RETURNING THE RIGHT FOR THE PAST. REVIEW OF N. NALYVAIKO’S BOOK “PSYCHOANALYSIS IN UKRAINE. HISTORY, PRESENT, FUTURE”

Abstract

Psychoanalysis as an intellectual flow and clinical practice takes root in different countries in a variety of ways. This book review reveals the semantic horizons of Natalia Nalyvaiko’s book «Psychoanalysis in Ukraine: history, present, future» which is a detailed reconstruction of psychoanalysis’s life milestones on the Ukraine territory. The author of the review article formulates the thesis that understanding one’s own psychoanalytic history is necessary for the further original development of psychoanalysis in Ukraine. Therefore, the publication of a book designed to fill some gaps in the history of Ukrainian psychoanalysis is a real event for Ukrainian psychoanalysts. The author notes that the history of psychoanalysis in Ukraine is intertwined with the complex history of the country: with geopolitical and psychological «frontier», with social upheavals, with political strife, with wars and revolutions, with the cultural heterogeneity of the population and with the period of strict prohibition that led to the stagnation of psychoanalysis, but not to its final destruction, because after all, psychoanalysis has been revived and is flourishing with new strength in the old psychoanalytic cities-centers: Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Lviv. The review article analyzes the circumstances under which the book was created, and also gradually reveals its structure and content. The author briefly describes the content of each of the seven chapters of the book, presented in such sequence: "Connections of the Freud family with Ukraine", "Before Freudian psychoanalysis (pre-psychoanalysis)", "Psychoanalytic studios in Ukraine since the beginning of the 20th century until the 1930s (early period 1904-1950)", "Pathographies", "The life story of the Wolf Man", "Achievements of psychoanalysis in the Ukrainian diaspora", "Modern psychoanalytic studios". In each chapter Natalia Nalyvaiko explores the contiguity of psychoanalysis and socio-political, cultural-intellectual and household living conditions in Ukraine under various historical circumstances. Ultimately, the final conclusion is that the history of psychoanalysis in Ukraine is primarily a story of people who were inspired by psychoanalytic ideas or even offered their original theories.