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International Journal of Korean History > Volume 29(3); 2024 > Article
현대 한국인의 탄생: 한국의 근대화, 정신 의학 그리고 한국인의 정신 건강

국문초록

한국은 1960년대~1980년대까지 박정희 유신 정권과 전두환 군부 세력이 경제 근대화, 산업화를 진행하였다. 이 과정에서 발생한 고도 경제 성장과 급변한 사회가 강요하는 새로운 삶의 방식은 한국인들에게 다양한 심리적 문제들을 유발하였고, 단순히 개인의 질병을 넘어 사회병리적 징후로도 해석되었다. 이에 정신과 의사들은 정신 건강의 다양한 주제로 대중 서적과 신문 기사를 출판하여 정신 의학의 대중화에 기여하였다. 그리고 정신과 의사의 역할은 학계와 병원에 국한된 의료 전문가에서 대중과 소통하는 영역으로 확장되었다.</br>이를 위해 1980년대를 대표한 베스트셀러와 동시대의 주요 신문기사를 바탕으로 정신의학의 지식이 한국인의 일상생활에 스며드는 변화 과정을 분석한다. 본 논문은 한국의 정신의학, 근대화, 정신 건강 간의 복잡한 상호작용을 살펴보는 데 목적이 있다.


Abstract

This article examines how Korean psychiatrists responded to the process of modernization from the 1960s to the 1980s and its impact on the Korean population. As they shared observations about how Koreans were struggling with rapid social change, they began to shape ordinary Koreans’ understanding of mental health. Initially, psychiatry in Korea was a small marginalized medical field, with psychiatrists’ roles largely confined to academia and hospitals. In the early 1980s, psychiatrists’ previously sporadic involvement in print media intensified. Moving psychiatric expertise into the public sphere, they published self-help books and newspaper articles on various topics related to mental health written for a popular audience. Their involvement in print media illuminates how psychiatric knowledge and practice became an important part of Koreans’ everyday lives. This article aims to contribute to a deeper historical understanding of the complex interactions between psychiatry, modernization, and mental health in South Korea.


Introduction

Historical studies of psychiatry in Korea have gained significant momentum in recent years. Most of the recent studies have focused on how psychiatric knowledge imported from other parts of the world le d,1 in the early twentieth century to the establishment of colonial psychiatry by Japanese imperialists, Western missionaries, and Koreans. In the early 1920s, there were two facilities, Keijō Imperial University and Severance Hospital, where medical students received psychiatric training and psychiatric treatment facilities were available for those who suffered from mental illness.2 Yet, only a few Koreans had opportunities to get trained in psychiatry and practice in the field. In colonial Korea, as a medical profession, psychiatry presented itself as capable of managing disruptive social behavior caused by mental illness.3 However, the profession’s reach was limited and most Koreans who suffered from mental illness were neglected.4 Although there were few psychiatric resources for Koreans living under the colonial regime, there was some awareness of the problem, as indicated by the various Korean newspapers and novels that paid attention to mental illness and symptoms of psychological distress such as neurasthenia, hysteria, and suicide.5
With the liberation in 1945, a dozen Korean psychiatrists trained in the colonial period established psychiatry as a medical field in South Korea.6 In the 1950s the number of psychiatrists continued to grow and during and after the Korean War, they began moving away from German and Japanese influence and adopting American dynamic psychiatry.7 They became less narrowly focused on biology, inheritance, and the classification of disorders and more concerned with their patients’ emotional development. Therapeutic dialogue such as psychotherapy and psychoanalysis became an increasingly acceptable form of treatment. In the 1960s and 1970s, Korean psychiatrists also began formulating new ways of thinking about and dealing with problems encountered in their discipline and in society at large. They began to advocate a series of changes that were to occur in the second half of the twentieth century. These included the opening of psychiatric hospitals, including day (outpatient) clinics, the adjustment of classification frameworks to fit Korean psychopathology, and the dissemination of psychiatric knowledge to the public.8
This article looks beyond the field of psychiatry as a medical field and into its expansion from academia and mental hospitals to new consumer markets focused on health and well-being. Considering various publications by Korean psychiatrists from the 1960s to 1980s, the article examines how Korean psychiatrists addressed the process of modernization and its impact on the Korean population. With their commentaries and guidance, they began shaping ordinary people’s understandings of mental health. During the same period, Korea experienced unprecedented economic and social change,9 which included economic development, urbanization, industrialization, the mobilization of the Korean population into Saemaeul undong (New Village Movement), and the democratization movement that emerged in the early 1980s. While all this was taking place, psychiatrists and related experts began to express concern about what they saw as a dramatic increase in feelings of depression, anxiety, and confusion. In 1982, a major newspaper titled an editorial “Age of Anxiety: Koreans Suffering from Neurosis.”10
In the history of psychiatry in Korea, the thirty-year period of modernization and the impact on Koreans’ mental health remains relatively unexamined. In scholarship on psychiatry in general, it has been argued that the profession has done more than any other to “transform conceptualization of the self and mind, as well as many of the routines and experiences of everyday life.”11 “Psy-knowledge,” with its terminology, classification, and modes of understanding, has pervaded many areas of society around the world. In Korea’s case, psychiatry’s public influence took off with the modernization process and psychiatrists’ perception of its impact on Koreans. Publications on mental health contributed to a new market focused on mental health and well-being and were part of a growing body of media devoted to expert advice. Promoting various techniques from psy-sciences (psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis), Korean psychiatrists urged individuals in distress to seek psychiatric help, provided guidance about how to cope with the strain of modern life, and, perhaps most important, seeded Korean popular culture with psychiatric concepts and knowledge. As a result, psychiatry began to shape the worldviews of many people who never had direct contact with psychiatrists.
The first part of this article considers a selection of writings by three psychiatrists that offer an indication of how rapid economic and social changes brought modern convenience but also changes to the family system and emotional distress. The second part of the article focuses on the first bestseller written by a Korean psychiatrist, which gained unprecedented popularity in 1980s Korea. Yi Si-hyŏng’s book was tailored to meet the specific needs of Koreans at this historical moment. Although not the first self-help book published by psychiatrists, it was the first to become a bestseller and evidence of the increasing number of Koreans actively seeking the guidance of psyexperts. Many other self-help books flourished throughout the 1980s and 1990s and in this regard, psychiatrists’ writings emerged as prescription and advice for those in need and opened a new market focused on mental health. The third part of the article reveals the extent to which editorials from major newspapers in the 1980s such as Chosŏn ilbo, Tonga ilbo, Maeil kyŏngje sinmun, and Kyŏnghyang sinmun, enabled psychiatrists to engage with print media, reach a wider audience than their fellow professionals, and to establish a relationship with the public. They addressed a population whose newfound prosperity and corresponding feelings of insecurity made fully realized psychological well-being seem within their reach. By this point in its history, Korean psychiatry had become a field of multiple discourses, including one that was public-facing and concerned with ordinary people’s problems.

Psychiatrists, Modernization and its Impact in Korea, 1960s-1970s

The first Republic of Korea, the Rhee Syngman regime (1948–1960), was preoccupied with a political and ideological battle against communism, and after the Korean War, it focused on national reconstruction.12 It was during Rhee’s regime that the American-led discourses of modernization theory and development economics were introduced to South Korea.13 These discourses were more than intellectual and technical knowledge and reflected the political intention of American diplomatic strategies to maintain the stability in the Third World and limit the expansion of communism. Many developing nations that emerged after World War II embraced modernization theory in hopes of pulling themselves out of poverty and achieving industrialization and democratization.
Despite ardent interest in reconstructing South Korea after the Korean War, the economic development pursued by the Rhee government was hindered by corruption. Rhee and his followers did not refrain from using bribery, electoral manipulation, and military tactics to maintain power. Discontented by the regime’s corruption, with no sign of economic recovery, students and intellectuals led protests that ended with the overthrow of Rhee’s regime in April 1960. In 1961, Park Chung Hee came to power following a coup d’etat. Park put high priority on improving the Korean economy, something that Rhee Syngman had not done during his regime. The Park Chung Hee regime (1961–1979) initiated a massive modernization project. By following the patterns of Western political economies, the project was intended to transform underdeveloped Korea into a modern, prosperous nation-state. Emphasizing economic prosperity as the sole priority of his modernization plan and putting less emphasis on democracy, Park urged Koreans to follow the example of West German economic development in the 1950s, the “Miracle on the Rhine.”14
While the Park regime used “modernization” as a catchphrase to initiate top-down economic development and to promote science and technology,15 the regime also insisted on remodeling what was perceived as Koreans’ national mentality. The Park regime was not the first to see the need for such fundamental reform. In the 1920s, under the colonial regime, there were discussions of the national characteristics needed to gain independence.16 In the 1960s, Park proposed developing the Korean national character conducive to successful economic development and an escape from poverty. Taking a somewhat different approach during the Park regime, in contributions to publications such as Sasanggye (The world of thought) and Ch’ŏngmaek (The green stem), Korean intellectuals argued that Korea’s modernization required reshaping Korean national character to cope with a process of rapid social change; they also prescribed ways of alleviating the social problems resulting from disintegrating traditions. Korean psychiatrists’ interest in the effects of the modernization process resembled those of the intellectuals, but with an emphasis on psychological problems. Sasanggye published eleven articles about neurosis by psychiatrist Yi Tong-sik. In the series, “Life and Society Seen by a Psychiatrist,”17 Yi’s consideration of neurosis identified specific anxieties associated with modern life in Korea. His argument reflected post-war Korean psychiatry’s concern with how people fit, as individuals and as groups, into a new kind of society. He wrote that the rapid decline of the traditional extended family system had led to new family pressures and trouble with in-laws, the rise of expectations of equal rights between men and women, and, for women, gaps between romantic expectations of marriage and reality.
In 1967, in “The City and Mental Illness,” psychiatrist Yu Sŏk-chin wrote that modernization offered many conveniences but could also be damaging to an individual’s mental health. He noted an increase in behaviors considered unacceptable including crime. Around the same time, psychiatrist Yi Tong-sik repeatedly warned of an alarming rise in the number of patients he saw who exhibited socio-pathological behavior:
In the past, I was often asked by foreign scholars whether mental illness was increasing due to modernization, but I was always able to answer that it was not. However, over the past 4–5 years, the evidence has been steadily increasing. There is an increase in various crimes, especially violent crimes, an increase in juvenile delinquency, an increase in new religions...this is a phenomenon that appears due to materialistic modernization and the intensification of distrust [of state, society] after May 16 [the 1961 coup d’etat led by Park Chung Hee].18
Both Yu and Yi began to present their profession as offering a modern solution to the psychological distress produced by rapid socioeconomic change. With rapid industrialization and urbanization came a disruption of trust. At the time, in an article called, “Citizens and mental health: Urbanization caused deterioration of value systems,” Yi Tong-sik noted that when a society attains such high level of existential security, allowing a substantial portion of the population take survival for granted, as result, one observes increase in competition.19 Some of the most troubling aspects of change had to do with competition. Beginning in the 1960s, although the number of higher-paying jobs was increasing, the competition to get them was becoming fierce. College entrance exams and exams for higher degrees served as an official gateway to upward mobility. Overall, in Korean society, the success of the modernization project had consequences in terms of the population’s mental health—through political instability, ambitions to escape poverty, and continued competition for credentials and higher incomes.
Korean psychiatrists took particular interest in the dissolution of the extended traditional family system and identified that as an additional source of tension. In the 1960s, psychiatrist Ch’oe Sin-hae observed that the role of the family and of parents was an essential component of “mental hygiene” and he emphasized the importance of “the sound mental state of the entire family.” In addition, he noted that the family in modern society was less stable than in the past, resulting in anxiety, which led to neurosis.20 Ch’oe wrote in Noirojeŭi Ch’iryowa Yebang (Neurosis, treatment, and prevention) that neurosis was more than a psychiatric disorder: it represented an opportunity to discuss modern living conditions, which he saw as filled with psychosocial stressors, particularly related to family and work, which caused “nerves,” or signs of neurosis. In a 1967 publication, Yu Sŏk-chin also emphasized that the most important change in modern society was the transformation of the family system. A similar transition in the family system had taken place in many societies, not only in modern, democratic nations but also in those considered underdeveloped.21 Like his colleagues, Yu was not suggesting a return to tradition:
The change is a reality that we cannot avoid. If this is reality, we must accept it and overcome it. I believe that it is necessary to focus on this concept of mental health in a way that is appropriate for modern times. The concept of mental health has been discussed and proposed by various authors on several occasions, but it is said to be always dynamically changing. The basic concept of mental health should be to lead individuals and society to adapt to all environments (urbanization, changes in family life, etc) with resilience and by adapting to change. It has to be something that can be dealt with.22
Psychiatrist Yu went into detail about the changes and how individuals need to adapt. He suggested that social and interpersonal conflicts were inevitable with such a major societal transformation, but individuals could minimize their distress by getting help from psychiatric professionals, who might offer advice such as “recreation without overwork.”23
By the 1970s, Park Chung Hee’s modernization project was well underway, as evidenced by heavy industry-centered economic development plans and the Saemaeul undong (New Village Movement). The government used the widespread desire to escape poverty and to embrace a strong Korean national identity to encourage support for their policies. This was evident especially in the collectivism that characterized much of the 1970s. The slogan of the New Village Movement, “Let’s live well,” expressed a popular sentiment. By this point in the century, many Koreans had survived colonial rule and liberation, the founding of the nation and the Korean War, the April Revolution and the Democratic Party’s rise to power. The Park regime perceived the public’s desire to “live well” as a solution to social problems that accompanied rapid economic and social change. As the slogan, “Let’s live well” suggests, one of the important goals of the Saemaeul undong was to shape mentalities. Meanwhile, the government pushed forward an industrialization policy that did not offer ordinary people a say. In response to the distress that ensued from such policies, Korean psychiatrists offered guidance about coping skills. Their efforts were not organized as mental health campaigns per se, but at a time when increasing numbers of Koreans were visiting the new psychiatric clinics, psychiatrists began to promote what they had to offer, aiming for a wide audience and a more influential presence in Korean society.

Entering the Market: Yi Si-Hyŏng’s Paechangŭro sapsida (Let’s Live it Up)

In an article in Chosŏn ilbo in 1979, psychiatrist Kim Kwang-il commented that he had noticed an increase in patients with “emotional distress” visiting his clinic. Among his patients, only 10 percent were diagnosed with a chronic mental disorder such as schizophrenia; the rest, he wrote, were people
who have trouble sleeping, who are anxious, who are easily startled, depressed, who have difficulties in interpersonal relationships, women who have not been able to get married, people with no appetite or trouble digesting food, people whose heart races even when they are not sick, people who have trouble concentrating on study or have tantrums.24
According to Kim, these patients were far from “mad.” He stressed that a decade earlier, psychiatrists would not be seeing patients like these. The patients they saw then in hospitals would not be living ordinary lives, going to work or school. By the late 1970s, psychiatric treatment was available on an outpatient basis,25 and Koreans with relatively mild emotional and behavioral conditions were beginning to seek help from psychiatrists. Now that psychiatric treatment was more readily available, psychiatrists sent out the message that less severely ill people could benefit from treatment as well as those requiring hospitalization.
Although psychiatrists had taken note of emotional distress in the 1960s-1970s, what changed in the 1980s was the number of people seeking guidance. In addition to seeking help from psychiatrists operating private clinics like the one Kim Kwang-il mentioned above, people could now consult a growing self-help literature authored by the same psychiatrists treating patients. In 1982, psychiatrist Yi Si-hyŏng published Paechangŭro sapsida (Let’s live it up), which gained unprecedented popularity. The book became the best-selling book of the decade, with 200,000 copies sold between 1982 and 1984.26 Its success was perceived as a shift in Korea’s literary landscape.27
What made a work by a psychiatrist a top bestseller in the 1980s? Paechangŭro sapsida (Let’s live it up) was not an autobiography recounting Yi Si-hyŏng’s experiences as a psychiatrist, but a compilation of his thoughts about how Koreans were maladjusted to the times. He also offered solutions. As a psychiatrist who was born during the colonial period, lived through the Korean War, and received medical training in both South Korea and the United States, Yi had come to the conclusion that Koreans lacked certain characteristics they needed to thrive in a fast-paced world. He argued that Koreans were excessively conscious of others; they tended toward passivity and in general were lacking in paechang (courage).28 Yi’s paechang referred to actions of boldness or courage that allowed one to attain success without worrying about the opinions of others. He wrote that Koreans tended to see paechang as bravado and a matter of merely looking courageous.29 This encouraged passivity, which would not help them achieve their aspirations. Yi saw that traditional Korean society, based on Confucianism, emphasized social harmony and collectivity, prioritizing one’s relationship to the group, including family, friends, and colleagues; hence, paying close attention to others’ conduct was necessary. Koreans were still monitoring one another—behavior which Yi pointed out was reflected in the everyday frequency of words like “ch’emyŏn” (honor, decency) and “nunch’i”(eye for social situations). Yi touted individualism instead and suggested that an individual’s social trajectory would be determined by personality, motivation, and attitudes. In particular to overcome traditional Confucian consciousness and become a talented, successful individual of the twentieth century, he argued, a Korean had to develop self-confidence and—Yi’s word—paechang. In addition to urging Koreans to speak their minds, he emphasized the importance of personal improvement. Just relying on paechang to achieve a goal would not be enough: one needed a variety of methods to take care of oneself professionally and personally.
Yi’s bestseller book and the self-help trend in the 1980s were not entirely inconsistent with what was known was Korean Confucian values. Self-help literature allowed readers to access psychiatric expertise without confiding in a stranger. It also reinforced a sense of what psychiatrists had begun to describe as Korean self-identity, which they reported was imbued with Korean Confucian values such as social integration—even if those values needed to be adjusted to fit the modern world. The challenge of balancing the old and new was familiar to psychiatrists in their professional practice. Many psychiatrists were acknowledging that it was challenging to employ Western approaches with Korean patients because of their reluctance to share personal feelings and thoughts with a stranger (psychiatrist), while also expecting to receive clear advice and answers to their questions.30 Some psychiatrists questioned whether psychotherapy was culturally appropriate in a context where personal and interpersonal problems were not apt to be discussed directly or openly and people were discouraged from revealing negative experiences. In fact, discussing anything personal with a stranger went against social norms.31
It was in this context that Yi’s book offered a discreet and inexpensive way to access psychiatric expertise.32 Although unusually successful in terms of sales, his book’s approach resembled that found in other works in the emerging self-help literature, which was mainly psychological and provided readers with support and guidance, employing vocabulary rich in psy-sciences concepts (e.g., mind-control, anxiety). By providing advice with professional authority, Yi’s book encouraged readers to manage their own thoughts and behaviors and bring them into line with what were imagined to be twentieth-century values.

Professional Guides to Psychiatric Distress in 1980s Print Media

While Yi’s book was setting sales records, psychiatrists were also more frequently publishing articles in newspapers. They wrote articles introducing new research findings, such as correlations between mental illness and blood type, and about the prevalence of children having nightmares; they advocated the establishment of psychiatric clinics for children and the use of psychological tests on public officials.33 Such popular outreach took place at a crucial moment for psychiatry as a profession. Prior to 1983 psychiatry had been in the same field as neurology, but that year the fields became separate, and psychiatrists adopted a more public-facing role. This helped them expand their expertise in academia but also across the therapeutic community and among the public.34
In 1985, psychiatrist Yi Ho-young wrote in “Industrialization and Mental Health in Korea,” that the speedy economic progress that had taken place during the last thirty years had changed Koreans’ perceptions of the necessities of life (Ǔisikchu, literally food, clothing, and shelter). Most Koreans were aware of the huge social and economic changes taking place, but up to that point, they placed little trust in psychiatry’s ability to help them navigate those changes.35 Several months after Yi’s article, a similar article was published in a major newspaper, Chosŏn ilbo, which featured psychiatrists and psychologists discussing a wide range of issues related to Koreans’ mental health, including teenage drug abuse, urban pollution, the rigidity of South Korea’s education system, personality development, and the absence of a parenting philosophy. The experts agreed that the increase in mental health problems did not stem from social change per se, but from the rapidity of change. According to these experts, social values had been lost and people were suffering from identity crises, making for an inevitable rise in behavioral and emotional problems.36 They argued that despite the advancement of medical technology in Korea, popular understanding of psychiatry and mental illness was retreating to the level of medieval times in Europe. They pointed to the brutal conditions of illegal prayer houses featured on the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) in 198337 and warned readers that ignorant attitudes about mental illness, and about mental health in general, endangered those suffering from mental illness and stigmatized patients and the professionals trying to help them. Following the transcript of the discussion, the article stressed psychiatry’s status as a medical field and that it could help not only those who suffered from serious mental disorders but could also benefit the mental health of the population in general. It conveyed the idea that mental health was important for everyone living in modern society and, if neglected, emotional distress could result.
What did psychiatrists like Yi offer Koreans eager to cultivate a healthy state of mind? Those experiencing mental distress were more likely to be unemployed, to suffer from financial burdens, to be unhappy with their surroundings, to have little trust in other people, and to feel lonely. In short, good health, a safe and clean environment, and supportive social relationships could offer resilience against poor mental health. Psychiatry had little offer when it came to avoiding many of the risk factors, but they could offer insight regarding relationships. Many of the social changes taking place affected family life in ways that caused strain, yet psychiatrists insisted that maintaining a healthy family was essential for everyone. To achieve that under modern conditions, readers could follow their advice. For example, parents, they advised, should avoid imposing their values on their children. Instead, they should encourage their children to develop adaptable personalities and skills that would help them cope with a fast-changing world.38
The roles of parents in a nuclear family were the subject of much of the psychiatrists’ advice. Major newspapers published multiple series of articles dealing with social changes and parenting, including one called “Kosok sahoe maŭmŭi yŏyurŭl katcha” (Let’s have peace of mind in a high-speed society) and “Ŏmŏni kyoyuk kyoshil: sarangŭi chihye” (Mothers’ education class: The wisdom of love), emphasizing parents’ involvement in social changes and the importance of parents communicating with their children. The series equally emphasized the roles of mothers and fathers at a time when the nuclear family unit was becoming more prevalent and as the birth rate was declining.39 Psychiatrists explained that the reduced involvement of grandparents meant that both parents needed to be involved in raising children.40
Psychiatrists also emphasized the importance of the mental health of women, who managed the domestic affairs of the family. Major newspapers were mentioning “chubu pyŏng” (housewives’ syndrome)—women suffering from hysteria41 or anxiety and revealing unhappiness with their role as homemaker.42 Psychiatrists conducted studies of marital status and found that housewives in their mid-thirties tended to suffer the most from forms of mental illness such as hysteria.43 In editorials, psychiatrists noted growing female voices of discontent and demands for a more equal role in society; they reported that many women wanted to be an equal partner with their husband. Unlike in the traditional family system, where a woman’s primary role was as a wife, mother, and daughter-in-law, housewives of the 1980s had more education and were exposed to Western ideas and lifestyles while living in a nuclear family with only one or two children. Psychiatrists noted a connection between parenting techniques and the mental health of housewives. Although they viewed a father’s role in the family as important, they emphasized that the most important factor in children’s development was their mother’s mental state.
Toward the latter half of the 1980s, psychiatrists became increasingly interested not just in mental disorders but in ordinary Koreans’ mental health and well-being. Many articles by psychiatrists in this period mentioned a search for well-being involving interventions to promote positive psychosocial characteristics. This discourse often highlighted the relatively new concept of “stress,” that suggests that the concept was new to Korea in general, not just to psychiatrists. In the late 1980s, psychiatrists attempted to identify the sources of stress among Koreans that could lead to physical illness and psychological distress. Newspaper series like “Chŏngsin wisaeng il chungdokchŭng 4ch’ŏnmanŭi kŏn’gang” (The mental hygiene of forty-million workaholic Koreans)44 by psychiatrist Kim Kwang-il discussed various stages of what we would now call “burnout,” with its physical and emotional exhaustion resulting from stress, and noted that many of the symptoms were prevalent among Korean “salary men.” Dr. Kim advised that positive expectations about the future were crucial for avoiding the development of mental disorders, particularly anxiety disorders, but also physical illness. Kim was not alone in his enthusiasm for positive thinking: his colleagues were talking about a close relationship existing between positive thinking and coping strategies focused on social support. Psychiatrists often emphasized positive aspects of stressful situations and encouraged Koreans to cultivate adaptive behaviors, cognitive responses with flexibility, and problem-solving skills.

Conclusion

In the first half of the twentieth century, psychiatry had been a marginal medical field, whose reputation was challenged by psychiatrists’ association with their patients—which included people who engaged in highly disruptive behavior and were thought to need treatment away from society. Beginning soon after the liberation in 1945 and the emergence of the independent nation-state, Korean psychiatrists trained in Western psychiatry began rising to the top of their professions, something they could not do in the colonial regime. Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, Korean psychiatry benefited from the return of psychiatrists who had received training in psychiatry in other countries. There were growing numbers of systematically trained psychiatric specialists devoted to the effective treatment of mental illness.45 Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, many Korean psychiatrists emphasized the importance of mental health and urgently advocated the development of additional psychiatric facilities. By the 1980s, psychiatrists were connecting their expertise to the lives of ordinary people. They became particularly interested in emotional distress, which was not considered a mental illness. Psychiatrists suggested that anyone living in modern society could experience mental health problems, and with treatment, they could avoid developing serious illness. They expanded their area of expertise so that it included not just emotional distress, but parenting, stress management, and healthy living. For Koreans, psy-knowledge gradually became common knowledge.
In tracing how Korean psychiatrists responded to modernization, I have sought to address a gap in the history of psychiatry in modern Korea. Sociologist Nikolas Rose observes that “the subtle and effective ways” of “advanced liberalism” have permeated contemporary life, “creating a society in which the regulation of public conduct”46 is closely linked to psychiatric and psychological interventions designed to regulate the emotions and behaviors of individuals. Psychiatrists can translate nearly any aspect of the human condition into disorders, pathologies, and aberrant behaviors that require experts’ attention.
For Korean psychiatrists, the modernization process and its impact on the Korean population represented an opportunity to expand their influence. Their expertise became indispensable as they identified the kinds of distress that could be attributed to the modernization process. They published self-help books that advised readers how to cultivate a healthy mind that could compete in a fast-paced world; in newspapers they offered guidance on parenting, marital relationships, and many other aspects of everyday life. They peered more deeply into ordinary Korean lives than ever before.
By the 1990s, South Korea faced a new set of challenges, including globalization, the advent of a democratic government, the Asian Financial Crisis, and the rise of neoliberalism. These developments exacerbated emotional distress among Koreans. Despite the momentous changes, the core discourse of Korean psychiatry remained unchanged. The emphasis on individuals taking responsibility for their own mental health continues to be a key element of psychiatric practice in Korea.

Notes

1  Yi Pu-yŏng, “Hanguk eseo ui seoyang jeongsin uihak 100-nyeon, 1899–1999 [Hundred Years’ Psychiatry in Korea, 1899–1999],” Ŭisakhak 8, no. 2 (1999): 159; Yi Na-mi and Yi Pu-yŏng, “Sŏyang chŏngsin ŭihagŭi toipkwa kŭ pyŏnch’ŏn’gwajŏng: 17 segibut’ŏ ilchegangjŏm chŭonkkaji [The Introduction of the Western Psychiatry into Korea (1) - from the mid seventeenth century to 1911, the time of Japanese forced annexation of Korea],” Ŭisahak 8, no. 2 (1999): 266–267.

2  Yi Pu-yŏng,”Ilcheha chŏngsin’gwa chillyowa kŭ pyŏnch’ŏn: Chosŏn ch’ongdokpu ŭiwŏnŭi chŏngsin’gwa chillyorŭl (1913–1928) chungshimŭro [Psychiatric Care and its Change under the Japanese],” Uisahak 3, no. 2 (1994); Chŏng Wŏn-yong, Lee Nami, and Rhi Bou-yong, “Sŏyang chŏngsinŭihagŭi toipkwa kŭ pyŏnch’ŏn’gwajŏng (2): Ilje kangjŏmgiŭi chŏngsinŭihak kyoyuk [The Introduction of Western Psychiatry into Korea (II): Psychiatric Education in Korea during the Forced Japanese Annexation of Korea (1910–1945)],” Ŭisakhak 15, no.2 (2006); Yeo In-seok, “Sebŭransŭ chŏngsin’gwaŭi sŏllim kwajŏnggwa indojuŭijŏng ch’iryo chŏnt’ongŭi hyŏnsang: Maengnaren’gwa ijungch’ŏrŭi hwaltongŭl chungshimŭro [The Establishment of SUMC (Severance Union Medical College) Psychiatry Department and the Formation of Humanistic Tradition],” Ŭisakhak 17, no. 1 (2008).

3  Yi Pang-hyŏn, “Singminji Chosŏn eso ŭi chŏngsinbyŏngja ŭi taehan kŏndaejok chŏpgun [Modern Approach to Treating Mental Patients in Colonial Chosun],” Uisahak 22, no.2 (2013).

4  Ibid.

5  See Chapter 4 in Theodore Jun Yoo, It’s Madness: The Politics of Mental Health in Colonial Korea (University of California Press, 2016).

6  Taehan sin’gyŏng chŏngsinuihak’oe P’yŏnch’an Wiwŏnhoe, Han’guk Chŏngsin ŭihak 100nyŏnsa [100 Years of Psychiatry in Korea] (Chungangmunhwasa, 2009), 76–79.

7  Yu Sŏk-chin, “Taehan sin’gyŏngjŏngsin ŭihak’oeŭi palchok [The Inauguration of the Korean Neuropsychiatric Association],” in Hak’oe hwaltongŭl torabomyŏ [Reflections on the Activities of Our Academic Society], ed. Korean Neuropsychiatric Association (Usin, 1992), 10; Yi Pu-yŏng, “Hanguk eseo ui seoyang jeongsin uihak,” 157.

8  Han’guk Chŏngsin ŭihak 100nyŏnsa, 88–108; Yi Pu-yŏng, “Hanguk eseo ui seoyang jeongsin uihak,” 166–168.

9  Kyung-sup Chang, “Compressed Modernity and Its Discontents: South Korean Society in Transition,” Economy and Society 28, no. 1 (1999); see also Ryu Jeh-hong, “Naturalizing Landscapes and the Politics of Hybridity: Guanghuamum to Cheonggyecheon,” Korea Journal 44, no. 3 (2004). Although the Rhee Syngman government initiated economic development, the regime failed to accomplish any significant progress. In the early 1960s, the Park Chung Hee regime (1961–1979) accelerated Korea’s modernization process. As a result, in a period of less than thirty years, Korea’s semi-agrarian society became an industrial one.

10  Kyŏnghyang sinmun, July 20, 1982.

11  Kurt Danziger, Constructing the Subject: Historical Origins of Psychological Research (Cambridge University Press, 1990); see also Nikolas Rose, “Government, Authority and Expertise in Advanced Liberalism,” Economy and Society 22, no. 3 (1993): 286–87; Ian Hacking, Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory (Princeton University Press, 1995).

12  Chŏn U-yong, Hyŏndaein ŭi t’ansaeng [The Birth of Modern Men] (Isun, 2011), 32–41; John P. DiMoia, Reconstructing Bodies: Biomedicine, Health, and Nation-building in South Korea since 1945 (Stanford University Press, 2013), See chapter 4.

13  See Park Tae Gyun, An Ally and Empire: Two Myths of South Korea-United States Relations, 1945–1980, trans. Ilsoo David Cho (The Academy of Korean Studies Press, 2012); Gregg Brazinsky, Nation Building in South Korea: Koreans, Americans, and the Making of a Democracy (University of North Carolina Press, 2007).

14  Park Chung Hee, Kukka wa hyŏngmyŏng kwa na [The nation, revolution, and I] (Chigu’chon, 1997), 270–271.

15  Sang-Hyun Kim, “Science, Technology, and Imaginaries of Development in South Korea,” Development and Society 46, no. 2 (September 2017).

16  Michael Kim, “The Discursive Foundations of the South Korean Developmental State: Sasanggye and the Reception of Modernization Theory,” Korea Observer 38, no.3 (2007): 373.

17  From 1963 to 1964, psychiatrist Yi Tong-sik’s serialized eleven articles on the individual and social origins of neurosis appeared in Sasanggye under the title “Life and Society Seen by a Psychiatrist.”

18  Yi Tong-sik, Noirojeŭi Ihaewa Ch’iryo [The Understanding and Treatment of Neurosis] (Ilchisa, 1993), 110.

19  Chosŏn ilbo, April 25, 1969.

20  Ch’oe Sin-hae, Noirojeŭi Ch’iryowa Yebang [Neurosis, treatment, and prevention] (Chŏngŭmsa, 1965), 14.

21  Yu Sŏk-chin, “Dosiwa jŏngsinbyŏng,” [The City and Social Pathology: the City and Mental illness] Dosi Munje [Urban Affairs] 2, no.10 (1967): 25.

22  Ibid., 27.

23  Kyŏnghyang sinmun, November 21, 1960.

24  Chosŏn ilbo, February 13, 1979.

25  Han’guk Chŏngsin ŭihak 100nyŏnsa, 105.

26  Maeil kyŏngje sinmun, April 24, 1984.

27  According to one newspaper article, while “a million seller” abroad referred to a book that sold one million copies, in Korea very few books sold more than 300,000. In fact, books were deemed “bestsellers” if they sold more than 100,000 copies. Prior to the 1980s, Korean bestsellers were predominately novels, such as Ch’oe In-hun’s The Square in the 1960s (30,000 copies sold), and Ch’oe In-ho’s Heavenly Homecoming to Stars in the 1970s, Cho Hae-il’s Winter Woman in 1977, and Cho Se-hŭi’s A Dwarf Launches a Little Ball in 1979, each selling between 100,000 and 200,000 copies. Dr. Yi’s book marked a change in the 1980s when non-fiction works began to surpass novels in bestseller rankings.

28  Paechang can be translated literally as “the mindset or attitude of being committed to achieve one’s goal without being afraid or swayed by outside influence.” “배짱,” NAVER Korean-English Dictionary, accessed October 1, 2024, https://korean.dict.naver.com/koendict/#/entry/koen/2966222ebb6d48f298afc4d228cebc49

29  Yi Si-hyŏng, Paechangŭro sapsida [Let’s Live it Up] (Chiphyŏnchŏn, 1982), 40–41.

30  D. S. Rhee (Yi Tong-sik), “Assimilation of Western Psychotherapy in Asia: The Korean Case,” (paper presented at the Second Pacific Congress of Psychiatry, Manila, May 12–16, 1980).

31  Chosŏn ilbo, May 22, 1977.

32  John Norcross, “Here Comes the Self-Help Revolution in Mental Health,” Psychotherapy Theory Research Practice Training 37, no. 4 (2000): 374.

33  Maeil kyŏngje sinmun, July 29, 1981; Kyŏnghyang sinmun, September 16, 1981

34  Yi Yong-p’yo, “Chŏngsinŭihakkwa chŏngsinjangaein’gwŏn [Psychiatry and the Human Rights of Mentally Disabled Persons],” Han’guk Chŏngsin kŏn’gang sahoebokchi hakhoe [Korea Academy of Mental Health Social Work] (2004).

35  Ho Young Lee, “Industrialization and Mental Health in Korea,” Yonsei Medical Journal 27, no. 4 (1986): 245.

36  Chosŏn ilbo, October 23, 1985.

37  Ch’ujŏk 60pun [In-depth 60 minutes], “Kin’gŭp chŏmgŏm kidowŏn” [Emergency Inspection of Prayer Houses] aired July 24, 1983, on KBS, https://program.kbs.co.kr/2tv/culture/chu60/pc/index.html.

38  Kyŏnghyang sinmun, May 28, 1981; Kyŏnghyang sinmun, October 6, 1982; Chosŏn ilbo, May 1, 1983.

39  See Park Gun, “Chanyŏŭi sahoemunhwajŏk ŭimibyŏnhwawa kukkadamnon: 1960~80nyŏndae ch’o ‘kajŏngŭi pŏt’ chapchirŭl chungsimŭro [The Changes of Social-Cultural Meaning of Children in Korea and National Discourse: Focusing on Magazine ‘Friends of Family’ from 1960’s to 1980’s],” Munhwawa Chŏngch’I [Culture and Politics] 2, no. 1 (2015).

40  Kyŏnghyang sinmun, December 20, 1983.

41  Hysteria was primarily diagnosed in women, with its definition varying historically and geographically until its removal from the DSM-III in the 1980s. In the second half of the twentieth century, diagnoses of hysteria declined globally, including in South Korea. However, Koreans commonly understood the term, along with “neurosis,” as referring to psychosomatic symptoms experienced by Korean women. Consequently, in the 1980s Korean psychiatrists continued to use the term in print media.

42  Kyŏnghyang sinmun, March 23, 1983.

43  Kyŏnghyang sinmun, December 3, 1981; Tonga ilbo, October 17, 1984; Tonga ilbo, January 1, 1985.

44  Chosŏn ilbo, December 4, 1987; Chosŏn ilbo, December 19, 1987; Maeil kyŏngje sinmun, February 19, 1988.

45  Kyŏnghyang sinmun, April 5, 1971.

46  Rose, “Government, Authority and Expertise.”

Bibliography

1) Newspapers and Magazines

1. Chosŏn ilbo.

2. Kyŏnghyang sinmun.

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5. Chŏng, Wŏn-yong, NaMi, Lee, Bou-yong, Rhi. Sŏyang chŏngsinŭihagŭi toipkwa kŭ pyŏnch’ŏn’gwajŏng(2): Ilje kangjŏmgiŭi chŏngsinŭihak kyoyuk. [The Introduction of Western Psychiatry into Korea (II): Psychiatric Education in Korea during the Forced Japanese Annexation of Korea (1910–1945)]. Ŭisakhak, 15(2):2006, pp 157–187.

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7. Danziger, Kurt. Constructing the Subject: Historical Origins of Psychological Research. Cambridge University Press, 1990.

8. DiMoia, John P. Reconstructing Bodies: Biomedicine, Health, and Nation-Building in South Korea since 1945. Stanford University Press, 2013.

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11. Kim, Sang-Hyun. "Science, Technology, and the Imaginaries of Development in South Korea." Development and Society 46, no. 2 September;(2017): 341–371.

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16. Park, Gun. "Chanyŏŭi sahoemunhwajŏk ŭimibyŏnhwawa kukkadamnon: 1960~80nyŏndae ch’o ‘kajŏngŭi pŏt’ chapchirŭl chungsimŭro [The Changes of Social-Cultural Meaning of Children in Korea and National Discourse: Focusing on Magazine ‘Friends of Family’ from 1960’s to 1980’s]." Munhwawa Chŏngch’I [Culture and Politics]. 2, no. 1 (2015): 45–75.

17. Park, Tae Gyun. An Ally and Empire: Two Myths of South Korea-United States Relations, 1945–1980. Cho Ilsoo David . The Academy of Korean Studies Press, 2012.

18. Rhee, DS(Yi Tong-sik). "“Assimilation of Western Psychotherapy in Asia: The Korean Case." In: Paper presented at the Second Pacific Congress of Psychiatry; Manila. May 12–16, 1980.

19. Rose, Nikolas. "Government, Authority and Expertise in Advanced Liberalism." Economy and Society 22, no. 3 (1993): 283–299.
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20. Ryu, Jeh-hong. "Naturalizing Landscapes and the Politics of Hybridity: Guanghuamum to Cheonggyecheon." Korea Journal 44, no. 3 (2004): 8–33.

21. Taehan sin’gyŏng chŏngsinuihak’oe P’yŏnch’an Wiwŏnhoe. Han’guk Chŏngsin ŭihak 100nyŏnsa. [100 Years of Psychiatry in Korea]. Chungangmunhwasa. 2009.

22. In-seok, Yeo. "Sebŭransŭ chŏngsin’gwaŭi sŏllim kwajŏnggwa indojuŭijŏng ch’iryo chŏnt’ong ŭi hyŏnsang: Maengnaren’gwa ijungch’ŏrŭi hwaltongŭl chungshimŭro [The Establishment of SUMC (Severance Union Medical College) Psychiatry Department and the Formation of Humanistic Tradition]." Ŭisakhak 17, no. 1 (2008): 57–74.

23. Na-mi, Yi, Pu-yŏng, Yi. "Sŏyang chŏngsin ŭihagŭi toipkwa kŭ pyŏnch’ŏn’gwajŏng: 17 segibut’ŏ ilchegangjŏm chŭonkkaji [The Introduction of the Western Psychiatry into Korea (1) - from the mid seventeenth century to 1911, the time of Japanese forced annexation of Korea]." Ŭisahak 8, no. 2 (1999): 242–293.

24. Yi, Pang-hyŏn. "Singminji Chosŏn eso ŭi chŏngsinbyŏngja ŭi taehan kŏndaejok chŏpgun [Modern Approach to Treating Mental Patients in Colonial Chosun]." Uisahak 22, no. 2 (2013): 529–578.

25. Yi, Pu-yŏng. "Ilcheha chŏngsin’gwa chillyowa kŭ pyŏnch’ŏn: Chosŏn ch’ongdokpu ŭiwŏnŭi chŏngsin’gwa chillyorŭl (1913–1928) chungshimŭro [Psychiatric Care and its Change under the Japanese]." Uisahak 3, no. 2 (1994): 147–169.

26. Yi, Pu-yŏng. "Hanguk eseo ui seoyang jeongsin uihak 100-nyeon, 1899–1999 [Hundred Years’ Psychiatry in Korea (1899–1999)]." Ŭisakhak 8, no. 2 (1999): 157–172.

27. Yi, Si-Hyŏng. Paechangŭro sapsida. [Let’s Live It Up]. Chiphyŏnchŏn, 1982.

28. Yi, Tong-Sik. Noirojeŭi Ihaewa Ch’iryo. [The Understanding and Treatment of Neurosis]. Ilchisa. 1993.

29. Yi, Yong-p’yo. "Chŏngsinŭihakkwa chŏngsinjangaein’gwŏn [Psychiatry and the Human Rights of Mentally Disabled Persons]." Han’guk Chŏngsin kŏn’gang sahoebokchi hakhoe [Korea Academy of Mental Health Social Work]. (2004): 51–73.

30. Yoo, Theodore Jun. It’s Madness: The Politics of Mental Health in Colonial Korea. University of California Press, 2016.

31. Yu, Sŏk-chin. "Dosiwa jŏngsinbyŏng [The City and Social Pathology: the City and Mental Illness]." Dosi Munje [Urban Affairs]. 2, no. 10 (1967).

32. Yu, Sŏk-chin. "Taehan sin’gyŏngjŏngsin ŭihak’oeŭi palchok [The Inauguration of the Korean Neuropsychiatric Association]." Hak’oe hwaltongŭl torabomyŏ. [Reflections on the Activities of Our Academic Society]. Korean Neuropsychiatric Association, Usin. 1992.

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