Fragmented memories and patchwork identities in Ukraine – A conversation between Igor Romanov and Michael O'Loughlin

Ukrainian psychoanalyst Igor Romanov joins Michael O’Loughlin for a conversation about memory, history and the future of Ukraine. The conversation centers on discussion of An Inconvenient Place by Jonathan Littell and Antoine d’Agata, translated by Charlotte Mandell (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2024).

Published online on July 12th, 2025, by the international journal Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society here.

The article is also available for download as a PDF file here.

Igor Romanov is psychologist, a philosopher, a psychoanalyst, a training and supervising analyst of the Ukrainian Psychoanalytic Society (IPA study-group), Associate Professor of J. B. Shadt department of theoretical and practical philosophy of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University philosophical faculty, and the author of works on psychoanalytic theory, technique, history, philosophy of psychoanalysis and applied psychoanalysis. Last publications: ‘‘Ambassador without a country: Reflections on cruelty, loss and death instinct’’ (in German),‘‘Bion’s adventures in a country without psychoanalysis’’, ‘‘Collective traumas, personal overcoming’’, ‘‘Equation, moralization and denial’’, ‘‘The wars inside and outside: Experience of war in a patient, a psychoanalyst, and a society in Ukraine’’, ‘‘Contemporary propaganda and propagandistic states of mind’’ (in Swedish and Ukrainian), ‘‘The story of a Ukrainian psychoanalyst: My way and the common one’’ (in German). The editor of many translations of psychoanalytic works into Russian and Ukrainian (by M. Klein, R. Hinshelwood, J. Steiner, R. Britton, H. Weiss and others). A head of Ukrainian program of Kleinian seminars (from 2003 to now) and the program ‘‘Help for helpers’’ (from 2022 to 2023) (both supported by Melanie Klein Trust). From 2022 an organiser of UPS Friends’ Meetings.

Michael O’Loughlin is Professor in the College of Education and Health Sciences and in Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University, New York. He has authored or edited many books, including, most recently, Precarities of 21st century childhoods: Critical explorations of time(s), place(s), and identities (2023). He writes on intergenerational trauma, psychosis, childhood subjectivity, refugee and social justice issues, fascism and populism. Since 2018 he has been co-editor of the journal Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. He is also editor of the book series, Psychoanalytic Interventions: Clinical Social, and Cultural Contexts, and co-editor of the book series Critical Childhood & Youth Studies. He is a Founding Scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council. He founded and directs the Adelphi Asylum Project. He has a private practice for psychotherapy and psychoanalysis on Long Island, NY. Web: michaelolough-linphd.com. Faculty profile: https://www.adelphi.edu/faculty/profiles/profile.php?PID=0064

Read the conversation between Igor Romanov and Michael O'Loughlin here.

or download it as a PDF file here.