The Profile of Professor RHEE Dongshick

Kang Suk-Hun, M.D.

Professor RHEE Dongshick, distinguished guests, members of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and the Korean Academy of Psychotherapists, ladies and gentlemen!

Professor RHEE has been my teacher, therapist and Guru during the past 30 years since our meeting when I was a medical student in 1960. In the seventieth year of his age, I am greatly honored and deeply moved to have this privilege of introducing his life history to you.

Prof. RHEE was born on July 26, 1921 in Kyungpook province as the eldest grandson of his family. The time of his birth was soon after the March 1st Independence Uprising and Korea was still under Japanese occupation. He was born in a farmer's family. And he was beloved not only by his parents but also by his great grandmother, grandfather and paternal aunt. During his early years, Dr. RHEE was strongly influenced by his grandfather, who used to be a lucky adventurer, traveling around to Siberia and living aloof from worldly fame and riches. In his early memory, as a child, he often saw violent emotional outbursts by his neighbors and perceived, "Both happiness and unhappiness of life are according to one's control of his emotions." Women in his neighborhood spoke of him as "a priest who has clear eyes on life."

He graduated from a public elementary school in his hometown and entered Taegu public highschool. He completed two years in Taegu and then transferred to Chungjoo High School, graduating in 1938. At high school, he excelled in English and foreign linguistics and he often teased the Japanese teachers. In his teens, he came to realize, "Famous persons are hypocrites."

In 1938, he was admitted to Taegu Medical School but was not interested in medicine and thought of quitting at least three times. He, however, changed his mind, thinking "Under Japanese occupation, as medical doctor I can make a living and then do as I want.", and so continued his medical schooling. At that time, he had an ambition to someday become an educator. He was interested in language and philosophy and read Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in German. He also had an interest in psychiatry and read "Hypnosis in Everyday Life" in the textbook by K. Kolle. He was able to observe hypnotic phenomenon in everyday life and his interest in psychotherapy began. In his 20s, he realized "What I am doing is like cutting steel with a wooden knife." In other words, he had an insight into his dependency, that means, even when you are righteous you must adopt the ways that cause others to follow you. He graduated from Taegu Medical School in December 1941 and became a physician at the eye clinic in Taegu Provincial Hospital after an unsuccessful attempt to study in Japan. In October 1942 he was accepted as an assistant physician in the Neuropsychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Seoul University (then Keijo Japanese Imperial College). There he concentrated on studying psychiatry. Two years later he was promoted to associate physician and worked at the Provincial Drug Treatment Center once a week. At that time, a courageous story developed concerning his act of kicking out a presumptuous Japanese nurse. One year after he was accepted as assistant physician, he observed deep trances in two of his patients, and had a penetrating insight into body-mind relationship and he also studied to understand the inner life of patients. He became more interested in philosophy, language and anthropology and frequently attended lectures given by the faculty of Literature and Law. He attended a reading class of "Sein und Zeit" by Heidegger and traveled to the island of Chejudo and Mt. Duk Mul to study Shamanism.

He was unable to accept the prevailing self-defeating thought that the Korean was inferior to the Japanese, Chinese or Westerner. Once he mentioned to his colleague, "It is absurd to think several thousand years' tradition of Korea can be nothing and that it is necessary to translate our cultural tradition into the scientific language of the West.“

After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, he became an instructor at the Faculty of Medicine and assured himself that it was his responsibility to translate our traditional cultural heritage into Western terminology. However, he shared with two colleagues in the same department even though he could have gotten personal fame by working by himself, it became more urgent for him to lay a sound ground work so his juniors could work internationally.

From April to October of 1948, he served jointly as director of the newly established Seoul Addiction Treatment Center. In 1949 he taught psychoanalysis for the Department of Psychology. From December 1949 to April 1950 he served as director of Kyungki Provincial Neuropsychiatry Hospital. In the spring of 1950, he married Dr. Dongsoon Kim, who worked in the same department. Due to the outbreak of the Korean conflict in 1950, he left Seoul for his hometown. From 1951, he taught an introductory course of science at Taegu College. From 1953 to 1954, he taught psychoanalysis at Ehwa University. In 1953, before he had any formal psychotherapy training, he encountered and successfully treated a psychotherapy case of psychogenic headache by himself without any supervision and reported it to the Korean Psychological Society in 1959.

In 1954 he went to America to study psychoanalysis and completed a two-year psychiatry residency at New York University. In 1956, he attended William Alanson White Institute for one year as a general student and underwent 6 months of personal analysis. In January 1957 he went to Cherokee State Hospital as a psychiatrist for 6 months and then Kentucky Central State Hospital for 1 year until July, 1958.

During his stay in the States, he perceived that many Koreans had an illusion about America and gained insight into the reality of Western culture. At this time he earned an alias of "Confucius". He recognized a clinical syndrome which was common to orientals and negroes who found it difficult to communicate in the empathy-deprived American society. He himself named it "Dr. RHEE's syndrome".

From July to November 1958, he traveled around the States, Europe and Middle East and attended the 11th the World Federation for Mental Health meeting, International Congress of Psychotherapy, World Congress of Philosophers and the first International Colloquium of Psychopharmacology. During that time, he came to realize that the traditional cultural inheritance of Korea was next to no other culture.

After he returned to Korea in 1958, he became a professor and chief of the Neuropsychiatry Department, Soodo Medical School. He taught dynamic psychiatry, psychotherapy and existential psychotherapy, and contributed many articles to the Medical News and Sasangke Monthly Journal to help educate the public. In 1964, he wrote an article, "Dictatorship and Defeatism" in the Journal of Sasangke which aroused a big sensation among the intellectual community. In 1960, he became a professor of the Neuropsychiatry Department, Kyungpook National University, his alma mater, by request of the alumni. He taught his juniors and conducted an epidemiological study of mental disorders, which was the first such study in Korea. He developed a psychosomatic conference jointly with the department of Internal Medicine. That was the first of liaison consultation psychiatry in Korea. Then came the military coup of 1961. He felt a righteous indignation and attempted unsuccessfully to expose illicit activities of KCIA in their way of firing the president of the university and the dean of the medical school even though there was no wrong doing on their part. But he was arrested and forced to serve 9 months in jail. When some of his juniors visited him in the prison, he was not concerned about his own suffering but advised them to study hard.

After he left his alma mater in 1962, he assumed a psychiatry consultant position at the Student Guidance Clinic, Seoul National University. He served there until 1971 and trained many psychologists to become leaders in this field.

Since his forties, he has taught his juniors, "Those who understand me have reached a substantial stage." "You must be free from all authority." "You must overcome the fear of death." Even at that time, someone commented that Dr. RHEE was 30 to 100 years ahead of his time.

He has been a clinical professor in psychiatry at Yonsei University since 1966 and is concentrating on teaching psychotherapy. Also he teaches Psychology of Counselling and Psychotherapy at Yonsei University, Seoul University, Korea University, Ehwa University and at various other institutions. Since 1965, he has been studying Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism with his colleagues. Since 1976, he has been a monthly psychotherapy supervisor at the Neuropsychiatry Department, Kyungpook University.

In 1971 he was awarded the Doctorate of Philosophy at Graduate School of Kyungpook National University with thesis of "Research on Psychotherapy in Korean Patients."

Regarding his professional activities, he is a charter member of the Korean Neuropsychiatry Association and was president of the association in 1965. He has been a corresponding fellow of APA since 1960. He was a leading force in the organization of the Palgong Society for the Advancement of Psychiatry in 1959. In 1974 he organized a psychotherapy case study group and this became the Korean Academy of Psychotherapists in 1979. He served as the 1st, 2nd and 4th president of the Academy. In 1989 he was installed as an honorary president of the Academy. In 1978, he encouraged Korean psychiatrists in the New York area to organize Hangilhoe group. This organization was formed to study Korean cultural tradition, the Tao, psychotherapy and the problems relating to Korean immigrants and their second generation, and installed Dr. RHEE as its honorary president. He is often mentioned as the spokesman of Tao by distinguished intellectuals in Korea, the father of Korean psychiatry and the leader of the Taoistic school in Korea and the leader of Korean school of psychotherapy abroad.

He authored "Modern Men and Neurosis" in 1972, "The Subjectivity of the Korean and the Tao" and "Understanding and Treatment of Neurosis" in 1974, "Mental Health of Modern Men" in 1990 and is in the process of preparing "Psychotherapy in Korea". He also wrote hundreds of papers concerning modern cultures and psychotherapy, Tao and science, Korean Tradition and Tao, etc.

He has presented a series of papers at international meetings; "The Process of the Tao Practice and Psychotherapy" at the Congress of International Federation for Medical Psychotherapy in 1976, "The Tao, Psychoanalysis and Existentialism" at WPA in 1977 and "Assimilation of Western Psychotherapy in Asia" at Pacific Congress of Psychiatry in 1980. "The Tao, Psychoanalysis and Existentialism" has been presented more than 10 times at different meetings.

In May 1984, the Korean Neuropsychiatric Association hosted the 3rd Pacific Congress of Psychiatry. Dr. RHEE was then president of KAP and the Congress.

In the 13th meeting of IFMP in Yugoslavia in 1985 and the 14th meeting of IFMP in Switzerland in 1988, he helped to organize a symposium, "Psychotherapy; East and West", which made a great contribution toward integration of the Tao and western psychotherapy. In 1988, he was elected as a member of the board of trustees of IFMP, one of the first members for an Asian country.

In December 1989, he presented "The Tao and Taoistic Intervention" upon the request of members of the American Academy of psychoanalysis held in Florida.

His professional activities encompass broad areas such as psychotherapy, problems of identity and subjectivity of Korean, integration of the Tao and Western psychotherapy, significance of the Tao in modern times, relationship between the Tao and science, psychotherapy, and traditional culture in Korea.

Unlike in other Eastern countries such as Japan and India, which imported psychotherapy from the West and are imitating it with no visible progress in terms of integrating East and West psychotherapy, much progress has been made in Korea under the leadership of Dr. RHEE to integrate the traditional culture, especially Tao which is the ultimate form of psychotherapy, with Western psychotherapy.

Apart from his professional activities mentioned above, he has also made a great contribution to the intellectual society of the Korea.

To mention a few, he was the first Korean who eloquently stressed the importance of traditional culture since early 1960. However, because of the prevailing trend of effacing Korean tradition, his ceaseless statements, "The tradition is the root." was not received by any of the intellectuals of that time. He also made a clear and penetrating diagnosis of the psychopathology of the Korean people and society resulting from 35 years' of Japanese occupation. He named the pathology "Neurosis of the People", of which the dynamics was identification with the aggressor.

Also, he developed a clear historical perspective on the problems of student riots which were a big problem among professors of the universities and Korean intellectuals during the 1960s.

Until now, he keeps up 60 hours of psychotherapy weekly and is active in psychotherapy supervision, as well as training analysis of Korean psychotherapists. Recently his students organized an intensive course of monthly seminars, where audiotapes of his ongoing psychotherapy sessions are presented, to study his psychotherapy cases under his guidance. It is deeply impressive that his psychotherapy is very different from Western therapy.

Although I summarized his life history, this is far too short to depict the real Dr. RHEE. Various nicknames, that he has earned since childhood, might help us to understand his real self. As a child, he was called the "Priest who knows life". Other nicknames include phoenix, giant tree, fire-setter, invincible, therapist, gang, janitor, realtor, dragnet, prophet, man of foresight, great master, boddhisattva, enigma, and etc. Other comments on him such as "He always talks the same way.", "He is consistent.", "When I met him, I met myself.", "Being with him is therapy itself.".

He has always been well received in meetings abroad too. Once a foreign scholar attended his presentation and commented "Clear, very clear.". Other comments included "Simple, clear, penetrating.", "Provocatively insightful.", "Highly theological and revolutionary.", "Tao master". One well known foreign scholar of political science, after having interviews with hundreds of Korean intellectuals, commented, "You are the first Korean I have ever met who talks about Korea positively.". One Chinese psychiatrist was so surprised on listening to his criticism of the Japanese said "Everybody says you are very brave. Nobody can do that.". He has a nickname as "Japanese teaser". One American psychiatrist told me "Dr. RHEE is a mass therapist.". Another commented "Professor RHEE is a great tease. Nobody can stand it.". One psychologist from Yugoslavia said "You have the fate to rule, to be a ruler.".

I can't describe how much his teaching always impressed me. The more I learned, the stronger I felt how much his every movement has been lively teaching and active therapy for his students. His teaching is extraordinary, he teaches not by theory or concept, but by helping us to see and perceive reality. One moment he is very near me, the next moment, he is far away. In teaching psychotherapy, he always says "You must enter into the inner mind of patients. Do not treat a patient by your head. You do therapy by eyes and heart.", "You must have a connecting string to your patient.", "Patients are under constant threat and live in a frozen land. You must bring spring to them so that they exist without threat.", "There should be killing and reviving like the tempering of iron.", "Psychotherapy is like playing a Chinese chess game, there are numerous ways, the initial moves are important, and you must be able to see several ways ahead.", "If the righteous man preach the wrong, the wrong is transformed into the right. If the unrighteous man preaches the right, the right is transformed into the wrong."

One always observes a miraculous change of the patient even in the initial phase of his therapy. It is just amazing. I am not able to perceive Tao, which, he always says, is the ultimate form of psychotherapy. In concluding my personal encounter with him, let us think about the meaning of his recent remark, "I have played only one life game of Chinese chess in my 70 years of life." and he continues, "it is just beginning."

< addition : BRIEF LISTING OF PROF. RHEE'S PRESENTATIONS AT INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS SINCE 1990 >

1991 "Integration of Psychotherapy; East and West"

15th International Congress of Psychotherapy, Hannover, Germany

1991 Chairperson of International Workshop "Integration of Eastern Tao and

Western Psychotherapy," Masaryk University, Brno, Czechoslovakia

1991 Chairperson of International Workshop "Integration of Eastern Tao and

Western Psychotherapy," USSR Academy of Sciences (now, the Russian

Academy of Sciences), Moscow, Russia

1992 Joint Academic Meeting of the KAP(Korean Academy of Psychotherapists) and ANZAP(Australia and New Zealand Associations of Psychotherapy), New Zealand and Australian Psychotherapy the 3rd Annual Conference, Sydney, Australia

1992 Joint Workshop of KAP and Psychiatric Department of The Chinese university of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Audiotaped "Interview With a Schizophrenic Girl by Prof. RHEE" was presented and discussed.

1992 "The Tao and Psychotherapy,"

Pacific Rim College of Psychotherapy, Shanghai, China.

1992 "The Tao and Empathy : East Asian Interpretation,"

36th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis

1994 "Psychotherapy; East and West"

16th International Congress of Psychotherapy, Seoul, Korea

(1) Congress President and Chairman of Organizing Committee

(2) Plenary Lecture "The Tao and Western Psychotherapy"

(3)"What is The Tao?" which was Korean TV(EBS; Educational Broadcasting System) announcer's interview with Prof. RHEE and dubbed in English later, was presented

(4) Case Conference "Prof. RHEE Dongshick's Consultation Interview With a Schizophrenic Inpatient and Discussion of the Interview" ; Audiotaped Interview was presented and discussed by Kang Suk-Hun, M.D., D.M.Sc. and others.

1996 "Integration of East and West Psychotherapy; Professor RHEE Dongshick's Case" was presented by Kang Suk-Hun, M.D., D.M.Sc., 1st Scientific Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Assoc. of Psychotherapists, Bali, Indonesia

1997 Chairperson of "Psychotherapy Workshop ; Dr. RHEE Dongshick's Cases" in participation of Gary Rodin, M.D. and Graeme Taylor M.D. (Prof.'s of University of Toronto), Seoul, Korea. In the Workshop, 2 cases were presented and discussed

1997 "Integration of East and West Psychotherapy; Professor RHEE Dongshick's Case"was presented by Kang Suk-Hun, M.D., D.M.Sc. in Panel "Presentation on Transcultural Psychoanalysis; Asian Contributions to Psychoanalysis," 41st Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, San Diego, USA

1997 Chairperson of Symposium "Psychotherapy; East and West," In this symposium "Integration of East and West Psychotherapy; Professor RHEE Dongshick's Case" was presented by Kang Suk-Hun, M.D., D.M.Sc., Regional Meeting of the World Psychiatric Association, Beijing, China

1997 "Introduction of Prof. RHEE's Psychotherapy Integrating Eastern Tao and Western Psychotherapy" was presented by Huh Chan-Hee, M.D., 12th International Symposium for the Psychological Treatment of Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses, London, U.K.

1998 2nd Pan-Asia Pacific Conference on Mental Health, Beijing, China

(1) Vice-Chairperson of Organizing Committee

(2) Plenary Lecture "Asian Foundations of Psychotherapy: The Tao and Psychotherapy"

(3) Plenary Lecture "Assimilation of Western Psychotherapy in Asia; The Korean Case"

(4) Chairperson of Plenary Session "Integration of East and West Psychotherapy"

2001 Plenary Session "Concept of Mental Health," read by Lee Jung-Kug, M.D. by proxy, 3rd Pan-Asia Pacific Conference on Mental Health, Beijing, China

2002 Chairperson of Workshop "The Tao Psychotherapy," 12th World Congress of Psychiatry, Yokohama, Japan. In this workshop Audiotaped "Interview With a Schizophrenic Girl by Prof. RHEE" was presented and discussed

2002 "The Integration of Tao and Psychotherapy", Symposium, World Congress of Psychotherapy, Trondheim, Norway

(1) "The Integration of East and West Psychotherapy, Prof. RHEE's Case" was presented by KANG Suk-Hun, M.D.

(2) Audiotaped "Interview With a Schizophrenic Girl by Prof. RHEE" was presented and discussed