Shattered Dignity and Unsymbolized Past: Facing the Legacy of a Totalitarian System

Abstract The author aims to make meaning of some of the effects of the social trauma inflicted by the totalitarian system in a former communist country by exploring the relationship between individual psychology and sociocultural context. She hypothesizes that the totalitarian regime inflicted damage on the narcissism of individuals whose attempts at healing through intergenerational narcissistic regulation of self-esteem and self-concept and/or through investment in totalitarian states of mind ensure the perpetuation of a pathological frame of reference. Oppression has a devastating impact on the individual’s ego state structure, thus hindering the maturation process. Without the healing of one’s dignity and the shame, pain, and hatred instilled by an oppressive system, individuals cannot play a constructive and creative role in building a “good-enough” world.