Non-Aligned Psychiatry in the Cold War

Beschreibung

This book explores the relationship between socialist psychiatry and political ideology during the Cold War. In the context of Yugoslavia’s traumatic split from the Soviet Union in 1948, the authorities embarked on a period of theorising and constructing a different form of socialist society, and clinicians and researchers from the ‘psy’ disciplines saw their role as central to raising a new, revolutionary generation of Yugoslav citizens. This study argues that socialist psychiatry and psychoanalysis in Yugoslavia played an exceptionally important political role and contributed to some of the core discussions of democratic socialism, workers’ self-management and Marxism. It argues that the Yugoslav brand of East-West psychoanalysis and psychotherapy bred a truly unique intellectual framework in order to think through a set of political and ideological dilemmas regarding the relationship between individuals and social structures. The book therefore offers a thorough reinterpretation ofthe notion of ‘communist psychiatry’ as a tool used solely for political oppression and emphasises instead the original political interventions of East European psychiatry and psychoanalysis.

This book explores the relationship between socialist psychiatry and political ideology during the Cold War, tracing Yugoslav ‘psy’ sciences as they experienced multiple internationalisations and globalisations in the post-WWII period. These unique transnational connections – with West, East and South – remain at the centre of this book. The author argues that the ‘psy’ disciplines provide a window onto the complications of Cold War internationalism, offering an opportunity to re-think postwar Europe's internal dynamics. She tells an alternative, pan-European narrative of the post-1945 period, demonstrating that, in the Cold War, there existed sites of collaboration and vigorous exchange between the two ideologically opposed camps, and places like Yugoslavia provided a meeting point, where ideas, frameworks and professional and cultural networks from both sides of the Iron Curtain could overlap and transform each other. Moreover, the book offers the first analysis of East European psychiatrists’ contacts with and contributions to the decolonizing world, exploring their participation in broader political discussions about decolonization, anti-imperialism and non-alignment.

The Yugoslav brand of East-West psychoanalysis and psychotherapy bred a truly unique intellectual framework, which enabled psychiatrists to think through a set of political and ideological dilemmas regarding the relationship between individuals and social structures. This book offers a thorough reinterpretation of the notion of ‘communist psychiatry’ as a tool used solely for political oppression, and instead emphasises the political interventions of East European psychiatry and psychoanalysis.

This monograph has partly been funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC Starting Grant DECOLMAD 851871).

Autor*in

Ana Antić

Themen in »Non-Aligned Psychiatry in the Cold War«

Socialism Communism Eastern Europe Yugoslavia Soviet Union Marxism Workers' self-management East-West knowledge Iron Curtain Psychoanalysis Vojin Matic Decolonisation Modernity Developing world Global South

Stimmen zu »Non-Aligned Psychiatry in the Cold War«

“Non-Aligned Psychiatry in the Cold War underscores the value of mental health histories as unique contributors to broader national histories. Antić’s consideration of socialist psychiatry provides distinctive insight into Yugoslavia’s socio-cultural, political and even military history. … Antić’s analysis of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia- Herzegovina provides historians of war trauma and veterans’ welfare with an intriguingly complex case study to consider and engage with.” (Michael Robinson, Contemporary European History, Vol. 35, 2026)

Details

Link teilen