In May 2012 Kyiv will host the Universal Congress of Psychoanalysis “Happiness Policy” with the participation of the leading psychoanalysts, public activists and politicians of the world. The Kyiv International Institute of Depth Psychology has already started preparing for this event. Tomorrow it will hold the round table called “Happiness Paradoxes in the Modern Times.” The issue of happiness is going to be discussed at large: the Ukrainian scientists, journalists, politicians, experts in clinical psychology and psychopathology of the University of Strasbourg Serge Lesourd and Claude Chauder are invited. According to the organizers, the discussion will touch upon not only the search of happiness but its management as well.
The intellectuals from all over the world are talking now about the crisis of the universal values and the end of the age of classical capitalism. At the turn of the centuries people’s world-view changes and their attitude to such basic concepts as happiness changes, too. Before the round table we had a chance to ask our French guests how the happiness correlates today with the governmental policy in the European society. What are the discoveries they have recently made in the time of global changes?
“For the people who have overcome the communist rule happiness is winning back their personal freedom,” Serge Lesourd, head of the Clinical Psychology unit at the University of Strasbourg opines. “For the people living under the liberal rule there is a problem of their individuality loss and obeying this liberal political rule. This is a contradiction: on the one hand, liberal regime recognizes one’s individuality, however, at the same time this regime makes individuals dependent from this desire.”
“Every time the state meddles in happiness and the governmental policy pretends to make people happy it results in the totalitarianism,” Claude Chauder, clinical psychopathology professor of Psychology unit at the University of Strasbourg takes up his colleague’s idea. “The rule becomes totalitarian. The age of postmodernism allowed us discovering the fact that the liberal rule is also totalitarian because of its aspiration to make people happy. Happiness should never be related to politics.”
The Day talked to the chancellor of the International Institute of Depth Psychology Svitlana UVAROVA about the round table and the Congress, discussed what the happiness is for the Ukrainians today and what influences it.
“The idea to hold the Universal Congress of Psychoanalysis ‘Happiness Policy’ is not the one of the Ukrainian psychoanalysts; it is the synthesis of our collaboration with the foreign experts. Why will the Congress take place in Ukraine? The Ukrainian psychoanalysis school is in the making now and the specialists are developing, too. On the one hand, the Congress will help us demonstrate our abilities. On the other hand, the stars of the world psychoanalysis that will participate in the Congress will allow enriching the Ukrainian psychoanalysis thought. Many countries have already set priorities in the psychoanalysis school but Ukraine is so far free from such ‘superstitions’ and is a neutral territory. We and our guests that visit us every year during various international conferences and seminars have come up with a conclusion that Kyiv is the most appropriate place for the psychoanalysts of different schools and trends to meet. In particular, we involve politicians and public activists into discussion since happiness is not a purely professional issue but a universal one.”
Why has this issue arisen today?
“The issue of happiness is topical for individuals since they become aware of the world. However, unfortunately, it has been neglected in the Ukrainian scientific environment for ages. The ideological system of the Soviet Union addressed the issue of happiness but now we can see the vacuum in the psychological, philosophical and social reconsideration of this problem. Usually, philosophical and psychological aspects in Ukraine focus on today’s problem: the one of adaptation to the crisis, the one of excessive information, loss of ideology and guidelines… Happiness is the issue that always provides for some prospects. Our task is to involve people into comprehending the happiness. The deficit of this comprehension does not allow the society working out new guidelines and new ideas of its further development.”
You have mentioned that in the Soviet Union this issue was often addressed. How was the happiness perceived in the closed system?
“We can spend much time discussing it. In the ideological Soviet system happiness consisted in the bright future, the communism. Everyone gives according to their abilities and receives according to their needs. So, happiness was supposed to come one day or another. It was important to maintain these illusions. For example Khrushchov planned that communism would come in a 20-year term. They tried to make people believe these illusions. However, I think that the ideological background did not allow the scientists comprehending this issue more deeply.”
There is some talk in the world intellectual environment that today we experience the crisis of the modern age, its political theories, economical relations system and the whole era. How do people feel at the turn of centuries?
“When asking a question: ‘How do people feel?’ we reduce a large number of people (46 million people in Ukraine) to one feeling. It is false from the point of psychoanalysis. Any psychoanalysts must understand that there is a great number of options how people can feel. This is why we decided to hold the Congress since we are on the way of happiness comprehension. We involve many specialists in different areas who will help us to do it.”
The Day pays a lot of attention to the topic of happiness, optimism and just good mood. We try to keep the balance of the positive and negative information in every issue and thoroughly choose photos. Besides, every year we organize photo exhibits that are quite optimistic regardless of many difficult life stories. How much do the media influence people’s feeling of happiness?
“The media play the leading role in it. People are constantly influenced by the media. It is difficult to imagine someone who does not use the computer and or does not watch television. The lack of government’s attention to what happens in the media aggravates nation’s psychological health. The media can transform people’s idea about the world, themselves and happiness.”
By the way, the question of cooperation with the state makes a separate issue for discussion: “Happiness as the purpose of the governmental policy.”
“I would be very happy if some countries achieved this purpose. However, people’s well-being depends on numerous conditions in this or that country. Probably, the political purpose is not achieving this goal but moving towards it: to the high living standard, people’s abilities to overcome various conditions… It depends a lot on the country. It has to develop the efficient system of psychological help. However, it should be noted that our country pays a lot of attention to it now. Many centers are being opened; psychologists work with great enthusiasm though often for little money. However, it is important that the state pursues consistent policy. In the era of political changes, economic crises and profanation of political programs it could become the guideline and the uniting all-Ukrainian ideal. As Aristotle said, living in a society and being free from politics is impossible. State’s policy and the way the society feels are interconnected.”
