The Impact of Traditional Filial Piety on Chinese People

In this article, I will analyze patterns in the most important book on the subject of traditional filial piety in Chinese culture. Several patterns of Chinese parent-child interaction are identified, including the hierarchical ladder between parents and children, probation of the expression of aggression, and Chinese parents' infantilism and oral needs. On this basis, this article further demonstrates how these parent-child interaction patterns created by traditional filial piety shape some aspects of personality of Chinese people, such as the difficulty in expression of aggression, challenges with separation-individualization, the development of narcissistic problems, and the splitting of self-representations. This could provide deeper understanding for psychodynamic therapists who help Chinese patients.