HUNGARY AFTER GLASNOST
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you . They don't go by the rules. Otherwise I agree with Dr. Szonyi .
Ivan Lust:
You must know that there are an awful lot of jokes about
the police in Hungary.
Judith Szikdcs:
These jokes about the police talk about how stupid
they are, how they can't even count or read. One thing that would
demonstrate how I feel about it is to compare them to the bobby in
London. There, a child who is lost is told to go to the police, who will
take him home. But I don't think that too many Hungarian children
are encouraged, in case of trouble, to approach the police .
Helen Meyers:
I got lost earlier. I've been wondering all along, do you
think it's a good thing or a bad thing to have a fatherless society?
William Phillips:
Who is the child?
Gyorgy
Hidas :
It
may be bad.
Helen Meyers:
But we're not children.
Gyorgy
Hidas:
I think people in a totalitarian state are, in some
respects, children, and they ultimately lose their independence;
they're not able to manage for themselves . I should add something
about psychoanalysis: I think now we are free from censorship. Psy–
choanalysts can say and write what they want now. But we have lost
our spirit, the psychoanalytic spirit for social criticism. Ferenczi
wrote much about social questions. For instance, his first paper at
the Salzburg Congress in 1908 was titled, "Psychoanalysis and Peda–
gogy." He believed in voicing his opinions . We lost that in Hungary,
because we had to conserve our energy for survival . Now we have to
rethink everything.
Abe Raskin :
I was sorry that we did not get a comment from the panel
on what seemed to me the central observation of the evening: that
your hopelessness stems from the consciousness of Soviet power and
memories of its brutal application in Budapest in 1956. Now that
we're in an era of
glasnost,
to what extent is that fear as prevalent as it
was , or conversely, is
glasnost
the shield that makes it possible to be
even more fearful than one otherwise would be?
Ivan Lust:
This is not a real answer, but I must correct you . I think
our fate depends not only on the Soviet Union . What is bothersome
in the situation is that our fate depends on two big forces, and that
we are some kind of pawn in a power game . It's not only the game of
the Soviets . It's a worldwide game .
Gyorgy
Hidas:
I should add one thought : in Hungary, in the estab–
lishment and also among the population, there is anxiety about Gor–
bachev, because our fate is determined, not only by the Soviet
armed forces but also by the existence of Gorbachev and on what
