Psychoanalytic pedagogy during wartime: Lessons from history and emerging challenges

The article explores the prerequisites for the establishment of psychoanalytic pedagogy and its evolution during the First and Second World Wars. From its inception, psychoanalysis evolved as a critical method through which the instinctual drives related to life and death were reinterpreted. Sigmund Freud and his followers repeatedly focused on the causes of war and human behavior in extreme conditions. Special attention was devoted to the theory of education and the organization of pedagogical work with war-affected children. This study highlights the ideas of leading psychoanalysts from the first half of the twentieth century, who developed the concept of psychoanalytic pedagogy, drawing on their personal experiences of war and forced migration. It is emphasized that with the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe, psychoanalysis was banned in the USSR, Germany, and Austria, yet it continued to develop in more supportive countries, particularly in Great Britain and the United States. In light of the current military escalations in Ukraine and the Middle East, the reinterpretation of psychoanalytic pedagogy for working with children affected by war – children who have experienced trauma from explosions, shelling, and forced migration both within their own countries and to other nations – has gained renewed importance.