Galina Mursaliyeva’s book «Interregnum in the Heads» is written in a special genre.
Galina Mursaliyeva’s book is written in a special genre. I would say that this is a tender book about the wounded Russian consciousness. And this genre will be perceived with interest by people who think about what is happening to us, where we are going and whether there is a limit to lawlessness in our Russian life.
The author of the book is a journalist who tries to see the world through the eyes of a psychologist. But at the same time, he remains, of course, a journalist working with the mass consciousness. Journalistic journalism about psychology is the core of this peculiar and, from my point of view, very interesting genre.
Thanks to this book, we get acquainted with a whole cascade of social situations that allow us to feel the changes in the mentality of Russian society. The book touches the most painful points of mass and individual consciousness. Destructive cults: where do they come from and where do they lead? Fundamentalism: why are we so afraid of the Taliban, skinheads, and what is behind the blind fanaticism of the fundamentalists? This topic is also important because we live in a «healthy» xenophobic state, the grimaces of which are refracted in the life of each of us.
Terrorism, dysfunctional families, flight into virtual reality, orphans… Behind all these problems described in the book, a “contour map of human relations” begins to emerge – I use Galina Mursaliyeva’s apt term. Understanding how the abduction of human souls takes place and how difficult it really is to remain human in the world of non-humans.
This book is close to me and others: it talks about those who did domestic psychology, and first of all about my teacher Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev. So little is known about him in the mass consciousness — a childish feeling of gratitude arises for the author when you read such chapters.
Galina Mursalieva does not give answers to painful questions, she simply describes life and reflects on the facts with the help of professional psychologists-experts. But I am convinced that any reflection on a particular situation in one way or another changes the attitude towards it. The book helps each of us develop our own holistic attitude to the serious phenomena of social life — this is its value for inquisitive readers.