Voices from the war: Some notes on the emotional experience of the war in Ukraine told by two Ukrainian psychoanalysts

Abstract

What is the real experience of war? How does our mind react to the sudden threats and losses of our lives, homes, and beloved objects? What understandings can it offer to make sense of the atrocities it witnesses? What adjustments can we carry out in these circumstances? Two colleagues from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and affiliated to the Ukrainian Psychoanalytic Study Group and the Institute of the Ukrainian Psychoanalytic Study Group help us to shed light on these questions by sharing their personal experience and understandings of the current war that started on February 24, 2022 when the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine. This contribution aims to report their voices and the emotional experience of encountering their stories in order to provide readers with an unsaturated and unmediated contact with at least some aspects of the reality of war.

Key words:

• war
• emotional experience
• defences
• trauma
• large group identity

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Mykhaylo Suslov for the generosity, richness of thought, and humanity that he shared with us at a most delicate moment.

Disclosure statement

The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paola Solano

Paola Solano, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist in private practice, with a doctorate in Clinical and Experimental Neurosciences. She is a candidate at the Institute of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI) and a psychodynamic psychotherapist. Her clinical activity and research focus on the psychoanalytic treatment of psychosis and suicidal behaviors.

Michele Vargiu

Michele Vargiu, MA, is a group psychoanalyst, psychodynamic psychotherapist, and president of FeNaCoPsi. His clinical activity and supervisory activity focus on the treatment and integration of borderline and antisocial adolescents. He is also a candidate at the Institute of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI).

Ksenia Zaitseva

Ksenia Zaitseva, MA, is child psychodynamic psychotherapist and a candidate at the Ukrainian Institute of the European Federation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Her clinical activity and research focus on the treatment of children and adolescents with major disturbances and on parental consultations.