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pendent of the environment. Perhaps it is this value that has helped
psychoanalysis to survive; perhaps that is what works against all dic–
torial and paternalistic influences. There is also a paradox, because
sometimes the psychoanalyst is also paternalistic .
If
you read the
"Dora" case, you can see how authoritarian Freud was .
Elizabeth Dalton :
I didn't hear the paper yesterday, so I don't know if
this was discussed. Has psychiatry been used, or is it now used , as it
has been in the Soviet Union, to incarcerate dissidents?
Gyorgy Hidas:
In a very small way. After the '56 revolution very few
people were mentioned as having been arrested . In 1980 or 1981 the
Soviet Psychiatric Society was on the verge of being expelled from
world psychiatry, and then decided to leave the World Psychiatric
Society. That year, the president of the newly-founded Hungarian
Psychiatric Society was elected as a vice president to the World Psy–
chiatric Society. He accepted. He was a Communist Party member.
You can see from this situation that it is very confused : he accepted
the vice presidency of the World Psychiatric Society at the time that
it was on the verge of condemning the Soviet Psychiatric Society.
Now, the Soviet Psychiatric Society is again joining World Psychi–
atry, and Mr . Gorbachev says that we are liberating our society and
are no longer what we call enemies or dissidents.
Marjorie Iseman:
This is a two-part question, first, about remaining
political prisoners . And second , about a citizen's relation with the
police. For example, suppose demonstrators are threatened and
roughened up by the police. Where could they complain about such
treatment?
Gyorgy Hidas:
So far as I know, mostly through the Hungarian gov–
ernment and Amnesty International, there are very few political
prisoners in Hungary, or none. Dr. Szonyi says there are twenty. As
to being arrested, I don't know, I have never tried to demonstrate .
Marjorie Iseman :
But in any situation, if you are mistreated by the
police , do you have any recourse? With the new openness, is there
any way to make the police accountable? Can you now take legal ac–
tion against them?
Gyorgy Hidas:
I can . But I wouldn't try . I can't answer this question
directly. I can say indirectly that if there are demonstrations, I am
called to the station, and I bring a lawyer. If the police are arresting
somebody, his lawyer has to be available to pick him up . That is one
thing. The other is that under the present law about forming associa–
tions, you can appeal adverse decisions , and the state has to answer
within a few days . And then begins a game , where they don't answer
)
