RUSSIA'S WAR AGAINST UKRAINE AND SOME ISSUES OF PSYCHOANALYTIC TRAINING
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/upj/2023-1-8Keywords:
psychoanalytic education, psychoanalytic training, Russian invasion, Ukraine, warAbstract
The article discusses the observed challenges to the psychoanalytic training of specialists during Russia's war against Ukraine and the proposal of current and permanent ways to respond to them. First, the author made a brief theoretical overview of the goals and objectives of classical and modern psychoanalytic education and analyzed its vulnerabilities and disadvantages described in professional psychoanalytic literature. Based on her own observations during the war between Russia and Ukraine, the author discusses four strong and three weak positions, which are considered the consequences of psychoanalytic training. To the positive aspects that strengthened the practice of psychoanalytic specialists in the conditions of military invasion, the author attributes 1) the ability of specialists to determine the lack of knowledge, skills, and strength and to ask for help; 2) formed self-care skills as prevention or mitigating of the development of vicarious trauma; 3) the ability to maintain the logic of timeliness and delayed action, as well as to invest in the future, as opposed to the logic of urgency and the breaking of time, given by the horror of war; 4) interest and curiosity about the mental processes provoked by the war turned out to be more important than the "devotion" to psychoanalysis. Among the weak points that sometimes occur in psychoanalytic training programs, she noted: 1) gaps in knowledge of the ethical requirements of the country and the profession, in particular regarding the conduct of legal practice; 2) a tendency to form a professional identity instead of professional competence; 3) implicit promotion of lack of empathy and arrogance. Based on the results of the discussion and analysis of the observed challenges to the psychoanalytic training of specialists, the author proposed three aspects that can be the focus of attention for further improvement: 1) ethics of the goals of psychoanalytic education; 2) ethics of scientific discussion; 3) ethics of psychoanalytic practice.
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