Expert Content Articles for download

The Heart Shock: Violations of the Jing Shen

Heart Shock, another word for trauma, is a term first coined by Dr John Shen and refers to ‘the systematic instability resulting from trauma and its sequela.’ (Rosen, 2018) The term is used not because it only affects the heart organ, but rather because the heart, recognised as the supreme authority, ‘the emperor’ within Chinese medical thinking, is the organ that holds and symbolises the sovereign nature of the person.

For Chinese medicine practitioners ‘[t]here is no difference between the heart which moves towards authenticity, while remaining more and more rooted, and the heart which spreads the blood into the limbs and pushes them to move spontaneously and appropriately. This visible continuity between the body (which has form) and the spirit (which is formless) is assured in and by the heart.’ (Rochat de la Vallee, 2012)

Heart Shock treatment strategies

In the first article of this two-part series, I introduced a more nuanced understanding of the heart, revisioning how it works, developing the deeper awareness of its relationship to the blood, as seen through the Eastern medical lens. I identified the kinds of shocks that are brought to bear, and how the shape of those familial, cultural, gendered and national experiences is writ upon the personal.

Deeper Waters of Soul:  Leaning in to trust the self

In 2009 I published a peer-reviewed paper in a Chinese medicine journal entitled Integrative Medicine: Combining the Practice of Orthodox & Alternative Medicine – Inclusive of 'Other' or just another path to Exclusivity? (Edin, 2009). While the main themes of that article were about exploring the co-option of ‘alternative’ or traditional medical models into the mainstream orthodoxy, my fascination was with the prescriptive and defining powers of language and the narrative frames and themes we use to communicate our values. On the cusp of graduation and with the intensity of a new recruit, I was interested in the way that language defined, created or limited the power and agency of my profession.