Stress between Late Socialism and Transformation.How East German and Czechoslovak/Czech societies dealt with tension and strain, 1970-2000

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Using the example of East Germany and Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic, this project examines for the first time how late socialist and post-socialist societies in Central Europe dealt with the phenomenon of stress. In the context of State Socialism, the term "stress" came into broader use since the 1970s, denoting instances of tension and strain that are characteristically experienced both on the physical (body) and psychological level. In the period under study, stress, firstly, attracted the attention of experts in the fields of medicine and psychology, and, secondly, became one of the key emotional experiences of social change and political disruption for large parts of the population. The project analyzes stress-related practices and discourses between 1970 and 2000, focusing on their social and political functions in late state socialism on the one hand, and post-socialism on the other.So far, historical research tended to associate stress with lifestyles and working conditions typical of capitalism and neoliberalism. Hence, previous studies have situated the issue of stress culturally in the West. The fact that, beginning in the 1970s, stress came to be perceived and debated as a problem also on the Eastern side of the “Iron Curtain” has been largely overlooked by previous research. Also, the rise of stress to become a dominant theme of societal debate in societies undergoing post-socialist transformation after 1989/90 remains understudied. This project addresses this gap in the existing research and thereby illuminates a central aspect of the transformation experience in Central Europe after 1989/90 along with its largely overlooked pre-history since the 1970s. By doing so, the project makes an important contribution to our understanding of how political and economical transformation went along with changes in how societies dealt with emotions and the body.