Ethics of participation

The Problem is not Being Right or Wrong or What is Truth, the Problem is Trust

Abstract

The initial question posed by this article concerns how far I am determined both in my personal life and in my psychotherapy practice by the particular atmosphere, history and society at large of Slovenia– by our unique story. Relating to ourselves and to the world there comes a point where we have to decide or choose between two standpoints: non-participatory, where we look at the world through a keyhole or a participatory standpoint, where we become an actor in this world’s drama. The decision we make can be particularly relevant and destiny forming in times of war or in times of a totalitarian system. The individual’s suffering can have its roots in the country’s national history that goes back many generations and the national pain can be transmitted from generation to generation. Political violence can cut deep wounds in us as victims or witnesses through four mechanisms of transmission of trauma: biological, psychological, familial and societal.

After a conflict the question of guilt and responsibility of the winning party is particularly complex and I explore this question in my relationship with my father. I link his personal silence with regards to his experiences of WWII with the general position of the expartizans, and more recently with the aftermath of the Slovene civil war, involving the split between left and right, the communist and pro-church parties. In the process of Slovene independence there was a key shift in my understanding of politics which can - even today as we witness the formation of a new totalitarian systems –contribute to constructive social actions if based on trust and if it comes with gentleness, curiosity, play and creativity. A psychotherapist who is not socially involved, informed and active, is an impotent psychotherapist. And a psychotherapy that is not informed by social events and changes, has lost its way. Effective psychotherapy is based more on the psychotherapist’s personality and the context in which it takes place and less on the methods and techniques of work.