The classical idea of treating an excessive emotion by provoking the emotion that 'overcomes' it on the Five Phase controlling cycle.
Overview
Emotional counter-therapy (以情勝情, "overcoming one emotion with another") applies the Five Phase controlling (克) cycle to the emotions. Late imperial writers called it the "principle of mutual conquest of the Five Intents" (五志相勝之理).
The pairing comes from Su Wen ch. 5 (陰陽應象大論), which follows each "emotion injures its organ" statement with the emotion that overcomes it:
| Phase | Organ | Emotion | Overcome by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wood | Liver | Anger 怒 | Grief 悲 (悲勝怒) |
| Fire | Heart | Joy 喜 | Fear 恐 (恐勝喜) |
| Earth | Spleen | Pensiveness 思 | Anger 怒 (怒勝思) |
| Metal | Lung | Worry 憂 | Joy 喜 (喜勝憂) |
| Water | Kidney | Fear 恐 | Pensiveness 思 (思勝恐) |
It was a recognised but minority practice. Zhang Congzheng (張從正, 1156–1228) recorded cases in Ru Men Shi Qin (儒門事親) in which he deliberately provoked anger, laughter or fear in patients. Wu Kun's Yi Fang Kao (醫方考, 1584) collected eleven such cases. A 16th-century saying held that when emotions go to extremes "no drug can cure them; they must be overcome by emotion" (情志過極，非藥可愈，須以情勝). The Inner Canon also emphasizes the physician explaining the illness and reassuring the patient, which later writers developed into what historians call "talking cures".
Sources: Huangdi Neijing Su Wen ch. 5 (checked against the Wikisource text); Hsiu-fen Chen, "Emotional Therapy and Talking Cures in Late Imperial China", in H. Chiang (ed.), Psychiatry and Chinese History (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2014), pp. 37–54; N. Sivin, "Emotional counter-therapy", in Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in Ancient China (Variorum, 1995).
Key Points
- Treat an excessive emotion with the one that controls it on the Five Phase cycle
- Pairings from Su Wen ch. 5: grief over anger, fear over joy, anger over pensiveness, joy over worry, pensiveness over fear
- Case records by Zhang Congzheng (1156–1228); 11 cases collected by Wu Kun (1584)
- Historical practice, not systematically tested
Clinical Significance
Historically, a therapy of deliberate emotional provocation, recorded in individual case accounts rather than tested systematically. Today it is mainly of interest as theory and history: it shows how Five Phase correspondence was applied to the mind, and it is a precursor of doctor–patient communication as treatment. It is not a substitute for modern assessment and care of mental illness.
Related Concepts
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