Psychoanalytische Aspekte des Umzugs von West nach Ost im vereinten Deutschland

After the reunion of East and West Germany many people of the former GDR had to deal with cultural shocks and adjustment difficulties of different types in the new cultural environment, which could be characterized as becoming intimate with post-modern western culture in a process of identity development. On the other hand people who move from West Germany to East Germany still are confronted with the heritage of harassment in public and private life over more than two generations. Some of these persons, especially those who were victims of early traumata in their childhood during the rigid and authoritarian social world after World War II in West Germany, are subject to re-traumatization under these circumstances. Two case vignettes illustrate these phenomena. The childhood traumata of these patients, their coping in West Germany, and the process of pathological regression after the removal to East Germany are described and analyzed.