development, Chinese medicine has accumulated a lot of scientific methods for diseases caused by seven emotions, and it can be used to treat diseases.
Ancient Chinese Medicine Emotion Therapy
The ancient Chinese medicine of emotion therapy is rich, colorful, and full of wit. Many anecdotes about diagnosis and treatment show the belief that emotions are medicine. TCM has unique emotion therapy for some difficult and strange diseases, and the magical curative effect contains rich scientific principles.
6.4.1.1.1 Anger Therapy
Legend has it that King Qi Min of the Warring States Period suffered from depression, so he asked Wen Zhi, a well-known doctor of the Song Dynasty, to treat him. After a detailed diagnosis, Wen Zhi said to the prince: “King Qi’s illness can only be cured by irritating methods. If I irritate King Qi, he will definitely kill me.” The prince pleaded, “As long as you can cure my father’s disease, my mother and I will guarantee your safety.” Wen Zhi had to agree.
Wen Zhi made an appointment with King Qi, but Wen Zhi did not come. Wen Zhi made and missed appointments with the king two more times. This made King Qi furious. A few days later, Wen Zhi suddenly appeared to meet with King Qi, but he did not abide with formality and take off his shoes. He went to King Qi’s bed to start diagnosis and irritated King Qi with his profane language. King Qi was enraged, so he got up and started to curse Wen Zhi. With the mixture of anger and cursing, King Qi let out all negative emotions, and the depression was healed. Based on the principle of “anger is better than thinking” in the treatment of sentiment in TCM, Wen Zhi cured King Qi’s depression by irritating his patient, leaving a typical example of sentiment therapy in the history of medical records.
6.4.1.1.2 Laughter Therapy
In the Qing Dynasty, there was a patrol man who was suffering from mental depression. He was frowning and depressed all day long. Nothing has changed even after several treatments. His condition became increasingly critical day by day. After being recommended by someone, he went to an old Chinese doctor for treatment.
Tire old Chinese doctor took a look and asked some questions, and said to the 1 word: patrolman, “You have irregular menstruation, just take care of it.” The patrol man laughed and felt that this was a confused doctor. How could he not tell the difference between men and women? After that, whenever he thought of it, he still couldn’t help but laugh secretly. As time passed, his depression got better.
A year later, the old Chinese doctor met the patrol man again, and said to him, “The disease that you had suffered in the past was qi stagnation. There is no good medicine, but if you are in a good mood and you often laugh, qi will start to flow unrestrictedly and coherently, and the disease can be healed without treatment. Your illness is cured without medicine through each and every laugh you had.” The patrol man suddenly realized it and thanked the doctor immediately.
6.4.1.1.3 Pain Therapy
There was a farmer named Li Dajian in the Ming Dynasty. He had been diligent and studious since he was a child. He was admitted as an entry-level scholar.
The following year, he was admitted as a second-level scholar. In the third year, he was admitted as a third-level scholar. Good news continued to be heard year after year. His father was very happy, so he praised his son when he met everybody, and laughed at every boast. He couldn’t stop laughing, and eventually became mad with laughter. Many doctors came to treat him, but they were unsuccessful. Li Dajian had no choice but to ask an imperial physician for treatment. The imperial physician thought for a long time before he said to Li, “The disease can be cured, but I may be disrespectful. Please forgive me.” Li said, “I will obey the doctors orders and dare not violate it.”
The imperial physician immediately sent someone to Li Dajian’s hometown to report the funeral. He said to his father, “Your son has passed away because of a sudden illness.” After Li Dajian’s father heard the bad news, he cried with extreme grief. Due to excessive grief, the symptoms of mad laughter stopped.
Soon, the imperial physician sent someone to tell Li’s father: “After your son died, he was lucky enough to be rejuvenated by the imperial physician, and he was resurrected and saved.” Li’s father stopped his grief again. In this way, the mad laugh disease that lasted for 10 years was cured. Psychologically speaking, this is so-called reverse therapy.
6.4.1.1.4 Joy Therapy
According to legend, Zhang Zihe, a famous doctor in ancient times, was good at treating difficult and strange diseases and enjoyed high prestige among the masses. One day, a man named Xiang Guanling came to see a doctor and said that his wife had a strange disease. She only knew she was hungry, but she did not want to eat and drink. She vociferated every day and night, and she took a lot of medicine, but it was useless.
After hearing it, Zhang Zihe thought it was difficult to cure this type of disease with medicine. He told the patient’s family to find two women, dressed as acting harlequins, and making many antics with twists and turns. This would make the patient happy. As soon as the patient was happy, the disease was relieved. Then, Zhang Zihe asked the patient’s family to invite two women with strong appetites to come eat in front of the patient. The patient watched and then unknowingly began to eat. In this way, he used joy therapy to gradually calm the patient’s mood, and the patient recovered without medicine.
6.4.1.1.5 Shame Therapy
Shame is a human instinct. By using this instinct, Chinese medicine has cured some difficult and strange diseases. All received a magical unexpected effect. According to legend, there was a folk woman who could not put her hands down at her side anymore because of yawning, and no medication was effective.
Taking advantage of the woman’s shyness, the doctor pretended to untie the woman’s belt and threatened to do acupuncture treatment for her. The woman was stunned by this sudden movement, and unconsciously hurriedly covered her lower body with her hands. Changes emerge within an emergency. The woman’s hands dropped naturally and she was cured. This is the emotion therapy adopted by Chinese medicine to “besiege Wei to rescue Zhao” strategy, and it has received immediate results.
