The Impact of Cultural Anxiety and Identity Predicaments on Poets' Mental Health in the Creation and Compilation of East Asian Sino-Vietnamese Historical Poetry
Chanfei LiAbstract
Objective
This study explores psychological motivations behind Sino-Vietnamese historical poetry creation, examining how cultural anxiety and identity predicaments drive poetic composition. The goal is a psychoanalytic framework for understanding aesthetic expression's regulatory function on poets' mental health through creative agency.
Subjects and Methods
Methods combine literature analysis with theoretical interpretation, drawing on Self-Determination Theory, Psychological Distance Theory, Empathy Theory, and Collective Unconscious theory. Psychiatric investigation focuses on how poetry composition satisfies needs disrupted in mental disorders—autonomy (combating helplessness), competence (restoring self-efficacy), and relatedness (reducing cultural isolation)—therapeutically addressing poets' cultural anxiety and psychological distress.
Results
Composition is shaped by external forces and internal drives. From a psychopathological perspective, aesthetic distance provides cultural space for processing emotional distress and alleviating depressive symptoms; empathic engagement counters isolation and reduces anxiety; collective unconscious reduces existential fear. Reinforcement of self-identity through creative practice enhances poets' mental health outcomes—increased meaning, reduced negative affect, and improved emotion regulation, countering identity-related psychological distress.
Conclusions
Sino-Vietnamese historical poetry composition functions as culturally embedded mental health intervention—addressing poets' anxiety, depressive symptoms, and identity distress through creative agency and aesthetic expression. Findings inform understanding of poets' psychological states, promotion of mental health, and stimulation of creativity, suggesting culturally resonant creative practices reduce negative emotions and enhance agentic mental health functioning. Future research should examine poets' psychological states and cultural anxiety's influence on composition and mental health outcomes.
Acknowledgments
This study is a phased result of the Gansu Province research funding project “A Study of the Chinese Poetry of the Tu Duc Reign of Vietnam from an East Asian Perspective” (project no. 2025CXZX-293).
Corresponding Author
Chanfei Li, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China.