Discusses the new generation of Russian men, raised with fear and
without fathers, who lack the psychological stuff for leadership while
the equivalent generation of women is only becoming conscious of
personal, let alone, political power. Economic emotional health now in
the hands of the family, not the state; Unrelenting grip of the
grandmothers; Wounds of the men's self-esteem and masculine identity;
'Babushka Syndrome'; More.
By
PT Staff, published on May 01, 1992
It's going to take more than one man to make Russia work, but the
ranks ofRussian leadership may be too thin "for the task. It's not just
that two world wars and 70 years of purges have left a gaping hole in the
size of the male population--rather a new generation of men, raised with
fear and with out fathers, lacks the psychological stuff for leadership.
And the equivalent generation of women is only now becoming conscious of
personal, let alone political, power.
In fact, the economic and emotional health of the country now lies
almost totally in the hands of the family, not the state. Specif ically,
says San Diego psychologist Kenneth Byers, it is in the un relenting grip
of the grandmothers--the tough old women who don the traditional kerchief
tied under the chin, in what some see as a symbolic knot of resistance to
anything new or hopeful.
Because housing is notoriously difficult to come by, the babushkas
(accent on the first syllable means the women; on the second, the scarf)
exert their absolute control over a three-generation roost. But they do
it with accumulated anger and mistrust of the visible, male-dominated
power structure superimposed on the more traditional family weapons of
guilt and intimidation.
Russia's young men wind up with a fatal wound to their self-esteem
and masculine identity; they are psychologically impotent. Byers calls it
the "Babushka Syndrome."
These men are not likely any time soon to heal their wounds in
relationships with women. So absolute is the rule of the babushka that
the men come to see all women in her image and, with whatever is left of
a self, feel competitive toward them.
In psychology seminars he recently led, along with four other
Americans, from Leningrad to Irkutsk, Byers observed a hyperfragility
between the sexes, with little real communication and almost nothing
penetrating the men's emotional vacuum.
That's one reason why alcohol abuse is so rampant. By some
estimates, alcoholism afflicts 90% of the male population.
Men and women do equally share some forms of powerlessness,
however. Both have zero confidence in their education. Because all
research was adjusted to party doctrine for so long, they can give no
credibility to anything they have been taught.
The very ubiquity of the babushka (she commonly appears in American
newscasts standing in line to buy some household es-. sential) is a
symbol of the absence of the fathers. The babushka may lead the country
back to its traditions and a spiritual awareness, but she cannot give the
Russian social system what it badly needs today--restored masculinity to
her sons and grandsons.
That's where the Americans and the Russians really ought to work
out a trade agreement. By a totally different route, America has become a
society wounded by father-absence. The Babushka Syndrome is a mirror of
our own problems. By studying the syndrome and exchanging information
about men's issues, both countries can reinvent psychologically healthy
societies.
PHOTO (COLOR): MOTHERS OF CONVENTION: Russia's babushkas carry the
culture.
Tags:
absolute control,
emotional health,
gaping hole,
gender,
grandmother,
grandmothers,
intimidation,
irkutsk,
kerchief,
leningrad,
male population,
masculine identity,
masculinity,
men,
mistrust,
old women,
power structure,
purges,
roost,
Russia,
russia work,
scarf,
sexes,
syllable
