Uncomfortable past: Confronting the psychology of communism
The communist experience left a deep wound in the Czech psyche, and the effects are largely being purposefully avoided rather than confronted. So thinks Jindřich Kabát, psychologist, professor, former culture minister (1992-1994) and author of a 2011 book called Psychologie Komunizmu (The Psychology of Communism).
The book undertakes a rather probing – some might say discomforting – look into the Czech mind and how it was essentially corrupted by 40 years of communist rule between 1948 and 1989. Sub-headings such as “Self-censorship”, “A Permanent Sense of Fear” and “Human Compromises” illustrate the blunt point its author is seeking to make.
The book presents a point-by-point diagnosis of a kind of pathology inflicted by a dictatorial regime and one that presented Czechs with a fundamental moral dilemma: cooperate and get on with life in the best way possible or resist and face the consequences. “It is the mentality of a nation that was under occupation for 300 years under Austria, then six or seven under Germany, then 40 years under Russia and a tendency has developed in the Czech people to be less than honest. But it is a way how to survive — a very specific Czech way. I am Czech and can’t judge my brothers and sisters around me, but I do have to say that living in the US was a kind of therapy for me.”
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(Source: easteuropeftw)
