Behind the wall

In Behind the Wall, East German psychiatrist Hans-Joachim Maaz reveals why the most difficult problem of adjustment after the fall of Communism in East Germany, as in the former Soviet Union, is not political or economic but psychological. In his impassioned account, based on his work with 5,000 patients in the last decade of the Communist regime, he describes the pervasive fear, historical amnesia, and "blocked emotionality" of life in the former Communist state. These deprivations, he argues, have only worsened the rigidity and compulsiveness that were already present in the German character. The author is also concerned that Germany, in its rush to reunification, has not done the proper reckoning with its Nazi past. Behind the Wall is a devastating look at how forty years of repressive Communist rule crippled the psychological life of people in Eastern Germany. At the same time it is a warning that the two Germanies, in their rush to reunification, have failed to come to grips with their separate - and inextricably linked - pasts.