Dr Jimin Choi

Dr Jimin Choi is a historian of science specialising in the transnational history of the “psy” sciences—psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and psychology—in modern East Asia, with particular attention to processes of localisation and mediation. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge.

After completing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology and anthropology in Paris, he received his PhD in History and Civilisations from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS, Paris) in January 2025, with a dissertation entitled ‘Le déplacement de la psychanalyse en Corée du Sud (The Relocation of Psychoanalysis in South Korea)’. His PhD thesis examines how Freudian psychoanalysis circulated across borders and was reconfigured across social, cultural, and intellectual fields, extending beyond the psychotherapeutic field.

Supported by the D. Kim Foundation, he is developing an English-language monograph based on his doctoral research. His current project explores the regional history of the “psy” sciences in East Asia and encounters between the “psy” sciences and local knowledge at the level of practice.

Publications

• ‘Le déplacement de la psychanalyse en Corée du Sud’ (The Displacement of Psychoanalysis in South Korea), Revue d’histoire culturelle 5 (2022).
• ‘Le dictateur nord-coréen Kim Ilsŏng est-il devenu paranoïaque ? La psychanalyse au service de la modernisation autoritaire en Corée du Sud’ (Did Kim Ilsŏng Become Paranoid? Psychoanalysis in the Service of Authoritarian Modernization in South Korea) (Forthcoming).
• ‘Putting Psychoanalysis in Its Place: Telephone Use and the Localization of Freudian Training in South Korea, 1980–2010’ (In progress).