Oleksandra Mirza and Igor Romanov
Dear Colleagues,
We are grateful to the IJP for the opportunity to address the psychoanalytic community and to speak about the situation in the Ukrainian Psychoanalytic Society (UPS) and in Ukraine in general.
The UPS, an IPA study group, was established in its current format in 2016; however, the prior history of the psychoanalytic movement in Ukraine is much longer (Pushrakeva and Romanov 2000). Currently, there are 16 direct IPA members in our society, of which four are training analysts and two more are also authorized to conduct training analysis; 28 candidates are being trained at the UPS. At the IPA, our group is overseen by the Sponsorship Committee, which comprises Ingo Focke, Solvi Kristiansen and Alexander Janssen.
Until very recently, we could assume that the development of the UPS, and the development of psychoanalysis in Ukraine in compliance with IPA standards, was progressing quite successfully. The Society had developed training regulations; the third group of the theoretical programme for candidates was already underway; the UPS held annual conferences, which were attended by both analysts from Western countries and colleagues from neighbouring ones - Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Lithuania, etc. The plan was to set up a child psychoanalysis section. In Ukraine, there is already one child psychoanalyst, while two more direct IPA members and one candidate are completing their studies in the framework of the IPA project on child and adolescent psychoanalysis under the auspices of the European Psychoanalytic Institute. Members of the society and regional groups conducted multi-year programmes with international colleagues: the Kleinian Seminar with the support of Melanie Klein Trust (see Teaching in Ukraine); the Collaboration Programme with German Psychoanalytic Institutes (including the Karl Abraham Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, Mainz Psychoanalytic Institute and Tübingen Institute); an Infant Observation Programme supported by trainers from the Tavistock Clinic; a Parent Infant Psychotherapy training programme in collaboration with the Anna Freud Centre, the Psycho-Oncology training course (Christa Hack); and the Training for Trainers programme (Thijs de Wolf).
In addition, psychoanalytic papers and books (by R. Hinshelwood, J. Steiner, R. Britton, C. Bollas, T. Ogden, H. Thomä and H. Kächele, T. Baradon, G. Diem- Wille, A. Lemma, S. Levy, and many others) have been translated into Ukrainian and Russian and have been published, and members of the Society have published articles in domestic and international journals, participated in conferences and organized clinical seminars with international colleagues, taught at universities, promoted psychoanalysis in the community, and developed cooperation between the UPS and colleagues from psychotherapeutic associations. We have been developing dynamically and making
ambitious plans. All this was destroyed by the inhuman and unprovoked full- scale war that was unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine on 24 February 2022, after eight years of hostilities in the eastern part of our country disguised as separatism, and the occupation of Crimea.
The vast majority of Ukrainian psychoanalysts and candidates have had to leave their homes; half of them have left the territory of Ukraine. Our survival and the survival of our families, as well as helping colleagues search for safety, have come to the fore. We would like to express our gratitude to the international colleagues, individuals and organizations (IPA, European Psychoanalytical Federation, national societies and institutions) who immediately responded to our distress and offered help, those who transferred and continue to transfer money to us, and those who have offered accommodation in various countries; the material and emotional significance of such expressions of solidarity cannot be overestimated. Many of our members and candidates have already benefited from this assistance, but we will still require it for some time to come (see the IPA Off the Couch podcasts Episode 106 and 108 with O. Mirza and I. Romanov http://ipaoffthecouch.org).
However, after the safety issue is addressed, another objective arises - helping our country to resist the aggressor. Some members of the UPS have come to defend Ukraine through the territorial defence and other forces; the majority have been involved in various forms of volunteer work - helping the army, IDPs, providing medical and humanitarian aid, including psychological work with traumatized population groups. We need help ourselves, but we also must and can provide help to others. Thanks to the response of psychoanalysts from Partners in Confronting Collective Atrocities - Professor S. Erlich, M. Erlich, and
Dorothee von Tippelskirch-Eissing - crisis groups for UPS members and candidates, and fellow psychotherapists have been launched. We held an online UPS Friends Meeting, where we shared our experience with more than 150 colleagues from around the world, and we tried to make sense of it with the help of those who are familiar with living and working in extreme circumstances of war and terror, and under basic threats to existence and thought. We hope that such meetings will be organized on a regular basis, as we feel they are fundamental to the restoration of the capacity for normal psychic functioning.
We also see it as an expression of solidarity with Ukraine that many psychoanalytical organizations have terminated collaboration with Russian official organizations (holding psychoanalytic seminars, running training programmes, etc.). We consider that the isolation of Russia from various international platforms - business, sports, arts, scientific research, etc. - is an important instrument in exerting pressure on Russian society. Moreover, the influence of Putin’s propaganda on Russian society is so all-encompassing that it is currently impossible to figure out which Russian psychoanalysts and which organizations have been affected, and to what extent (Benvenuto 2022). Perhaps understanding the power of such propaganda and developing instruments to counter it should be another important objective for the psychoanalytical community - both Ukrainian and international. At the same time, we respect and sympathize with those Russian colleagues who, despite personal risks, have spoken up openly opposing the war with Ukraine. We know many who have been forced to leave Russia for ethical or political reasons, and we believe that the international psychoanalytical community should also provide them with every possible assistance.
The next most important objective we see is recreating opportunities for psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic practice, as well as psychoanalytic training. Various factors are important here - financial and psychological. Obviously, in the situation of displacement within the country and abroad, most of us can only keep working with patients online. However, during the pandemic, we and our patients have more or less become accustomed to this. Sure, a situation where one, or both, participants in the psychoanalytic process are threatened by bombing, where air-raid alert sirens go off, where it is impossible to secure a connection from a bomb shelter or where the patient cannot find a secluded place is significantly different - and worse - than the restrictions of the pandemic. But here it would be appropriate to recall the experience of our predecessors, who not only continued their psychoanalytic work in the circumstances of World War II, but also developed the most original psychoanalytic theories during that period (Kafka 2004; King and Steiner 1991). No one could imagine that this experience would become relevant again in the twenty-first century, but it has happened.
Along with all the difficulties, we feel that many patients need to continue their psychoanalytic work in these conditions. The psychoanalytic situation often turns out to be an island of stability, a relatively safe space where one can at least partially process the overwhelming traumatic experiences, and restore the boundaries of inner and outer realities. Therefore, we try to at least offer our patients the possibility of contact - with a flexible setting, to the extent that it is possible.
Another factor required to restore psychoanalytic work is psychological. We have managed to restore a sense of community, despite the territorial separation of members of our society. This - as well as our ongoing work with patients - makes it possible to maintain our professional identity. However, the incomprehensible cruelty of the Russian army, and the bitter losses, hinders our capacity to work fruitfully. While working with refugees, women, men and children who have experienced violence and torture, we have encountered difficult, inexpressible feelings. To process them, we will also need the help of the psychoanalytic community, our teachers, supervisors and colleagues, including those with experience of working in such extreme conditions.
Despite all the horror of what is happening, life goes on, including psychic life. This means that the need for psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic training survives. Our psychotherapist colleague recently became a mother, and two of our candidates are about to follow her example - there is some symbolism in this. Candidates return to training, patients return to analysis and therapy. How to enable this during the war, and how to maintain the fruitful work until it ends, is still an open question for us.
References
Benvenuto, S. 2022. Psychoanalysis in the War. A Debate with Russian Colleagues.http://www.journal-psychoanalysis.eu/psychoanalysis-in-the-war- a-debate-with-russian-colleagues/? fbclid=IwAR3ymbxAtKuaykLDkO0NjjIxwBKmTRjGvw_Hl3ixdRUzGQ_ZMwGXug0S4gU.
IPA off the Couch. Episode 106. A Conversation with Ukrainian Psychoanalyst Olexandra Mirza.http://ipaoffthecouch.org/2022/03/15/episode-106-a- conversation-with-ukrainian-psychoanalyst-oleksandra-mirza/?fbclid=IwAR1Z7jl8B5FIfu9cdBdlAb2At64LPj-xk0BrgZq_i0B- kM75jMTgBTAMtMM.
IPA off the Couch. Episode 108. A Report from Ukrainian Psychoanalytic Society
with Igor Romanov.http://ipaoffthecouch.org/2022/04/05/episode-108- report-from-ukrainian-psychoanalytic-society-with-igor-romanov-ph-d-
kharkiv/? fbclid=IwAR0HZ_Y0X3nQi0mzR7yaxw0H57EB-6HYgQPFgqgR4khcu1CFZ1I8FYuM2OM.
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Kafka, J. S. 2004. Psychoanalysis never Developed in an “Average Expectable Environment. Paper Presented at the 1st “Psychoanalyst at Work Conference” of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Moscow, 7-9 May, 2004.
King, P., and R. Steiner. 1991. The Freud-Klein Controversies 1941-45. London/ New York: Routledge.
Pushrakeva, T. N., and Y. A. Romanov. 2000. To the History of Psychoanalysis in Ukraine. Report on 8th East European Psychoanalytic Conference “How to Practice a Psychoanalytic Therapy in Periods of Social Instability”. (Kyiv, April 21 - May 1, 2000) (in Russian) https://www.academia.edu/61105355/ К_истории_психоанализа_в_Украине.
Teaching in Ukraine. https://melanie-klein-trust.org.uk/events/teaching-in- ukraine-2/.
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