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Abstract

This dissertation study engages the lived experience of communism in Rom芒nia from a depth psychological perspective that is additionally informed by somatic studies. This research takes as its start twenty-two oral history interviews conducted with individuals who lived through communism鈥檚 routines and who experienced them as ordinary and 鈥渆verlasting鈥濃�攁 finding conceptualized by Yurchak鈥檚 (2006) dialectical analysis of communism in the Soviet Union. In this study, I investigate the psychosomatic mechanisms making such a lived experience possible. Specifically, I ask: How and why did it become possible for the lived experience of communism to seem genuinely normal and everlasting in Rom芒nia? To answer this question, I consider the historical, cultural, economic, and psychosomatic factors affecting individuals鈥� lived experiences. Thereafter, I organize the twenty-two oral history narratives into one composite interview that maintains fidelity to the rhythms, concerns, and patterns expressed by each individual. Lastly, I employ historian J. G. Droysen鈥檚 four dimensions of historical understanding (ethical, material, psychological, collective) to the most prevalent phrase offered by interviewees in response to my questions regarding the routines and peculiarities prevalent throughout the communist era: 鈥渢hat is all we knew, no one thought anything of it.鈥� In essence, this study seeks to flesh out the context and subtext of that oft-invoked phrase.