While Elena is focused on helping her country understand and deal
with the "earthquake" rumbling through the economy, Misha is trying to
hone his skills in the treatment of post-traumatic stress syndrome and
panic disorder. In my opinion, panic can hardly be viewed as "disorder"
when the entire economy of your country is collapsing around your
ears.
Elena: Notes from her Presentation
When Elena and I met again this summer, it was on the first
anniversary of last year's failed coup. "Last year," said Elena, "it all
seemed very simple: We must take a position. And we did. We went to the
White House and took our position." The Russians deliberately refer to
their new parliament building as the "White House" after our White House
because they wanted it to stand as a symbol of democracy; white house,
not "red" house. "I think maybe that was last occasion Russian hope for
miracle. But there is no miracle. Now, we must take position, but now it
is not simple. I know we must take a position, but what must it
be?"
A year ago, Elena had presented a then-current economic picture of
Russia. She ended the lecture with the warning that the government could
not stand. Something had to give and soon.
Three days later. Elena's husband, Misha, and his professional
friends were out in the streets at those barricades, "taking that
position" to which Elena had referred. Mandating "egalitarianism," that
everybody be "equal," had to produce violence.
The palpable difference since last year is the deregulation of
prices according to guidelines of the International Monetary Fund.
Everybody realizes now, too late to do anything about it, what a mistake
this sudden shift was.
Now it is not so clear "what position must be taken."
Elena draws four boxes representing the Russian economy: Raw
Material
Capital Land
People,
Equipment personnel and
organization
The "people, personnel, and organization" are not trained or
organized for the modern technological world. Training them would take
money, which they do not have. The "equipment" is all in need of repair;
fixing or replacing it would take money, which they do not have. There is
no "capital." Ninety percent of the plants that were functional before
deregulation would have been forced out of business by the resulting
inflation had their government not intervened. Otherwise, production
would have stopped. This is a statistic, not hyperbole. It took about six
months to become clear that the deregulation was not going to
work.
Elena's prognosis is, there is none. From the point of view of
economics there is no apparent solution. They lack the basic ingredients
required to turn it around.
So Elena's psychologist husband is busy trying to learn about post
- traumatic stress disorder and theories about dealing with stress and
anxiety.
New Problems
The overnight shift to market economy has had a huge impact on the
people. It has created brand new problems in families. Galina, the
schoolteacher, was suddenly impoverished, along with most of the rest of
the nation, overnight. The monthly salary of most Russians is about the
equivalent of $15 American money. The rent formula has been changed so
that housing as well as food is more expensive. Plus 500 percent annual
inflation.
Now that everybody is free to sell whatever there is a market for,
adolescents are selling black-market beer in the streets and earning
several times over what their fathers have ever earned. This is, of
course, reminiscent of the American problem of adolescents making
thousands of dollars selling drugs. How do you stop something that is so
rewarding? And what is the impact on the family of that adolescent with
his big wad of money while his father is on his same
less-than-$15-in-American-currency salary - and/or facing unemployment in
the event his job is considered obsolete under the new market
system?
One Russian therapist held a role-play family session presenting
this problem. Misha had consulted on the case.
Loss
The Russian population has experienced generation after generation
of situations that produce post-traumatic stress syndrome. They are
experiencing bereavement on a scale hard to imagine in our country.
Stalin murdered the grandfathers, great uncles as well as the
grandmothers and great aunts of most of our Russian psychologist friends.
No family in Russia was untouched by this slaughter. The latest
government estimate is 40 million people. That is one fourth the
population of the United States.
Then add the number of people the czars before him murdered and the
KGB after him murdered and you see a nation of people who for centuries
have been dealing with emotional loss and post-traumatic stress. When one
wonders aloud how they cope with their many frustrations, the Russians
have a way of saying, "We are used to it." However, therapists know that
one does not "get used to" post-traumatic stress - that, in fact, it
haunts until the point of resolution. Likewise, loss unacknowledged
influences behavior out of awareness of the bereaved.
After getting back to the United States, I called Elena to check
out that figure of 40 million to be sure what it included. it was 8:30
Sunday night in Moscow. No, Misha answered the phone; Elena was working
at her office.
Tags:
black marketeers,
communism,
communists,
culture,
current state,
day train,
fades,
lake baikal,
living in paris,
market economy,
massive scale,
mentality,
psychology,
psychotherapists,
Russia,
russian economy,
russian families,
russian soul,
russian woman,
siberia,
society,
stalin,
train compartment,
train ride
