“I am certain that this political or “(un)cultural” ploy is unfair to working people or to taxpayers, and it is also unfair to the right-wing political opposition. It seems to me that the time is ripe to put an end to this, even if it happens through a referendum,” stressed Roman Vodeb, MSc, a psychoanalyst. His appeal to the left-wing “culturalists” is: “You will simply have to work, not be lazy or sell bluff, trying to proclaim it is art, and demanding payment from the state, with high pensions on top of it.”
As the deadline for collecting signatures for a referendum on pension supplements for outstanding achievements in the field of art draws ever closer, the Left party (Levica) has decided to announce that they plan to file a criminal complaint against the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) and its representative Janez Janša. They accuse the party of instrumentalising art for collecting its own political points and of settling scores with the Left party, and they are particularly bothered by the use of a photograph of the artist Maja Smrekar breastfeeding a dog, which, according to the Left party, is not copyrighted by the SDS party. Meanwhile, the SDS party believes that the fact that the Left party has decided to file a criminal case against the SDS has nothing to do with the copyright of the artist in the picture, since it is not a reproduction of an artwork, but merely a reworking of a photograph that was first presented to the public seven years ago.
This week, however, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, has also caused quite a stir. In the past, she has often been criticised for violating the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, the Constitution and the law. In an interview with a media outlet, she said in the past that she was targeted first of all because she wants to change things, and also because she is a woman. Many believe that she is unfit for the position she holds, especially after the incident when she raised her skirt in the National Assembly to show the New Slovenia party (Nova Slovenija – NSi) MP Reberšek what a pompous entry into the National Assembly is all about. “Her role should be primarily to ensure order, respectful communication, and to protect the reputation of the institution. However, it seems that instead of this, the Parliament is increasingly becoming a stage for personal recriminations, provocations and performances that belong to burlesque shows, rather than to the temple of democracy,” believe the members of the Voice of Pensioners Party (Glas upokojencev) and the 1st of October Institute, who are now demanding the dismissal of the Speaker of the National Assembly.
We decided to ask Roman Vodeb, a double master’s degree holder, psychoanalyst and sports expert, to comment on the current developments. First of all, we wanted to know how he himself views the actions of Klakočar Zupančič, whether he believes that she is fit for the position she holds, and whether she might be casting a bad light on women in politics in light of this event.
According to Vodeb, ordinary people, including politicians, cannot articulate the truth about themselves from a position of consciousness. But they have an illusion of themselves in the sense that they know something about themselves. “A politician like Urška Klakočar Zupančič has proved many times that she is a clear example of a person who thinks she knows something about herself. However, her true nature has been revealed by a number of symptoms which, for those of us who know about the human psyche or the unconscious, let us know that the woman is brimming with confidence and sexuality which she cannot contain, and she does not even try to hide her sex appeal, or even enjoys showing it off unbridled. This pathetic, almost pathological emphasis on being a woman lets us, who observe the symptoms, know that she explicitly wants to be perceived as a woman, that is to say, with all the attributes of femininity, including the feminine desire par excellence, that is to say: the desire for a penis,” he pointed out.
“The excess with Mr Reberšek, for us who obsess over the symptoms of the people we profile, lets us know that she is obsessed with the male view of her body. She (unconsciously) expects all the time, she is obviously used to it, and this is also her experience with men, that a man looks at her lustfully (read: desires her), and she projects this expectation onto the man. In reality, however, it is actually a projection of her desire to be looked at lustfully by a man – in this case, by MP Reberšek,” explains the psychoanalyst, who believes that she was not being sarcastic by lifting her skirt, as she explained after the whole thing happened. “She was not being sarcastic, but above all, she was showing her true colours, how much she wants to be seen as ‘sinful’, as a ‘sex object’, as they say in psychoanalysis, and she enjoys this exhibitionism, despite the fact that she is pretending and harbouring a certain ignorance,” he said.
From now on, he believes that every candidate of a party (especially left-wing parties entering parliamentary elections with “new names”) will be thoroughly “interrogated” and psychologically tested before embarking on a political career. “On the left, no one expected that such persons as Klakočar Zupančič (and some of the other women currently sitting in the National Assembly have a similar psychological or personality structure or specificity) could sneak onto a candidate list, so to speak. As we can see, the problem in this mandate is mainly women, who, by definition, so to speak, are notorious for moral unreasonableness – meaning, they have a weak superego (in addition to Klakočar Zupančič, we also have Lena Grgurević and Tamara Vonta),” he explained, adding that it is not so much about the fact that Klakočar Zupančič is not up to the task of being the Speaker of the National Assembly. “In my opinion, before entering politics, she should have thoroughly consulted with mental health experts – psychiatrists, psychotherapists, psychologists and counsellors. Her unbridled impulsiveness or choleric temper with aggressive outbursts is borderline normal,” he noted, adding that in his opinion, many a psychiatrist “would attribute to her one of the diagnoses listed in the DSM or the ICD”.
The “(un)cultural” ploy, unfair to working people
In light of the tensions surrounding the collection of signatures for a referendum on pension supplements for outstanding achievements in the field of arts, we asked Vodeb whether he thinks a referendum is necessary. “Given that art theory (through psychoanalysis) is my speciality, or one of my theoretical preoccupations in recent years, I know exactly how much bluff and how many scams are being “sold” in so-called contemporary or modern art, which proclaims itself to be “high culture”,” he pointed out, adding that Slovenian “culturalists” are, in fact, all about bluffing, scamming; about a placebo trick, or pseudo-art. The left-wing “culturists”, he said, are mainly political activists who are being bribed as voters by the left – and especially by the Left party (with a capital L). “It showers them with budget money and also with high pensions.”
He believes that this political or “(un)cultural” ploy is unfair to working people or taxpayers, and it is also unfair to the right-wing political opposition. “It seems to me that the time is ripe to put an end to this, even if it happens through a referendum. A referendum is a must! My appeal to the left-wing “culturalists” is: You will simply have to work, not be lazy or sell bluff, trying to proclaim it is art, and demanding payment from the state, with high pensions on top of it. This is, in my opinion, undemocratic or an unacceptable political perversion,” he concluded.
