The psychological phenomenon of slander in Ukrainian Soviet history
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35774/pis2025.01.018Keywords:
denunciations, self-concept, world-conceptAbstract
Domestic academic psychology still lacks an integrative research that would summarize the repercussions of the Soviet experience for the self-perception and worldview of Ukrainians. There are works that consider its specific aspects: psychological consequences of Holodomor, the impact of the totalitarian regime and repressions of the development of a personality and mass culture, self-concept and image of the world of lay Soviet Ukrainians. The works devoted to morally complex and ambiguous denunciations and false witnessing are unavailable. Considering the external (both political and social) contextduring the time of the Third Reich and Stasi, in implementation of such practices, it is impossible to differentiate «a victim» from «an aggressor». Authors define the psychological context of denunciations as shame, fear, life under pressure and in constant suspicions, ambiguity, lack of confidence, dependency, and lack of private space. It is illustrative that even having received access to the state archives, German citizens may refuse to address them in fear they will be unable to cope with what they might learn. Following the results of investigating the psychological aspect of denunciations in modern terroristic groups, such practices appear to be the means of realization and strengthening of group norms as well as pressing opponents. The author's empirical research of the psychological side and consequences of denunciations and false witnessing is based on qualitative research paradigm and is aimed at building grounded theory of internal experiencing, self-concept and vision of the world of those who false witnessed. Our respondents are historians who have studied the topic and Ukrainians of the Soviet epoch who personally suffered from denunciations. Expectedly, we failed to enroll as respondents individuals who openly confessed they made denunciations themselves. According to our idea, because denunciations are a hidden, «dark» side of a community functioning, we will be able to see the essence of this phenomenon through investigation of its «trace» in world-concept and self-concept of those who contacted it in a certain way.
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