Since Korea was occupied by Japan during the period 1910 to 1945, it has looked to that country for its models of psychiatric thought, which, from that time, have been largely organically based descriptions. The earliest known Korean analyst was Sung Hee Kim, who trained under Kosawa Heisaku in Japan from 1940-45. He returned to Korea to become professor of psychiatry at Chonham University Medical School but did not initiate a local training program. This came later, after the Korean War, which brought American psychiatrists to Korea who taught depth psychology. That, together with the return of a few of the many Korean doctors who had gone to the United States to study psychiatry, led to the introduction of psychoanalysis as a formal system of thought.

However, prevailing systems of thought had already given rise to a set of cultural practices which have their own preventative and curative effects on individuals in times of distress (Chang and Kim, 1973). These included Shamanism and its concomitant belief that man's misfortune results from an improper relation to the spirit world. A qualified mediator or mutang performs the ritual of the goot through which relations are harmonized. Prior suffers become qualified as shamans through their close rapport with spirits and their children are said to inherit these abilities. There is also a long tradition of folk medicine, consisting of herbal remedies, acupuncture, and moxa, all introduced from China and still prevalent today.

In seeking help, Korean patients are like those in other Asian countries in seeking multiple treatments for a single complaint, and they tend to somatize psychological problems (see , this volume). In attempting to develop a culturally relevant approach to psychotherapy the pioneering analysts devoted a good deal of their time to studying traditional cultural practices (religions, myths, folk dramas, and literature) from the viewpoint of orthodox theory.

One outcome of this endeavour was a revision of Freud's conception of the Oedipus complex, such that its resolution involves sublimation of incestuous wishes to hyoa, the Korean term for filial piety. This is based upon a reciprocity between generations such that respect accorded by the children is balanced bythe understanding and responsibility of the parents (Kim, 1978). Another project has made use of the prevalence of Taoist beliefs about illness being due to an excess of exertion in thought or action. This has led some neo-Freudian analysts to develop a "Taoistic psychotherapy" which emphasizes an acceptance rather than a refusal of one's inner conflicts, and transcends them by training the mind towards a more positive outlook (Kim, 1996).

Not until the 1970s did Korean clinicians seek formal ties with the International Psychoanalytic Association. Cho Doo-Young, trained at Cornell and New York, organized the Korean Psychoanalytic Study Group which has since developed into the Korean Psychoanalytic Study Group. It is orthodox Freudian in orientation and has about 50 members. Two other organizations, the Korean Academy of Psychotherapy (neo-Freudian and Taoist with about 80 members) and the Korean Association of Jungian Psychology (with 30 members), are actively pursuing a culturally relevant psychoanalytic practice.

Since the 1980s, orthodox psychoanalytic interests in Korea have diminished, in line with other parts of the world, in the wake of a rising interest in biologically based explanations of psychological disturbance. A lack of Korean training has meant that those interested in being trained have had to go abroad, where the differences in language and cultural understanding have traditionally (in the West) been viewed as resistance but which might become the wellspring for future developments in cultural psychoanalytic theory (Fisher, 1996).

GEOFFREY H. BLOWERS