Cold War mentalities: mental health, migration, cultural exchange and the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System

In 1950, a team of social scientists from Harvard University arrived in West Germany to interview displaced people from the Soviet Union to comprehend Soviet society from within. Commissioned by the US Air Force as the Cold War was beginning to take shape as a battle of ideologies, the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System (HPSSS) officially participated in the US state’s attempt to understand and defeat the communist ‘enemy’. 

I will examine the materials produced by the project to explore how the in-person encounters encouraged by the HPSSS enabled forms of exchange that challenged the stereotyped image of Cold War animosity. 

The HPSSS is a fascinating case study in cross-cultural encounters, revealing the limits of universal approaches to mental health and showing that acknowledging cultural difference can lead to friendship rather than enmity.