The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2015, 75, (394–415) © 2015 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis 0002-9548/15 www.palgrave-journals.com/ajp/

COMMUNISM AND THE TRAUMA OF ITS COLLAPSE REVISITED Catherine Schmidt-Löw-Beer1, Moira Atria2 and Elisha Davar3

This paper focuses on the intertwinement of society and the psyche as a consequence of 70 years of Communist rule and the trauma of its collapse in the 90’s. The trauma had profound effects on the psyche. An empirical study that was carried out in 1996/1997, which compared the personality structure of adolescents from Russia and Austria, and a research dialogue in 1999, has been re-evaluated in the light of current political events. One aim that we had was to find out whether we could discover characteristic personality features, resulting from the Communist totalitarian society in Russia, as well as from the trauma of its collapse. This led to the development of the concepts of the “impersonal self” and the “denial mode”. The Russians seemed to be frozen in a protective shell with “flat” affects. They were anxious, conflict avoidant, and somewhat lost. Ideas about missing adolescence and the importance of privacy are discussed. Society was shown to not only have intruded into the individual psyche, but also into the members of the intercultural research team in the form of projective identification. The importance of the interaction between society and the individual as a basic psychoanalytic concept dating back to Freud is elaborated. Finally, considerations pertaining to mental health and democracy are presented.

KEY WORDS: totalitarianism; communism; homo sovieticus; intercultural study; individual and society; trauma DOI:10.1057/ajp.2015.46

We are living in a specially remarkable period. We find to our astonishment that progress has allied itself with barbarism. In Soviet Russia they have set about improving the living conditions of some hundred millions of people who were Catherine Schmidt-Löw-Beer, M.D., Ph.D., Training and Supervising analyst at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute and the Austrian Association for Group Psychotherapy; teaching staff member of the European Psychoanalytic Institute, EPI (former: Psychoanalytic Institute of Eastern Europe, PIEE). Moira Atria, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Vienna, Austria; and she has worked in the field of adolescents and violence-prevention. Elisha Davar, M.A., is a Tavistock trained psychoanalytic psychotherapist and clinical psychologist. He is a founder member of Group Relations Nederland; an associate editor, Organisational and Social Dynamics; and serves on the editorial advisory board of The Journal of Psychodynamic Practice. Address correspondence to Catherine Schmidt-Löw-Beer, MD, Ph.D., Seemüllergasse 29, Vienna 1170, Austria.

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held firmly in subjection. They have been rash enough to withdraw the ‘opium’ of religion from them and have been wise enough to give them reasonable amount of sexual liberty; but at the same time they have submitted them to the most cruel coercion and robbed them of any possibility of freedom of thought (Freud, 1938, Moses and Monotheism, p. 54).

INTRODUCTION: THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIETY ON THE INDIVIDUAL

This paper focuses on the intertwinement of society and the psyche that was a consequence of 70 years of Communist rule, and on the trauma that was caused by the collapse of Communism in the 90’s. In 1991 and 1996 the authors embarked on a research project comparing the personality structure of adolescents who had grown up under Communist rule with adolescents who had grown up in a democratic country. These results are relevant today in the light of current political events in the former Soviet Union. Different aspects, different “truths” and facets are brought to the foreground. Confronted with issues of recurring authoritarian tendencies, we began to think about the research project again, wondering whether a re-evaluation of the findings could increase our understanding of the psychological roots of current conflicts. In that study we had observed a high degree of anxiety in the Russian adolescents (Schmidt and Davar, 2009). Today we realize that what we had seen was, to a large extent, the result of trauma; trauma as a consequence of the collapse of a totalitarian society. When Communist rule ended suddenly people were faced with several losses: the loss of a great nation, the loss of rigid social structures, and the loss of security, which was followed by uncertainty and an unpredictable future. This new situation triggered threatening feelings in the population which they could neither control nor regulate. There was no awareness of the psycho-social implications, no one understood nor spoke about what was going on, which must have had a deep impact, particularly on the adolescents. Bohleber (2014) points out that one reason why psychoanalysis had difficulty in understanding the concept of trauma, had to do with its concentration on the inner world and on conscious and unconscious fantasies. To deal with outer reality was considered to be an attack on inner psychic reality and was seen as undermining the importance of the unconscious. He specifies that in the face of trauma not only is the psychic structure shattered, but also the ego is suddenly overwhelmed and reacts with fear of annihilation and helplessness, and the psychic mechanisms that process mental structures are paralyzed. Bohleber further maintains that massive psychic damage leads to lasting changes in the psychic organization of the personality.

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Looking back, we can see how powerfully the mentality of anxiety, aggression, and insecurity has re-surfaced. Re-considering our previous findings could lead to new perspectives and thereby contribute to a better understanding of the intertwinement between the individual and society. In our research we focused on the influence of society on the psyche, but we did not study society itself. FREUD’S THOUGHTS ON THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY

Is Freudian theory limited to making statements only about the psychic structure of the individual? Or is Freud’s theory also capable of generating an understanding of the relationship between the individual and society? We believe that Freud would have stated the problem in another way. Perhaps he would have appreciated Winnicott’s thoughts when he pointed out: “There is no such thing as a baby” (Winnicott, 1960a, p. 586). From the beginning of life and mankind, the individual is connected with others—with the object, so that the individual is always also a part of society. Freud was opposed to the idea of creating antagonism between the individual and society. In Group psychology and the analysis of the ego he writes: “In the individual’s mental life someone else is invariably involved, as a model, as an object, as a helper, as an opponent; so from the very first individual psychology, in this extended entirely justifiable sense of the words, is at the same time social psychology as well” (Freud, 1921, p. 69). From the moment of birth the baby learns: first by imitation and later by identification. Freud considered identification to be one of the most important mechanisms by which learning takes place. He referred to both cognitive and social learning, which include from a contemporary point of view: the capacity for empathy, object constancy, things that can be seen through the eyes of others, identification with the aggressor, the oedipal conflict, and superego development. Identification is both a process that deals with individual development and, at the same time, it is an important sociological concept, which explains how societies are able to reproduce themselves by enabling the transmission of knowledge and culture. Freud has often been understood as someone who primarily analyses intra-psychic conflicts. However if one asks how these inner conflicts arise, they are clearly the result of the experience of interactions of which Freud was fully aware and which were central to his thinking. In The interpretation of dreams, Freud (1900) made a link between the individual and societal censorship. He writes that the human psyche tends to repress those thoughts that would be sanctioned by society. That gives

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people who are in power an instrument to defend power structures by sanctioning thoughts and communications that criticize their privileges. Thus by defining what is good and what is bad, a population is created that avoids expressing any opposing views. Freud also had very original ideas about the internalization of group thinking and mass psychology. He notes that individuals in groups can lose their inhibitions and act out repressed impulses. At the same time, there is obedience to an authority that represents a new father figure and becomes a group ego ideal to which everyone submits, giving up individuality. This process creates uniformity and overcomes competitiveness. Freud speaks of the oppressiveness of the “group mind” which causes a kind of mindless conformity and the crushing of peoples’ individuality. This line of thinking about the effects of a crushing, oppressive social system on its members’ psyche has been extensively written about by Arendt (1951), Chasseguet-Smirgel (1984), Fromm (1942), Rosenfeld (1971) and Sebek (1996) and some of their ideas have been discussed in Schmidt and Davar (2009). Following the tradition of these authors we carried out an empirical research project in the 90’s, in which we studied the personality structure of adolescents who had lived under the rule of Communism and of adolescents who had lived in a democracy (Lalouschek et al., 1994; Schmidt and Davar, 2009; Schmidt-Löw-Beer, 2008; Schmidt-Löw-Beer, 2011). In this paper, we will limit ourselves to those topics that have reemerged today in the face of trauma, aggression and despair. These topics are centred around the issues of survival and adaptation during Communism in the form of an “impersonal self”, followed by a “denial mode” in post-Communist Russia, which served as a defence against psychic pain and existential anxiety. In addition, we will consider the interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee. We will also present the experiences of a research-workshop (research-dialogue), studying the interactions between researchers from different cultures. Finally, we will discuss projective identification as it repeatedly affected the researchers. OUR INTERDISCIPLINARY AND INTERCULTURAL APPROACHES

The study began in 1991 when sweeping political change was taking place in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union—the geopolitical region that previously had been subject to Communist rule. At the same time, Western European countries also were in a process of transformation as they were coalescing into the European Union. Dynamic change was taking place in these two vastly different forms of society: that of a Western capitalist

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democracy and of former Communist countries now in the period of transition. With the opening of the borders in the early 90’s between societies that had hitherto been widely isolated from each other, the question was posed: Were there observable psychological differences in the respective populations of each type of society? The collapse of Communism finally made the investigation of such a question possible, because many of the obstacles that had previously prevented Western investigators from carrying out research in Russia and Eastern Europe had fallen away with the fall of the iron curtain. In this briefly experienced openness, the stage was therefore set for an exploratory research project. The project was carried out in several phases. Pilot study (1991)—semi-structured interview protocol

In order to study the personality structure and the quality of interactions of adolescents, an intercultural (East and West) and interdisciplinary (psychoanalysts, linguist, ethnologist, psychologists, philosopher) research team developed a semi-structured interview protocol. Eighteen adolescents from several countries which had been under Communist rule (Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Russia) were interviewed along with ten adolescents from Austria. This investigation revealed significant similarities in the personality of adolescents from the countries that shared a Communist past with regard to the quality of their object relationships and their defence mechanisms. Striking differences were found when compared with the Austrian adolescents (Lalouschek et al., 1994). These findings were, in fact, so evident, that they could not be ignored and led to a working hypothesis, namely, that authoritarian power has a distinct impact upon the psyche, forcing the individual to conform to the demands of society by giving up his or her individuality. To explore this hypothesis, a second study was started. Qualitative interview study (1996/97)

Eight 16-year-old adolescents were interviewed in St. Petersburg and eight 16-year-old adolescents were interviewed in Vienna. In each group there were four girls and four boys. Both the Russians and their Austrian counterparts were from professional families, they attended ordinary state schools and were chosen on a voluntary basis, which led to a positive selection. The interviews were conducted in the apartment of the respective interviewer. The Russian and the Austrian interviewer received the same interview training. The interview protocol began with a scenario imagining a trip to a foreign country. This was followed by a biographic section seeking

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information concerning the way in which the adolescents see themselves now, their object relationships, how they think about their personal past and the political past of their country, and how they envisage their future life. They also were asked to reflect on the interview. All the interviews were both audio and video taped, transcribed according to linguistic criteria and translated into English. After each interview the interviewer had to fill out a protocol describing her feelings and impressions during the interviews, so that counter-transference manifestations could be considered. Due to the fact that the project’s leader (C.S.) speaks German, English and Russian, she was able to monitor the material in the respective language. Analysis of the interviews

The interviews were carried out and analysed in the tradition of single case studies, as is standard in psychoanalytical research (Leuzinger-Bohleber, 1995). Two researchers, well trained in psychoanalytic theory and practice, analysed the interviews independently, using both the videos and the transcripts of the interviews. Then the findings were discussed by the two researchers in order to reach a common understanding. Looking at the micro process they analysed the interviews in terms of unconscious processes, defence mechanisms, object relationships, the quality of the interviewer-interviewee-interactions, transference and counter-transference, and non-verbal processes. Because we had no adequate terminology in which to describe the many details we observed, we developed a rating instrument consisting of 26 dimensions (bipolar rating-scales) including: personality organization (structure vs. fragmentation, space vs. no space, flexibility vs. rigidity), mental capacities (mentalization vs. lack of capacity to mentalize, integration vs. inability to integrate), quality of relationships (capacity for relatedness vs. distant, triadic vs. dyadic), presentation of self (authentic vs. stereotypical/mask, liveliness vs. little affect), defence mechanisms (mature vs. primitive). For additional information see Schmidt and Davar (2009). Klein’s (1946) concepts of the paranoid-schizoid and the depressive position were fundamental to the way in which we analysed the material. From this detailed analysis a picture characteristic of each adolescent emerged. The analysis of the material constantly led to the refinement of the dimensions and to the discovery of further aspects. These steps were part of the feedback loop in which independent analysis repeatedly took place. Inter-rater reliability was carried out by trained researchers and there was a high level of consensus. In addition, workshops involving members of the

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intercultural, interdisciplinary research team met in order to analyse the interviews, thus allowing for a much broader range of discussion of the material. The process of studying the interviews was such, that initially every participant worked with the material on his or her own. Then small groups were formed, until eventually the entire group had a discussion. At times there were disagreements, which led to a more profound discussion of the different perspectives. We are aware of the fact that the qualitative study had methodological limitations: (1) The sample was small: Eight Austrian adolescents and eight Russian adolescents were compared. (2) Each group was interviewed by an interviewer from the respective culture (mirroring effects). (3) For the Russian adolescents, the interview situation was new and possibly threatening. In empirical terms, we cannot differentiate between main effects and interactional effects. The study describes phenomena, generates questions, creates space for further thinking, and offers concepts and explanations. However, these concepts and explanations need to be evaluated in the light of new empirical material. Our aim was to find out whether we could discover characteristic personality features resulting from the Communist totalitarian society in Russia. A research dialogue—using one’s own experiences (1999)

Because we were faced with such a complex task of interpreting and understanding our results and we could see how deeply society had influenced its population, we wondered how we as a research team from two different political systems were interacting with each other—how “we” see “them”, how “they” see “us”. In 1999, we organized a “research dialogue”, in order to explore how researchers from East and West relate to each other. Additionally, we wanted to “use our own experiences with and of the project and during the dialogue itself, to reflect on and explore the relations between the societal and personal dimension of identity formation in adolescence” (Schmidt, 1999, p. 4). This approach allowed us to gain deeper insights into the interactions between the researchers, as well as into our concepts and findings (see discussion). Quantitative study (1996/97) and Research dialogue (1999)

At the same time as the qualitative study, a quantitative study using a questionnaire investigating the identity and personality structure of adolescents was carried out, both in Vienna and in St. Petersburg. This involved 240

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sixteen-year-old adolescents (120 Austrian subjects and 120 Russian subjects). The results of the quantitative study fully supported the findings of the qualitative study: For instance, when asked about their wishes and activities during their leisure time, the Russian adolescents rarely named individual wishes or activities and their answers were very homogenous, whereas the Austrian adolescents expressed many personal wishes and activities. The Russians showed existential anxiety concerning their bodily health and their future, whereas the Austrians were involved with ideas of sports and other hobbies. There were also marked differences concerning political interests: The Russians showed very little interest in politics and were convinced that they would not be able to contribute anything; there even was a wish for an undefined “salvation”. The Austrians showed clear political positions and an emotional involvement when thinking about political questions (see also Bohrn, 2000). The following results refer to the eight interviews that were carried out in Vienna (1997) and to the eight interviews that were conducted in St. Petersburg (1996) and also to the research dialogue conducted 1999. THE RESULTS SHOW STRIKING DIFFERENCES

When considering the following results it is important to stress the advantage of a psychoanalytic methodology, because it pays so much attention to unconscious processes. It proved to be of great value that the interviews were both audio and video taped. The observation of nonverbal processes, such as posture, facial expression and eye-contact, revealed marked differences between the groups. The Russian adolescents tended to have a very stiff posture with bland affect and they avoided eyecontact. By contrast the Austrians had lively facial expressions, lively gestures and frequent eye-contact. In the paper on “The influence of society on the psyche” (Schmidt and Davar, 2009), two new concepts were introduced in order to describe our findings: the “impersonal self” and the “denial mode”. Impersonal self and denial mode

The impersonal self is the “self” that was developed under the pressure of an authoritarian society. In order to adapt to the demands of society, a mask is formed that protects the “real self”. By “impersonal self” we mean something similar to what Winnicott (1960b) calls the false self, except that where Winnicott thinks the false self is developed to fit in with the particular needs of a pathological parent, we think of the “impersonal self” as developing to fit in with the strictures of a set of highly organized institutions in traditional Communist society.

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We inferred that the Russian adolescents of our study felt controlled by an inner object, which prohibited their individual wishes. They had been taught to regard their own wishes as selfish, needing to be subordinated to the greater good. They were thus burdened by having to refer to an unconscious invisible collective construct in all their decision-making, resulting in a camouflaged pseudo individuation—the impersonal self. Both the prohibiting object and the impersonal self were operating in unison as a collective social self. In this sense a transitional space was foreclosed. However, in the 90’s the “impersonal self” was no longer adaptive because initiative, curiosity and the ability to take responsibility were needed and these were qualities that had previously been strongly discouraged. The denial mode was a defensive reaction to the trauma, caused by experiencing the collapse of Communism (see below denial mode). It served as a protection against anxiety, confusion and loss of structure. Illustrations

We will now illustrate the different features that were observed in the respective groups followed by examples from the individual interviews. In addition we would like to think about the interview situation, which was new for the Russians and probably at times intimidating. The Austrian interviews—observed characteristics

The Austrian adolescents were dressed casually. The girls’ clothes were colourful and were clearly intended to attract attention. Some of the interview subjects looked older than their age, others seemed to be younger. There was a wide range of diversity. They were full of ideas, wishes, stories, chatting away at an enormous speed. Particularly the girls used the adolescent language that was “in”. At the same time they appeared thoughtful, flexible and their life was described in such a way that signalled a sense of safety and security. The future was thought of as something to look forward to, with the feeling that interesting things will evolve. There was a striking lack of anxiety, which we had expected in view of a rapidly changing less predictable society. Probably the manic quality we observed can be seen as a defence against anxiety. The group showed similarity in that each adolescent portrayed him or herself as a somewhat unique individual. The Austrian adolescents expressed specific wishes: Question: What would you like to see in the country you chose? Answer: I want to travel on a double-decker bus in London and…

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Most of them showed a capacity to reflect: Question: Tell me something about yourself. Answer: For about half a year I have been in a phase in which I am starting to think about what I would like to do, what I am living for, what I would like to achieve, what I would like to express through my existence; the whole business of sorting myself out…

The Austrian interviewees showed evidence of separateness and individuation and often a healthy degree of narcissism. They were able to verbalize their anxieties. They expressed their wishes, which they did not regard as selfish. The boys were less narcissistic than the girls. Indeed, the girls seemed to be somewhat exhibitionistic. They obviously enjoyed posing in front of the video-camera. The Austrians were going through an adolescent process and separating from primary ties and showing signs of individuation: Example: Mathias decides that he will visit a place like Cyprus with the class, because that is where he imagines the class wants to go. However, he explains that on his own he would prefer to be more daring and visit a cold, unfamiliar place like Norway with his close friends. They were able to deal with conflicts: Question: How would you convince the class of your choice of which country to visit? Answer: We would discuss all the options and I would try to convince the others by… Eventually we would vote.

Most of the Austrians would express anxiety about change, but at the same time they were eager to understand and master it: Question: When you have bad feelings, is this a problem for you? Answer: No, it may even be good because, maybe, it lets me understand something. I know that it’s bad and that it’s bad for me so, actually, perhaps it’s also good that I have these feelings.

The Russian interviews—observed characteristics

The adolescents were neatly dressed in clothing of subdued colours and looked younger than their actual age. They may have felt overwhelmed by the novelty of the interview situation and the unexpected questions, although at the same time, they seemed to be very involved with the interview situation and obviously wanted to respond. However, at times there was a certain amount of distrust towards the interviewer. They had difficulty in making choices and carefully avoided conflict and disagreement. There seemed to be no concept of a decision-making process and

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how to arrive at a joint conclusion. There were indications of anxiety, unconscious aggression and envy. They found it difficult to talk about themselves and seemed to be more inclined to see themselves in the light of how they were seen by others. Their manner of behaviour and their facial expression remained relatively uniform during the interview. In the verbal replies they showed a marked tendency to use generalized descriptions, (e.g., to use empty phrases): Question: What would you like to see in the country you chose? Answer: I want to see the interesting things.

There was a wish to please the interviewer; the adolescents felt lost and helpless: Question: Tell me something about yourself. Answer 1: What would you like to hear? Answer 2: I go to high school. We have a lot of homework.

There was very little evidence of separation from primary objects: Question: Is the opinion of your parents important for you? Answer: I always obey my mother.

The analysis of unconscious processes revealed a high tendency for anxiety and aggression: Question: What is the worst thing that can happen to you on the trip? Answer: People disagree about the music they like and then they fight and then in our country people get killed.

The adolescents did not express individual wishes: Question: Which country would you like to visit? Answer: Any country I visit will be fine.

The Russian adolescents predominantly used primitive defence mechanisms (denial, projective identification, splitting and idealization). The paucity of responses and of content tended to compel the interviewer to be more directive. Evidence of an adolescent process was missing. They seemed to have remained attached to their primary objects. There was little individuation and hardly any curiosity. In terms of Erikson’s (1959) stages of identity formation, the adolescent passage seemed to have been foreclosed. Typical signs of adolescent behaviour were absent. Adolescents need to move away from their objects of primary attachment to the attachment of social institutions, in which the person in authority serves as a moral guide. However, if the social institutions are totally chaotic

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and corrupt, then this transition cannot take place and there is a danger of becoming passive, dependent, exploitative or in the extreme even delinquent. And society offers no possibility for reparation. Another important fact that impeded the adolescent development was that in Russian society there was a total lack of privacy. For the development of mature sexuality and masturbation and even more so for the achievement of thinking one’s own thoughts, privacy plays an important role. It is in adolescence that the individual learns that his or her thoughts are their own, that nobody can read their mind. When asked a question adolescents frequently refuse to answer, needing to build a fence around themselves, particularly vis-à-vis their primary attachment objects. They need to assert that “my mind is my own. You mustn’t know what I am thinking”. So far the child’s mind was “controlled” by his parents. In adolescence the sense of a psychological self is ascertained. Without privacy a very essential aspect of becoming a “mental self” is destroyed, with a refutation of intersubjectivity. A major part of mentalization is cut off (Fonagy, 2002). The developmental line of the adolescent and the developmental course of their parents intersect and influence one another (Mann, 2004). An illustration of the contrast between Barbara and Alessja

Interviewer: Imagine that you have the possibility of travel to another country together with your class for two weeks. There you would stay with a family of somebody of your age. You would also attend school with her or him. Which country would you like to go to? Barbara (Austrian) Barbara: Well actually we did that two years ago with Ireland and two months ago with Sweden, and I would say that I want to go to Sweden again, because the country is so wonderful. Especially the landscape is so beautiful, the people are terribly nice and open. The school system is better than ours. Interviewer: In which respect is the school system better? Barbara: They all call each other by their first name. I find that great. It is much freer; school starts at 9 a.m. which means one can sleep one hour longer (laughing) and one has a lunch-break, then it starts again and at 4 p.m. you can go home. There is no homework. That is it. And I find that better than our system. Interviewer: Yes, very good (laughs). Is there anything else that interests you in Sweden? Barbara: Hm, I find Sweden incredibly multicultural. Also the people who live there. Stockholm, everybody thinks – it is somehow like that – it is something special, everywhere in the city there is water and Scandinavia, – fantastic.

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Alessja (Russian) Alessja: Well, actually it seems to me that one can visit every country. The main thing is to find friends there. With interesting communication. The country doesn’t matter. Interviewer: Makes absolutely no difference? Alessja: Absolutely not. Interviewer: I understand. Good. And were you ever abroad? In which countries? Alessja: Yes, abroad. In the neighbouring country (smiles). Comments

Barbara came across as authentic, she immediately became involved with the interviewer and excited about the questions that were posed to her. Alessja, on the other hand, came across as totally lost and anxious; on the video she appeared stiff and rather unlively. She was relatively undifferentiated and seemed to lack curiosity. She had no personal wishes, was unable to take responsibility for her actions, to fantasize and to play with ideas. The interview had a pseudo and dead quality. The country made no difference, because in emotional developmental terms she was still at the stage of “I want my mommy”. There was no space for reflexion. In short, she exhibited an impersonal self. These findings could be accounted for by many factors such as cultural and societal differences, including differences in child-rearing practices. For instance, Barbara had travelled extensively, whereas Alessja had only been to the Ukraine. The Russians were also poorer than the Austrians but we would like to add that all the adolescents had their own room and had travelled abroad, with the exception of Alessja. Nevertheless, we do not consider their concrete experiences such as travelling to be the crucial reason for the contrast between the personalities of the Russians and the Austrians. The differences need to be understood in the development of a very specific personality, which has often been referred to as the Homo Sovieticus (e.g. Lewada, 1993; Alexijewitsch, 2013). In this paper we used the concept of the impersonal self to describe what we observed, which is in line with the descriptions of the “Homo Sovieticus”. An illustration of the “denial mode”: Anja (Russian)

One very striking feature shown by the Russian adolescents was their extensive use of denial to cope with their feelings in relation to the traumatic situation that they and their society were facing. In the interview situation, Anja came across as anxious and withholding. She seemed rather lifeless and did not change her posture during the entire interview, which lasted for more than two hours. Only when

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talking about her grandparents did she come to life, remembering with warmth her early years with them. She describes herself as a difficult child, but goes on to say that she is no longer difficult. Now she works hard. In her life, Anja had been pushed around a lot and during the interview the interviewer also pushed her into giving more information. She seemed to be scared of being judged by the interviewer and also by those unknown “magical” forces, who would eventually have access to the interview. She tried hard to give the “right” answer, but could not succeed, because there was no “right” or “wrong” answer! Eventually, when asked what she likes about herself, she described, instead, what are considered to be “good Russian values”, although she clearly believed this to be her own personal view: self-critical, good-natured, understanding, that her friends honour her, and that she does not let them down. Interviewer: Are you worried about your future? Anja: Yes. Interviewer: Do these worries bother you? Anja: No, everything will be fine. Maybe if things are not so good now, maybe they will be good sometime. [Anja says she is worried, then denies that the worries bother her, then looks towards a better “sometime”.] Interviewer: Now things aren’t so good? Anja: You can’t put it like that. Interviewer: What isn’t so good at the moment? Anja: I don’t believe in my power. I don’t know why, but nothing is good for me at the moment. (She sighs.) [For a moment she stops her denial and is immediately invaded by feelings of helplessness, believing she has no power. What does she do with that? In transferential terms she is talking about feeling uncomfortable with the interview situation, in addition to which she is dissatisfied with her life. The future is uncertain, persecutory. Pressed by the interviewer Anja tries to move into the present.] Interviewer: When are you a pessimist? Anja: Well now. Interviewer: When you think of the current situation? Anja: Yes. [At this point the interviewer also seems to find it hard to continue and she turns to other things.] Interviewer: And are there other things that make you worry? Anja: The thing I care for most is my future. [Wherever Anja is: in the future or in the present—in the here-and-now of the interview—she cannot find peace of mind. She cannot blank out her realization of her difficult situation. Thoughts keep chasing her so that she again has to use denial in order to avoid persecutory thoughts. She has to move from thought to thought without making links in order to by-pass the implication of where her thinking would lead her. Wherever she goes she feels she is being attacked. What

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she conveys is that there is no area of safety, no containment, neither by the family, nor by an institution nor by society. She must not look around or be curious, because the thoughts that surround her are toxic; thus she needs to avoid thinking.] Interviewer: Do you feel unhappy? [The interviewer is asking her about the present.] Anja: No! Interviewer: Do you sometimes have the feeling that life has no sense? Anja: Yes. [She is evidently unaware of the implicit contradiction.] Interviewer: How is it for you when you feel like that? Anja: Well, anyway, I feel there is no point to it. Nothing comes out of it. [She is now referring not only to her existential problems, but also to her discomfort with the interview and her wish to get away from such disturbing and painful topics. There appears to her to be no way out and she is feeling trapped. She is frozen in time with a frozen trauma—fleeing from a persecutory state of mind into a not very effective psychic retreat (Steiner, 1993). This sense of being frozen in time seems similar to the belief in an idealized grandparental time that Anja mentioned earlier. Her fragile belief in a better future and a “better past” seemed to collapse into a state in which past, present and future were all the same. This state of mind was typical for the mood in the Russian interviews.] Object relationships

The Austrian group described several intimate relationships in depth. We gained insight into a variety of different relationships. Often the relationship to mother and father differed. We were introduced to several people and obtained a lively picture of their personality. The Russian group found it very hard to let us into their private lives, whereby it was difficult to decide whether their lives were actually “flatter” or whether an existing relationship of depth cannot or will not be communicated. We often heard phrases such as: “Mother is in the kitchen, father watches TV and I am in my room”. Or: “I speak to my mother, I speak to my friends”. But we did not obtain a picture of the person or get a sense of the quality of the relationship. It was very important to have good friends and to drink, sing, dance, and listen to music together, but they did not talk. They were not used to talking. Their parents also did not to talk to each other they watched TV and read. The mirroring couple—the interactions between the interviewer and the interviewee:

When observing each interview couple they appeared to mirror one another.

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The Austrian interviewer-interviewee-couple:

The interviewer and the interviewee were very lively, both in their verbal expressions and their nonverbal behaviour: two adolescents having fun and playing. Playing with thoughts and ideas. Sometimes there was a somewhat manic quality, especially amongst the girls. The adolescents did not seem to be manipulated by the interviewer. They felt secure and chose what to say. It was a conversation with a boundary: beginning—middle—end. The Russian interviewer-interviewee-couple:

The Russian interview couples were doing serious business. The impression was more that of a teacher and her pupil. Sometimes the interviewer and the interviewee felt lost and helpless. In such moments the interviewer tended to react by unconsciously creating a somewhat persecutory atmosphere. At times she even came across as an interrogator, trying to elicit material that she imagined “we” expected. In response the adolescents often appeared to unconsciously resist her, thus raising “her” level of tension and frustration. Their answers were frequently expressed with empty phrases. Projective identification between the interviewer-interviewee dyad could be observed. From time to time, the interviewer behaved in a motherly way. THE PRESENCE OF AN ABSENCE The research dialogue—researchers’ experiences

During the different research workshops we realised that something unbearable had often got into us; it had time and again profoundly invaded the members of the research team in the form of projective identification. In order to gain deeper insight, a research dialogue was carried out. We wanted to study the interactions between researchers from different societies and to have an in depth discussion of our findings. This meeting elicited strong emotions. David Armstrong was one of the facilitators. In his feedback he described the deeply emotional impact of the “presence of an absence”. He pointed out: “[…] something opens up […] a feeling of ‘disquiet’ of something that ‘might go out of control’, of perhaps losing one’s own personal, professional and role boundaries, of being on the edge of a potential catastrophe.” Later he continues: “Linking this back to the research material, might one say that for the Russians, the fear is that separateness may leave them adrift in a societal world, in which all attachments seem at best precarious. So there is somewhere a theme of despair. For the Austrians it may be rather that the tension between separation and attachment is denied: a version of the manic defence” (Schmidt-Löw-Beer, 2003, pp. 46–50).

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Projective identification: Primitive processes infiltrating individuals, society and researchers

As mentioned above, during the workshops we realised that projective identification had sometimes invaded our minds. The Russian society seemed to be getting into us: We often felt full of emotions, particularly, lost, helpless and anxious. A researcher studying a society that he finds depressive and intolerable, will after a certain time and a certain amount of exposure to that community, find that the focus of what is being looked at switches and that he himself is feeling hopeless and helpless. This process can even be more overt than with a patient, because when a patient comes to us with a complaint about his community, he is voicing his experience of his community, and we will be listening to him, relating his experience to us and maybe, we will be able to empathize with him, without necessarily being drawn into his experience. As researchers, however, we found ourselves at first empathizing with the experiences of the society that was studied, however depending on the level of chaos, pain and suffering, we gradually, unconsciously became identified with the community, thereby feeling their pain as our pain. Therefore, within such an enterprise the knowledge that was gained, needs to be contained, and this is precisely why a psychoanalyst as a researcher, with his own ability to contain and process painful experiences, is well equipped to gain insight into primitive processes that need to be split off by society. Therefore the subject of investigation can be refined.

State control from the cradle to the grave

The Russian adolescents seemed frozen in a protective shell and seemed to have little capacity to mentalize, whereas the Austrian adolescents were able to mentalize (Fonagy, 2002). This finding seems to us to be most relevant in view of the fact that to have space in which to reflect (Winnicott, 1971) is, at least from a Western perspective, considered to be a fundamental sign of good mental health. This implies that by Western standards, the Russian adolescents we studied, were less mature and in this respect less healthy than their Austrian counterparts. Their personality structure and the limited ability to have mature object relationships, were understood to be the result of the authoritarian society that totally controlled the lives of every citizen. It is interesting to read Alexijewitsch’s (2013) book dealing with the “life on the ruins of Socialism” in which we get an impression of how people remember their past. She recently conducted interviews in Russia, asking people about memories of their life during the Soviet period. She writes that Communism had a ludicrous aim: to remodel the “former” individual. She believes that this was achieved, but adds that perhaps, that was the only thing

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in which “they” succeeded: “A new type of person has emerged: The ‘Homo Sovieticus’. I think I know this person […]. One immediately recognizes us […]. All of us […] the people who lived under Socialism, are similar to one another. We have our own terms, our own ideas of good and bad, of heroes and martyrs” (Alexijewitsch, 2013, p. 9, translated by C.S.). It had been a system in which the Communist Party had “looked after” every single person from the cradle to the grave. The outcome was the “impersonal self”: The self that on the one hand feels safe, looked after, belonging to a collective with a predictable future with very clear rules and boundaries. On the other hand, a self with paranoid fears and flattened affect, a self that is distrustful, conflict avoidant, with a weak internal structure, with little capacity to mentalize, that is rigid, narcissistic, passive, and with little or no curiosity. Features, many of which could be seen in the Russian adolescent group, such that they presented an “impersonal self”. This “impersonal self”, however, carries with it the lack of an alive, curious, independent self. When thinking about the impersonal self that the Russian adolescents exhibited, we have the impression that a “part” of them was leading an unlived life. We are reminded of Ogden’s words: Each of us is painfully aware that, regardless of how psychologically healthy we may appear to others (and at times to ourselves), there are important ways in which we are not capable of being alive to our experience, whether that be the experience of joy, or the ability to love one or all of our children […] or to simply feel alive to the world around us and within us. These are but a few of the myriad forms of emotional limitation that derive from having been unable to live the breakdowns that occurred when we were infants and children. Each of these limitations is an aspect of our unlived life, what we have been, and continue to be, unable to experience (Ogden, 2014, pp. 214–215).

Consequences of collapse: Trauma and denial mode

We have now discussed the development of an impersonal self that functioned as an adaptive response to the demands of the totalitarian society. This society then suddenly collapsed and the “self” was confronted with a totally new situation: no boundaries, no structure, unpredictability, fragmentation, chaos, loneliness. The “real self” needed to ward off unbearable pain, helplessness and sometimes even despair. In this situation the ego protected itself by what we called a “denial mode”, activating all the forces necessary for survival. Existential anxieties, helplessness and the pain of not knowing were all denied. The “denial mode” was superimposed on the “impersonal self”. The new situation was accompanied by feelings of loneliness and loss. Oushakine postulates that in Russia, as a result of trauma and loneliness

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“communities of loss” were formed. In many instances they could be understood as an attempt to restore—to some extent—“the sense of collectivity and cohesiveness they have felt during the Soviet period” (Oushakine, 2009, p. 12). In his fieldwork he clearly sees many effects of trauma. The big, prideful empire with a “great future” had been lost, causing a trauma with deep narcissistic injury. In a situation of chaos and fear the population reacts with an existential wish for a leader who should omnipotently take care of them: a plea for a narcissistically driven leader. Volkan and Ast (1994) point out that a narcissistic destructive leader will cause a collective regression and they describe the possible consequences: “He poses a considerable danger. History shows that an excessive need to devalue others often leads to the destruction of very many people” (p. 157, translated by C.S.). In his book on narcissism, Symington describes trauma as a shock. He sees it as a sudden change of circumstances in which people may feel in a state of panic resulting from a stability having been shattered. He points out: “When narcissism is opted for, it is a protection against appalling pain […] the worse the trauma, the more intense and heavily entrenched the narcissistic currents will be […]” (Symington, 1993, pp. 80-81). He goes on to explain, that in therapy there can be a painful, but successful reversal of narcissism. Could this also apply to the “treatment” of society?

CONCLUSION: THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE The fall of a totalitarian system and passing on the trauma

When faced with a situation in which a totalitarian regime collapses, in a first reaction many people of advanced democracies in Western societies, particularly intellectuals, hope for a move towards a more democratic society. But what did we see? The country was in a crisis, maybe even a kind of “adolescent crisis”. On the one side: chaos, confusion, poverty, on the other side: extreme wealth and corruption. Multiple traumata and their effects had deformed peoples’ lives for many generations. In the society there had been no containment: Both Bion’s (1962) paradigm of the “container contained” relationship and Winnicott’s (1986) ideas on “the facilitating environment” are fundamental for social health. In Communist society there was a kind of perversion of both: Instead of the “container contained” there was rigid conformity, and instead of a “facilitating environment” there was an idealization of strong depriving parents that led to restriction of psychic development. Freud (1908) remarked that every child at play behaves much like a creative writer. He makes a world of his own by rearranging the things of the real world in a manner pleasurable to him. In other words the child links the

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things of the real world according to his liking. This linking while the child plays is the only feature that distinguishes the child’s play from “fantasizing”. Of course this linking takes place in the transitional space—that potential space between the world and the individual. Communism as a system sought to control and order that “potential” space, depriving children of their natural spark of creativity and uniqueness. Private personal spaces were turned into public space and the whole notion of a private self was dismantled. Winnicott (1986) considers a democratic system as fundamental for the development of health in individuals: “[…] democracy […] is an indication of health because it arises naturally out of the family, which is in itself a construct for which healthy individuals are responsible” (p. 38). Fromm (1942) writes: “The victory over all kinds of authoritarian systems will be possible only if democracy does not retreat and takes the offensive […]. It will triumph over the forces of nihilism only if it can imbue people with a faith that is the strongest the human mind is capable of: the faith in life and in truth, and in freedom as the active and spontaneous realization of the individual self” (p. 237). When applied to the understanding of social systems, psychoanalysis has demonstrated a capacity for further development and is able to live up to new challenges in a changing world. We hope that the results of our research, which took place in the 90’s can contribute to a deeper understanding of the current developments in Russia and open up new perspectives. NOTES 1. Catherine Schmidt-Löw-Beer, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist and works in private practice in Vienna. She is assistant professor emeritus (Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna), Training and Supervising analyst at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute and the Austrian Association for Group Psychotherapy; teaching staff member of the European Psychoanalytic Institute, EPI (former: Psychoanalytic Institute of Eastern Europe, PIEE), senior consultant of the Child Guidance Clinics in Vienna and a member of the Infant Observation Group Vienna. 2. Moira Atria, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Vienna, Austria; she was a researcher at the Department of Educational Psychology and Evaluation, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna (2000–2008); and she has worked in the field of adolescents and violenceprevention. 3. Elisha Davar, M.A., is a Tavistock trained psychoanalytic psychotherapist and clinical psychologist. He has worked as an organizing tutor, course developer and supervisor on the psychodynamic consultancy courses offered by the Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University, Netherlands. He is a founding member of Group Relations Nederland; an associate editor, Organisational and Social Dynamics; and serves on the editorial advisory board of The Journal of Psychodynamic Practice. He has two particular lines of interest: the application of psychoanalytic thinking to wider social and organizational contexts; the impact of trauma and early deprivation on personality and social development. He has published several papers on these topics.

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