Dear MPS Members,
I am sending this letter out as President of MPS with the endorsement of our MPS Executive Board. In this letter we heartily profess our support of the Ukrainian people who, though suffering terrible hardships and losses daily, courageously stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s criminal aggression against their country. We condemn this violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty. We emphasize that our condemnation of the invasion does not reflect any general condemnation of the Russian people, only of their leadership. We censure Putin and his allies. We are horrified that these attacks are being directed at the most vulnerable of citizens, including hospitalized patients, the elderly, women and children and many other numerous unarmed civilians and their beloved pets. We are also aghast and appalled at learning of the dangerous situation of our fellow psychoanalysts in Russia. They have been in danger for some time of being arrested and sent to prison. Last year one psychoanalyst died under mysterious circumstances and a psychoanalytic office was burned down, etc. We understand many psychoanalysts and their families are not allowed to leave the country and many are in hiding and separated from their families. Some in Belarus are having problems too. We are also psychoanalysts and psychodynamic clinicians, and scholars who deeply understand the longstanding effects of war and related trauma, we know these impacts travel far into the future and for generations.
We encourage all our mental health colleagues to share in the censure of Putin’s immoral violations and to donate to the Ukrainian people through the organizations listed below. It is also important to support our fellow psychoanalysts and psychodynamic clinicians, professionals and scholars who might be targeted. Thank you for your continued support in these matters as we look forward toward some sort of peaceful resolution and end to this conflict and the safety of fellow psychoanalysts, and psychodynamic clinicians and scholars everywhere.
Sincerely,
Susan Flinders, MPS President
Jane Hassinger, Executive Board Member
Marc Hirsch, Executive Board Member
Rebecca Mair, Executive Board Member
Kathleen Moore, Executive Board Member
Susan Wainwright, Executive Board Member
Elisabeth Weinstein, Executive Board Member