Chapter 62 Chapter 60: “Weak Underbelly” of Officials’ Psychological Crisis Intervention

Attaching great importance to the psychological crisis of officials is not only a medical issue, but also a political issue related to governance capacity building. At 5 a.m. on February 5, 2010, Liu Xianjin, chief procurator of the Maoming City Procuratorate in Guangdong Province, jumped off a building and died.According to the police, Liu Xianjin himself suffered from severe insomnia recently, and he suspected that he committed suicide due to mental anxiety caused by health reasons. In recent years, the suicide incidents of officials in our country have attracted attention.According to incomplete statistics, in 2009, there were 13 abnormal deaths of officials in my country. In December alone, 6 officials died abnormally, and most of them committed suicide.

Surprisingly, at the beginning of 2010, there were reports of officials committing suicide. In addition to Liu Jinjin, in the early morning of January 18, Feng Mou, deputy secretary of the Disciplinary Committee of Mian County, Shaanxi Province and director of the County Supervision Bureau, came from the inpatient department of Mian County Hospital. Jumped off the building and died after rescue failed; on January 13, Liu Yunfeng, director of the Wall Reform Office of Dengzhou City Construction Bureau, Henan Province, "jumped himself from the building" while being investigated by the Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Judging from previous reports, officials committed suicide in various ways, mainly by jumping off buildings, cutting their wrists, shooting, and hanging themselves.The official cause of suicide is mostly mental health problems. Many experts interviewed by the reporter believe that officials are the controllers and rulers of social public resources and have special responsibilities for social development, and their suicide is different from that of ordinary people.Relevant departments should attach great importance to the psychological crisis of officials. This is not only a medical issue, but also a political issue related to the building of governance capabilities.

"It's getting harder and harder to be an official now. Don't look at the bright future, but not many people know the difficulties behind it." On February 12, 2010, when the reporter chatted with a friend who was the magistrate of a certain county in the south , He said with emotion, "I always worry about work problems, often suffer from insomnia, and I am under forty, but I have a lot of gray hair." Li Yizhong, the former director of the State Administration of Security Supervision, once confessed to the media: "Don't be afraid of the sky and the earth. I'm afraid of a phone call in the middle of the night." During interviews with reporters, many officials also admitted that they were under too much psychological pressure.And Li Yizhong's short words are in line with the mentality of most officials nowadays.

On September 3, 2009, Deng Xiaohong, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, revealed: "Suicide has become the fifth leading cause of death in my country. About 250,000 people die by suicide every year, and about 2 million people attempt suicide." In the group, it is impossible for officials to stay out of it. It is understood that Beijing is one of the regions that paid attention to the mental health of officials earlier. In May 2005, relevant agencies in Beijing conducted a targeted mental health examination on more than 200 middle-aged officials, and the results showed that nearly 50% of them had unhealthy tendencies.

In June 2005, the Party School of the Huangshan Municipal Party Committee in Anhui Province conducted a survey on the mental health of more than 100 officials. " and "depressed" psychology, emotions such as "anxiety" and "depression". Among the officials who committed suicide in the past, they involved various fields such as the party committee, government, education, taxation, finance, etc., from department level, county level, department level, to provincial and ministerial level. Most of the officials committed suicide at the senior level, such as Liu Min, the former head of the Statistics Bureau of Bengbu City, Anhui Province, and Weng Huaming, the former director of the Quality Supervision Bureau of Fuding City, Fujian Province. Wang Tongzhi, member of the Standing Committee of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee and Minister of Organization, Song Pingshun, former chairman of the Tianjin CPPCC, and so on.

According to the reporter's understanding, every time news of an official's suicide is disclosed, the public is more curious, worried and speculated about whether corruption is hidden in the incident.But few people have noticed that, except for some officials who committed suicide because of corruption, the main reason for most officials' suicides was mental health problems. "As a figure of public power, the suicide of an official is not a private incident of an official, but a public incident." Professor Li Chengyan of the School of Government Administration of Peking University pointed out in an interview with reporters, "Officials have a psychological crisis, which not only directly affects their work and career, It also affects the harmony between oneself and family and friends, and more seriously, it weakens the party's ability to govern."

According to many interviewed experts, the emergence of the psychological crisis of officials is related to the many challenges that the profound changes in domestic and foreign situations have posed to officials at all levels, including the challenges posed by the knowledge society to the ability to govern, and the challenges posed by administrative accountability to the ability to administer according to law. The people-oriented test of scientific governance ability, etc.; and the arduous and arduous task of reform, development and stability, which comes from the inner pressure of unsuitable skills and low ability and quality.

First, the pressure of officialdom competition.During the period of social transformation, the original leadership model and way of thinking need to be updated, and officials are faced with enormous pressure for promotion.In reality, for officials in various fields, personal promotion is linked to actual performance, etc., which increases the psychological pressure on officials. A number of interviewed experts believe that with the continuous improvement and improvement of the accountability mechanism of officials in our country, as well as the vigilance and anxiety of objectively existing major emergencies such as fires, floods, and production safety, the psychological pressure of officials has increased. multiply.

"After some emergencies occurred, some key officials lacked experience in crisis handling, which caused them to fall into a double crisis of ability and psychology at the same time. The reason for official suicide." Li Chengyan thinks. Secondly, the pressure of interpersonal relationship and social supervision.Most officials are in important positions, and they have to spend considerable time and energy in addition to their normal work to deal with the unique official and social relations in our country.For example, leaders, friends, and relatives ask for help, but if the help violates relevant regulations, the officials cannot balance these relationships, which invisibly creates a lot of psychological pressure on the officials.

Supervision from the public and traditional handling habits have also become one of the reasons for the psychological crisis of officials.With the acceleration of the democratic process in our country, the words and deeds of officials under normal working conditions are placed under the supervision of the public. A little carelessness may lead to trouble.In the past 2009, officials with "speaking for the party or for the people", "If you dare to expose on Xinhuanet, I will tell it to shut down", "We are people with status", etc., not only attracted Come to criticize, some even lose their official positions. Furthermore, the pressure of high-pressure anti-corruption.Officials have a certain right to control people, money, and things. Due to the lack of perfect and sound officials' property declaration system, avoidance system and other mechanisms to prevent conflicts of interest, officials face many temptations in the process of social resource allocation. Rent transactions" make officials a "high-risk group" of corruption. Between the many temptations and the high-pressure anti-corruption situation, the mentality of officials is often in psychological contradictions and imbalances, which are prone to serious psychological crises. In the past, some officials could not resist the temptation to become corrupt, but they were worried that the corruption problem would not be forgiven, which directly led to excessive psychological pressure and chose to commit suicide.There are also officials who are deeply involved in the quagmire of corruption and strings of cases. They want to get out but are unable to extricate themselves. In the end, they choose to commit suicide in pain. Also, the stress of family life.In an environment of increasingly fierce competition in the officialdom, because officials have to spend a lot of energy and time on work and entertainment, they have no time to take care of the feelings of family members, such as lack of communication between husband and wife, neglect of care and education for children, which makes some officials A sense of guilt in the heart leads to disharmony and even crisis in the family, which puts enormous psychological pressure on the officials. It is undeniable that officials are under various pressures. In addition, for a long period of time, the training of officials in our country often focuses on political ideology and professional level, and lacks sufficient training in the scientific way of thinking and leadership. The government has neglected psychological attention and care for a long time, so that the psychological pressure of officials cannot be relieved, which affects work and career, and even leads to the occurrence of suicide tragedies. "As the challenges continue to increase, the pressure of work and life is increasing, and the possibility of officials' psychological crisis is also increasing." Shi Chengsun, director of the Psychological Consultation Office of the Second Hospital of Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, said in an interview with reporters, "Recently In the past few years, although the relevant departments have paid more and more attention to the mental health of officials, it is still at a superficial stage and there are few substantive measures. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the awareness and measures to intervene in the psychological crisis of officials .” The central government and some localities have realized the importance of officials' mental health. In June 2005, the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a document titled "Attention to and Caring for the Mental Health of Cadres" which stated: "In general, the cadre team is mentally healthy, but there are indeed a few cadres who suffer from anxiety, depression, etc. Some cadres suffered serious mental disorders, leading to mental breakdowns." This article also requires that "the investigation and understanding of the psychological quality of cadres be taken as an important basis for selecting and appointing cadres", and that "some psychological methods and modern methods can also be introduced to carry out necessary tests" for the psychological quality inspection methods. On March 29, 2006, the "Regulations on Cadre Education and Training Work (Trial)" issued by the central government pointed out: "It is necessary to comprehensively improve the ideological and political quality, scientific and cultural quality, professional quality and health quality of cadres." Health quality includes not only the absence of disease or A traditional sense that is not weak, but that includes a perfect state of physical and mental health. On January 2, 2010, Li Yuanchao, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, and head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, also emphasized during his investigation in Sichuan that grassroots cadres are under great work pressure, life pressure and psychological pressure. Cadres overcome difficulties and actively relieve the psychological pressure of grassroots cadres. Prior to this, some places also included the psychological testing and assessment of officials into the ruling vision. Since 2002, the Sichuan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection has conducted a psychological test on all government officials every year, and the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee has also paid special attention to their mental health issues when selecting individual officials. On September 30, 2005, when Beijing publicly selected 13 deputy bureau-level officials and executives of municipal enterprises, it also added psychological test questions before the written test began.But different from Sichuan, Beijing's psychological test scores are not scored, but just a literal evaluation. On August 11, 2007, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region held a series of lectures on "Frontier Knowledge of the Times" for officials above the department (bureau). Professor Zheng Richang, a doctoral supervisor at the School of Psychology of Beijing Normal University, was invited to give a wonderful lecture on mental health to the participating officials. Training courses: During the summer vacation of 2009, Tianjin Municipal Highway Bureau invited Professor Qi Shanhong, a doctoral supervisor from Nankai University, to give a class on "Taoist health and physical and mental health" to officials in the bureau, which were warmly welcomed by the officials. However, at present, the overall effect of the intervention on the psychological crisis of officials in various places is not satisfactory.One of the main reasons is that the current official training often focuses on political preaching, ignoring mental health concerns.Some local organizations and departments also carry out psychological counseling activities in the form of heart-to-heart talks, but the fear of privacy leaks still largely deters officials from such psychological counseling. "Many officials work under psychological pressure. Although some of them consciously have psychological problems, they don't know how to alleviate them; although some also realize that psychological counseling and psychotherapy can alleviate their psychological crisis, they are still very concerned. , unwilling to give up something to seek professional psychological help, so that his physical and mental state is always in a vicious circle, on the verge of collapse. Once he is stimulated by the outside world and feels that there is no way out, the possibility of suicide will increase. "Dr. Hu Xianzhi, a researcher at the National School of Administration and deputy secretary-general of the National Policy Science Research Association, said in an interview with reporters. "If you admit that you have psychological problems, you have to give up a lot of what you have already obtained." An official directly under the Beijing Municipal Government, who did not want to be named, told reporters, "Even if I feel that I have psychological problems, I will not go for consultation. Because no one can guarantee that my privacy will not be disclosed. I am also unwilling to confide in my family or friends, so as not to worry them, so I carry everything on my own.” The interviewed experts believe that the mental health problems of officials are just individual psychological phenomena on the surface, but it is a social problem at a deep level. How to solve this problem should not only start with the officials themselves, but more importantly, need The emphasis from the management and supervision departments of officials also needs to be addressed from the aspects of system, society, and culture. "The mental health of officials requires a clean and honest political environment, so that officials don't want to be corrupt, can't be greedy, and dare not be greedy, and use the system to protect the mental health of officials." The newly released "Several Guidelines for the Integrity of Party Members and Leading Cadres in Politics" emphasizes 52 "don'ts" in regulating the behavior of party members and cadres, and has specific measures in terms of implementation and supervision, so that officials have more institutional guarantees for honesty in politics. If If the problem of official corruption is effectively controlled, then the number of official suicides will naturally gradually decrease." "A healthy mind comes from an inclusive and open mind, which is closely related to the psychological state of society." Hu Xianzhi believes, "As a special subject in charge of public power, officials should return power to publicity and openness, so that power can be exposed to the sun. In this way, the psychology of the power subject will become more "sunshine"; make the operation of power more cooperative, less improperly competitive, and reduce black-box operations and opacity, so that it is easier to form a relatively peaceful relationship with society and others It is beneficial to the mental health of officials and the clarity of politics.” "Relevant departments should encourage officials to conduct regular or irregular psychological counseling, carry out work decompression and psychological counseling, and insist on mental health training and psychological correction of some problems." Hu Xianzhi suggested, "According to the nature and characteristics of different officials' work, hold health Psychological special training courses, using positive and typical deeds to guide, using negative typical cases to warn, guiding and helping officials to cultivate a healthy psychological awareness of political affairs.” "Disciplinary inspection departments should care about the mentality of officials, and timely discover and correct the problems existing in officials." Qi Shanhong believes that "the education of officials' mental health and mental health should be included in the important content of training to help officials master and solve their own psychological problems. Some psychological methods and modern means can be introduced to conduct necessary tests, and the intervention of officials’ psychological crisis should be normalized.” At the same time, Qi Shanhong also suggested: "According to the special circumstances of officials, a mental health consultation hotline can be opened for officials, and senior professionals can be hired as psychological counseling or treatment experts to provide psychological counseling, psychological counseling and mental health care to officials under pressure. At the same time, it is necessary It is clear that such a seemingly psychological problem is actually a concrete manifestation of the institutionalization and insufficient training of personal beliefs and mental model construction over the years. If it is to be solved fundamentally in the long run, it must be solved from personnel selection, The training of governing ability, the cultivation of belief strength and psychological relief should be started at the same time." Aiming at the issue that officials are worried about their privacy being leaked, Shi Chengsun specifically suggested: "To solve this problem, a better way is to introduce a third-party organization to deal with it. For example, when some foreign-funded enterprises carry out the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Often, this service project is assigned to a specialized agency. In this way, the service becomes more professional, while ensuring that the privacy of internal employees is maintained.” In the opinion of many interviewed experts, external intervention in the psychological crisis of officials is important, but more importantly, officials should pay attention to their own mental health.For this reason, Shi Chengsun also suggested: "Officials are under various pressures from work and interpersonal relationships. Sublimation, but also relaxation, helping others, etc.” "If the problem of whether officials can go up or down" is solved systematically, officials will be much calmer in the face of officialdom competition, and the pressure will be much less." Yin Yungong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out in an interview with reporters, "Generally speaking, , officials often have internal conflicts during post adjustments, and relevant departments should pay more attention to talking and communicating with officials at this time, so as to adjust the officials' psychology." Yin Yungong also suggested: "In the process of official selection, we should minimize uncertainties, not only to enhance the openness and procedural nature of official selection, but also to consider the basis of public opinion in official selection, so that officials can be promoted in an orderly and fair manner, thereby reducing Huge psychological pressure due to unpredictable official career.”