Psychologist Argues Chinese People Think Like 6-Month-Old Infants

March 14, 2017

A psychologist has argued that most Chinese people have the mental age of a six-month-old and never got out of what Sigmund Freud called the oral stage in his psychosexual theory of development.

The oral stage is the first of Freud’s five stages, where the mouth serves as the primary erogenous zone. In essence, this stage is all about the infant putting stuff into his or her mouth to satisfy its desires.

The psychologist in question, Wu Zhihong, goes into details in his recently published book “Nation of Giant Infants”. The 42-year-old wears a psychological lens to tackle China’s social problems, including “mama’s boys” and suicides among left-behind children, according to Quartz.

Wu, who offers mental health counseling in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, explained that infants before the age of six months are simply unaware of the outside world. They only know themselves and thus want everything their way. Moreover, they only recognize the extremes of good and bad — anything in between is virtually impossible.

Wu said such traits apply to most Chinese people. “Mama’s boys” are exceedingly common. Ma Zezhong, another psychologist, asserted that the younger generation are less mentally and emotionally mature than their age. She blamed the lack of individuality as the reason for the delay, which may be triggered by overprotective parents who have no problem spoiling their kids.

As Wu wrote in his book, “Most Chinese people are infants in search of their mothers.”

Of course, not everyone is pleased being likened to a breast-sucking six-month-old. Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, the publisher of Wu’s book, removed the title from physical and online stores last month citing bad print quality. However, this did not stop speculations on a censorship ban since the material is arguably offensive.

Nevertheless, those who wish to read the book can get it through Amazon for at least $39.40.

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