PSYCHOANALYTICAL DIMENSION OF SOCIAL REALITY: BETWEEN THE PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS

Abstract

The article provides a theoretical and methodological analysis of social reality through the lens of psychoanalytic thought, with a particular focus on the relationship between the personal and the collective unconscious. The relevance of the psychoanalytic approach is substantiated in the context of contemporary social transformations, including war, mass traumatic experiences, identity ruptures, social polarization, and intensified discourses of memory and collective guilt. It is argued that conventional sociological and political models are often insufficient for explaining the deep affective and symbolic dimensions of social processes, whereas psychoanalysis enables the exploration of latent psychic mechanisms that shape both individual and collective experience. The study engages with classical psychoanalytic concepts developed by S. Freud, C. G. Jung, and J. Lacan, which conceptualize culture as a space of repression, archetypal symbolization, and linguistic structuring of the unconscious. The article also analyzes contemporary Ukrainian psychoanalytically oriented studies that address the issues of war, memory, and collective trauma. It is demonstrated that the Ukrainian humanities increasingly integrate psychoanalytic methodology into an interdisciplinary framework combining psychology, philosophy, and cultural studies. Within this framework, social reality is interpreted as a symbolically structured field in which individual symptoms reflect broader social conflicts and unresolved historical tensions. The conclusion emphasizes that the psychoanalytic perspective contributes to a deeper understanding of mechanisms of social cohesion, collective protection, and the possibilities of symbolic working-through of traumatic experience in conditions of prolonged crisis and social transformation.