Becoming Modern: Modernization, Psychiatry, and Mental Health in South Korea

This article examines how Korean psychiatrists responded to the process of modernization from the 1960s to the 1980s and its impact on the Korean population. As they shared observations about how Koreans were struggling with rapid social change, they began to shape ordinary Koreans’ understanding of mental health. Initially, psychiatry in Korea was a small marginalized medical field, with psychiatrists’ roles largely confined to academia and hospitals. In the early 1980s, psychiatrists’ previously sporadic involvement in print media intensified. Moving psychiatric expertise into the public sphere, they published self-help books and newspaper articles on various topics related to mental health written for a popular audience. Their involvement in print media illuminates how psychiatric knowledge and practice became an important part of Koreans’ everyday lives. This article aims to contribute to a deeper historical understanding of the complex interactions between psychiatry, modernization, and mental health in South Korea.