“Russian language” as a psychosemantic matrix of historical trauma and heteronomy
Abstract
The aim of the study was to provide a scientific interpretation of the causes of this confrontation through a psychosemantic reconstruction of the “Russian language” as the core of a heteronomous civilisational model and to identify its role in maintaining the heteronomous structure of Russian society and legitimising aggression against Ukraine. The methodology was based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines psychoanalytic and humanistic concepts (E. Fromm, K. Horney, J. Bowlby), the sociology of power and habitus (M. Foucault, P. Bourdieu), self-determination theory (E. Desi, R. Ryan), as well as research on values and democratic transformations (R. Inglehart, K. Welzel, J. Maunk, W. Brown, R. Putnam, I. Krastev). Based on a psychosemantic analysis of intonations, grammar, vocabulary (including obscene language), and basic value oppositions, it has been shown that the “Russian language” structurally reinforces a heteronomous state of consciousness: it normalises fear, blurs responsibility, inverts the meanings of love, truth, honour, and freedom, frustrates the need for autonomy, and forms a readiness for violent mobilisation. A comparison with Ukrainian language practice showed that the Ukrainian language increasingly functions as a space of subjectivity, dignity, and mutual recognition, which exacerbates the civilisational conflict between the two psychosemantic models of the world. The practical significance of the results obtained lies in the possibility of using the proposed approach to develop linguistic and psychological strategies to overcome the influence of the “Russian world,” to design educational and communicative practices that support subjectivity, and to construct guidelines for the psychosemantic “therapy” of authoritarian societies
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