Effect of Dictatorial Regimes on the Psychoanalytic Movement in Hungary before and after World War II

Abstract

Judit Mészáros charts the history of psychoanalysis in Hungry under Fascism and Communism from 1908 to 1949. Hungry was a central site for the early development of psychoanalysis and consequently the vast political changes seen in the early twentieth century illuminate the impact of authoritarian regimes of both the right and left. Mészáros details the move from a semi-Fascist to openly Fascist and then to a Communist regime, and shows the different ways in which psychoanalysis as a discipline existed and grew. As each regime was infused with different ideologies and different cultural roots, it related differently to psychoanalysis. The Stalinist regime in power post-World War II is identified by Mészáros as the most detrimental to psychoanalysis overall. Importantly, the author also argues that the fate of individual psychoanalysts under these regimes was not identical to the fate of the discipline as a whole.

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