Socialist psychotherapy and its dissidents.

Abstract

This article focuses on the history of psychotherapeutic theory and practice in socialist East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The "official" pre-1989 socialist history of East German psychology is juxtaposed to psychotherapists' post-1989 oral history of the development of Socialist psychological theory and practice. These reconstructive histories draw on embryonic therapeutic practices that diverged from the dominant socialist paradigm. Their existence exemplifies how a state-driven high modernist scheme for remaking society can fail as it does not account for the complex relationship between a state's abstract knowledge and local practices. Moreover, the emphasis therapists put on the prevalence of these alternative practices also reveals how the present post-socialist context becomes an interpretative resource for reconstructing their past. By emphasizing these practices they try to bridge the gap between their past and current practices so as to minimize the transformation that has taken place.