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CHALLENGES FOR WESTERN TEACHERS WORKING IN
RUSSIA
It has been a considerable challenge for western
analysts to adapt to the cultural and social
traditions of
Russia.
Our societies have been almost completely
isolated from each other during most of the 20th
century, and our widely divergent histories have
made for fundamental differences in our day to
day understanding and attitudes. We have much
to learn about Russian ways of living and
thinking if we are to teach effectively.
Who are ‘the experts’
Although we are the visiting ‘experts’ we rely
on our Russian colleagues to look after us in
the initial stages of our acclimatization and we
sometimes feel like disoriented children in a
foreign land. Our sense of helplessness in the
face of the Cyrillic alphabet and our slowness
in mastering even the basics of the language
make us very dependent on interpreters. Can we
be sure they retain the subtleties of what our
Russian colleagues are telling us? Reliance on
trusted interpreters is perhaps even more
crucial for the analysts who are conducting
personal analytic sessions with our trainees.
This is pioneering and unorthodox work, born of
necessity. But both patients and analysts say
that it is possible to make contact at a deep
level.
Financial contrasts
There is as yet no tradition of charitable
philanthropy, corporate giving or fundraising in
Russia. The assumption remains either that the
State should provide for need, or that
individuals must fend for themselves, sink or
swim. So encouraging our Russian partners to
raise funds locally has so far been an uphill
struggle.. The contrast between our comfortable
financial resources and their relative poverty
is always striking. Because we have had to work
hard in the UK to raise money, there are nuances
of gratitude and resentment on both sides around
money and time, which we are beginning to
address together.
Issues of trust
It is hard for us to comprehend the harsh times
our Russian colleagues have lived through, as
they tend not to talk openly about their
experience. The privacy of the self has a
very different context in Russia, where until
recently cramped communal flats housed several
families. There was no freedom of speech and
walls had ears. We are gradually learning how
this has enduring implications for any shared
understanding of western psychotherapeutic ideas
of boundaries, trust in confiding relationships,
personal individuation, and the place of the
individual within the collective.
Issues of governance
Our Russian colleagues are having to learn
quickly about setting up formal self-governing
bodies (like the Developing Group in St
Petersburg), and about working in groups
democratically, with elected leaders and
representatives, secret ballots and fixed terms
of office. And they are having to learn to trust
this process, which is totally new to them.
After the experience of dictatorship, it is not
surprising that this produces problems.
Leadership is still a fraught and suspect role.
Although they have embraced the freedom to
disagree, this sometimes leads to premature
resignations and disruption of working groups in
frustration with the majority decision. We have
had to try to understand and help them with the
particular group dynamics of these unfamiliar
democratic structures.
Differing values
There is naturally some Russian scepticism about
Western values which seemed to promise so much
but may disappoint in practice. We have also
encountered substantial differences in attitude
between us on managing money, time, the
framework for psychotherapy and its boundaries.
Heated discussions in supervision groups have
highlighted valuably the questions of how much
we in the West have accepted our
psychotherapeutic practice as dogma, and how
much of it may not be appropriate to
specifically Russian moral and ethical value
systems. It is vital to be able to adapt western
models, and we have had to try to understand
subtle details about Russian social context and
cultural assumptions, while asking them to think
through the implications with us. We have to
move from where they are, rather than impose our
western model, and have learned that we need
both flexibility and loyalty to our core
beliefs. Thinking together about these issues,
with mutual respect, has been invaluable. |
