Unresolved shadows: German encounters in the consulting room

Abstract

The reunification of Germany took place in 1990. As an analyst brought up in the former West Germany, but practicing in Berlin, I have observed over and over again that patients who come from what used to be East Germany (German Democratic Republic) – even those born after 1990 – have a strong need to distinguish between East Germans and West Germans. In their minds, Germany seems still to be a divided country. A split identity appears to have been internalized, producing “West German” and “East German” racists who despise, in the “other” kind of German, a devalued aspect of what being German means. I have tried for many years to understand the hidden meanings of this defensive maneuver for the analytic couple, and beyond this for the relation between the East and West German societies. Here I discuss these unresolved shadows in German identity. Analyses in Germany may be dominated by the splits they provoke, which interfere with patients’ capacities to think. Patients may relate instead to a “German” object that is impersonal, nonempathic, and rejects the idea of an independent internal world. The defensive use of this object in the transference has to be continually worked through in the analysis.

Key words:

• unreachable objects
• political oppression
• splitting in the analytic dyad

Acknowledgement

I am deeply indebted to Cecilia Taiana as the interlocutor in structuring my paper, and to Jeanne Wolff-Bernstein and Michael Parsons for their linguistic assistance and editorial help.

Notes

1 The novel depicts the identity crisis resulting from the changes in all areas after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as a symbolic representation of the difficulties of the coming together of the two German states. The name of the novel derives from Latin: Triste est omne animal post coitum, præter mulierem gallumque, meaning Every animal is sad after coitus except the human female and the rooster.

2 A slightly derogative but quite common nickname for someone from East Germany, Wessi being the West German counterpart.

3 In the summer of 1989, the German Embassy in Prague became the resort of many East German refugees, who camped out in the grounds. The number rose to several thousands in September, causing serious problems of supply and hygiene. Behind the scenes the West German government negotiated with East Germany and the Soviet Union how to solve this situation. On September 30 Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher announced an agreement on the embassy’s balcony to allow the refugees' voyage – Ausreise – to West Germany. The crowd cheered on the keyword Ausreise (departure). This event is a highly charged emotional and significant moment in German history. The ensuing flood of refugees eventually wore down the Czechoslovakian government, who broke their part of the Iron Curtain, letting all East Germans travel to West Germany.

4 Parsons has developed his Berlin address further, into a paper entitled ‘Authority and Freedom’. Parsons, M (2021).

5 In the 1950s and 60s the agricultural collectivization turning privately owned farms into state cooperatives ran under this slogan.

6 Not being used to talking is something my German patients born in the 1940s also report to me about their families. Talking was looked upon as destructive and their parents appealed to their inquisitive and communicative children “nicht alles zu zerreden” – “not to flog everything to death [with talking].”

7 “The Wannsee Conference (German: Wannseekonferenz) was a meeting of senior government officials of Nazi Germany and Schutzstaffel (SS) leaders, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference, called by the director of the Reich Main Security Office SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, was to ensure the co-operation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish question (German: Endlösung der Judenfrage), whereby most of the Jews of German-occupied Europe would be deported to occupied Poland and murdered” (Wikipedia, 2020).

8 My office is located in the part of Berlin called Heiligensee, which means literally holy lake.

9 The SS (“protection squadron”) was a paramilitary organization under Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II.

10 From 1974 to 1981 Gaus was the permanent representative of the West German FDR (Federal Republic of Germany) in the East German GDR.

11 Here Reith uses Freud's (1917) metaphor, “the ego is not master in its own house” (p. 143), which he extends here to the analytic relationship.

12 ”Before the vacation trip I told you that the most important patient for me was myself; and then, after I came back from vacation, my self-analysis, of which there was at the time no sign, suddenly started” (Masson, 1986).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stefanie Sedlacek

Stefanie Sedlacek is member, training and supervising analyst of the Psychoanalytic Institute Berlin and the German Psychoanalytic Society.