The theory of Yin and Yang is an element that has been part of the philosophical current of Taoism. (and ancient Chinese philosophy in general) for thousands of years but has also recently been incorporated into Western pop culture and New Age beliefs. In fact, there have even been attempts to incorporate this concept into holistic therapies not based on psychology or medicine based on scientific evidence.
But… what exactly does Yin and Yang consist of? How is this belief related to psychotherapy? Let’s see it.
When we talk about the theory of Yin and Yang We are not referring to a scientific theory, but to a framework of thought related to the tradition of Chinese philosophy from several thousand years ago. It is, so to speak, a very blurred theory and supported by very abstract concepts, something normal considering its age. Furthermore, the concepts of what Yin and Yang are cannot be understood without taking into account what Taoism is and what the historical context was like in which the fundamental ideas of this philosophy appeared.
Although Taoism as a cohesive religion appeared around the 3rd century AD, the writings on which it is based They are attributed to a philosopher known as Lao Tzu who is believed to have lived in approximately the 6th century BC. However, as in the case of Homer, it is not clear whether this is a mythical character or not: his name means “old master”, something from which it is easy relate it, for example, to one of the archetypes that Carl Jung spoke about.
Original Taoism was a philosophy based on metaphysics that addresses questions both about the nature of what exists (animals, human beings, seas, rivers, stars, etc.) and what should be done, that is, morality. According to the writings attributed to Lao Tzu, what is right to do emanates from the natural order of things, so nature and morality are one thing. To act badly, therefore, is to “deviate” from the path along which change in nature occurs when it remains in harmony.
The path: Tao Te Ching
With what we have seen so far, we have many of the basic ingredients of Taoism: the concept of change, the concept of harmony, and the idea that deviating from the natural “path” is wrong. In fact, the name of the only book attributed to Lao Tzu is known as Tao Te Ching: tao means “way” and te, “virtue”
Following Lao Tzu’s ideas means accepting that nature constantly changes, that there is a path or path by which this change occurs in harmony with nature, and that virtue lies in not altering this harmony, letting the world change. itself. Thus, the way in which this “path of virtue” should be followed is called wu wei, which means “non-action.” Don’t alter what flows naturally, so to speak.
If Karl Marx understood philosophy as a tool to change the world, Lao Tzu held the opposite idea: the path of the Tao consists of not altering the universe from personal desires and goals based on need; You have to be guided by simplicity and intuition while renouncing ambitions.
Ultimately, philosophizing about the Tao cannot lead to anything good, because it is conceived as a metaphysical entity that is beyond human intellect and trying to get to its essence through thought could damage the natural order of the universe, which sustains everything that exists.
The eternal complements of Yin and Yang
Like the Greek philosopher Heraclitus (and all pre-Socratic philosophers in general), in the writings attributed to Lao Tzu much emphasis is placed on the process of change, which means that everything around us is constantly transforming, even what appears to be motionless.
How can we explain that change and permanence seem to exist in the same things at the same time? Lao Tzu resorted to the idea of duality and cyclical changes to explain it. For him, everything that exists and what we can see contains two states between which a balance is established: day and night, light and darkness, etc. These elements are not exactly opposites and their reason for existence is not to destroy the other, but rather they are complementary, since one cannot exist without the other.
The concepts of Yin and Yang, belonging to ancient Chinese philosophy, serve to refer to this duality that Chinese thinkers saw in everything. A duality in which each state contains a part of its complement, because both are co-dependent; Ying and Yang is the way in which for Lao Tzu the change that envelops everything is expressed, which shows the transition between what has been and what will become.
In Ying and Yang a duality is represented in which it is very difficult to separate the two elements that compose it. In fact, in its visual representation it is much easier to understand the group that these elements form than each one of them individually, something that denotes that they are not exactly the two extremes of something, but rather two elements of a totality.
More specifically, Yin refers to a state in which things are cold, moist, soft, dark and feminine, and Yang represents dry, hard, light and masculine. For ancient Chinese philosophy, this duality would be present in all things, and If it is so abstract and ambiguous it is precisely because it tries to encompass everything
Human nature according to the Tao
Taoism was not born as a religion in which the rules descend from one or several deities that offer preferential treatment to human beings; In this philosophy, people have the same rank as any other element in the cosmos. This means that they are subject to cyclical changes like everything else, and that there is no immutable essence in them that makes them more important than the rest. That is why Lao Tzu’s book emphasizes the need to keep a low profile and follow the path with simplicity.
According to the Tao Te Ching, all the changes that can occur in a human being are also expressed by this logic of the complementarities of Ying and Yang. So that, Harmony is about making sure that Yin and Yang stay in that perfect balance
However, this only makes sense within the framework of traditional Chinese philosophy and especially Taoism. Outside the philosophical realm, this idea of harmony does not serve to describe reality or the human mind in scientific terms, or at least not on its own.
Yin and Yang theory in alternative therapies
Some forms of alternative therapies (that is, without sufficient scientific basis) use the idea of Yin and Yang as a theoretical element on which to support claims about the healing power of certain practices. The ambiguity of original Taoism is mixed with all kinds of affirmations of a specific nature about the effects of carrying out one activity or another, as if Taoism and Chinese philosophy were a guarantee of therapeutic practices to be applied in particular situations.
That is, a series of statements about practices that work for specific problems are mixed (like “if you do tai chi you will age more slowly”, etc.) with totally abstract statements (like “virtue is in harmony”). That is why the appeal to Chinese philosophy in general and to Yin and Yang in particular to justify the usefulness of certain strategies not appropriate in psychotherapy which is based on concrete solutions to specific problems.
