Understanding the scourge that is Vladimir Putin | Letters

To get to the heart of what drives Russia’s leader, look not to Freud but theories of dehumanisation and violence

Peter Pomerantsev courageously draws attention to the relevance of psychoanalysis if we wish to understand what might be called the “Putin phenomenon”, but Freud’s “death instinct” explains little (“What lies behind Russia’s acts of extreme violence? Freudian analysis offers an answer”, Comment).

The Putin phenomenon is an example of what David Astor, former editor of the Observer, called “the scourge”, that is, a perverse morality that imposes on those who subscribe to it the moral or religious duty to clean up society and liquidate those who pollute it. In Nazi Germany, the Jews and others were singled out as the chief agents of corruption, while for Putin they are “neo-nazis” and those who espouse the decadent values of the west. He and his supporters see themselves as embarked on a moral crusade.

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