As Russia’s barbarism toward Ukrainians has deepened over the last two and half years, there has been much discussion of its root causes. There are many schools of thought, ranging from the neo-imperialist interpretation to the realpolitik interpretation. The discussion also spans consideration of whether there are “good Russians” and “bad Russians,” as we saw after the release to the West of Russian so-called liberals this past week.
In this context, it is useful to also consider a psychological interpretation. As individuals can become mentally ill, it follows that nations, which are ultimately collectives of individuals, can too. In that respect, Russia can be considered very sick.
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Indeed, if we metaphorically look at a nation as an afflicted person or patient, and we evaluate the impacts of their illness on themselves and others, we can better identify what strategic steps could be taken to effect a cure and thereby minimize risk to self and others.
To that end, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is commonly referred to as “the DSM” (5th edition published in March 2022), is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association that classifies mental disorders and their standard criteria. It is the main book for the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders in both the US and Australia, and one I and thousands of others refer to as part of our work in the mental health sector.
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The DSM holds that schizophrenia has the following symptoms:
- Hallucinations: Hearing, seeing, or otherwise perceiving things that are not there.
- Delusions: A strongly held belief in something despite evidence that the belief is false. Significantly, paranoia, or being persecuted, controlled, or harmed in some way, can be a common theme in delusions.
- Disorganized speech: Incoherent, rambling, or loosely connected speech that can be hard for others to understand or follow.
- Disorganized behavior: This can mean abnormal functioning or increased agitation.
If we consider the rhetoric, actions and behaviors of both Russia’s leadership and millions of everyday Russians over the last period, there is much resonance with a potential diagnosis of national schizophrenia. As an exercise, let’s examine the symptoms in turn.
Hallucinations. The concept of fighting Nazi’s in Ukraine – while now completely debunked and lacking any credibility in the West – continues to feature in the statements of both Russian elites and the Russian general public. With absolutely no fact base or basis in objective reality, Russians claim to see Nazis where there are literally none; it is nothing less than bizarre and hallucinatory behavior. In this respect, there is quite obviously the role of the massive machine of domestic Russian propaganda in fueling and feeding this delusion as a pretext for sending hundreds of thousands of young Russians to their deaths on Ukrainian soil.
Delusions. A key part of Russians’ pro-war narrative has been the concept that Russians are somehow aggrieved and therefore need to “defend themselves.” The grievance – perpetuated by elites and promulgated at societal level – is widespread and includes the (false) allegation of Russian-language speakers being persecuted or even murdered, or the (again false) argument that NATO was encroaching on Russia via Ukraine, or the (once again false) view that there is an international Russophobic conspiracy.
Essentially, wherever the contemporary Russian mind casts its gaze through its paranoid lens, it sees parties and people who hate Russia and seek its demise. At the pinnacle of Russian society, there is Russia’s schizophrenic-in-chief Vladimir Putin whose public statements are typically populated with paranoid delusions. Most recently, on the basis of defending Russia from some (non-existent) NATO threat, he has again demanded Ukraine’s denazification and the handover of four provinces (to which there is no historical claim and where Russian forces are not even fully present). It’s nothing short of mad.
Disorganized Speech. Here, we have the constantly changing and often-contradictory narratives of Moscow. While sober analysts search the Kremlin’s statements for strategic clues, they are unlikely to find them in the inchoate, illogical and delusional verbiage offered by Putin, Lavrov, Simonyan, Solovyov and many others. It’s a mess that reflects the messy and diseased Russian national mind.
Here, it is interesting that Russia’s schizophrenia may in fact be an asset in its propaganda war. Namely, a key aspect of that war is to destroy the public’s capacity to discern factual truth. Indeed, modern propaganda’s goal is not to convince a public of something, but to emotionally confuse and disable key groups. As the highly regarded author and propaganda critic Peter Pomerantsev has said: “If nothing is true, then anything is possible.”
Disorganized Behavior. The evidence is Russia’s war effort itself; in part through its own disorganization, the world’s second largest military is at a de facto standstill and has suffered humiliating defeats. In that regard, it is difficult to conceive of any professional, trained military leader committing hundreds of thousands of troops to near-certain death in exchange for literally streets of small villages. In July, for example, Russian forces advanced in Ukraine by 177 square kilometers (of Ukraine’s total of 604,000 square kilometers). In doing so, they lost some 200 soldiers per square kilometer – or more than 35,000 total casualties.
One would need to be truly sick to make those kinds of bloody and pointless command decisions – or completely immersed in a sick context where objective logic, humanistic moral standards and normal emotional responses have been suspended. A group-think of madness.
So, the “diagnosis” of national schizophrenia would seem to conceptually fit modern Russia. That then begs the question of treatment and cure.
Generally speaking, a person with a mental illness can best manage their illness, no less recover from it, if he/she has a degree of insight about that illness. Namely, one has to recognize that one is sick before one can successfully move forward with treatment – be it medication or therapy or lifestyle changes. Importantly, insight often only occurs after a sufferer has experienced very severe impacts from one’s schizophrenia – such as loss of status, relationships, reputation, housing and the like. Namely, it’s only after major crisis of consequences that some people beset with schizophrenia become better.
In the case of Russia, such is the argument for its defeat in its war on Ukraine and the West. In the same way that Nazi Germany had to be utterly crushed for mainstream Germans to abandon fascism and racism and to cathartically heal themselves into a tolerant and progressive society, so too Russia may need to be devastated before it can move forward as a democratic rather than diseased society.
Defeat is part of the cure for Russia’s national illness and it’s in the world’s interest to administer that cure.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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