The Church as “Good Enough” Parent: The Psychodynamics of the Polish Solidarity Movement

Abstract

This article explores the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the Polish Solidarity movement (Solidarność) in the early 1980s. While Solidarity has primarily been examined as a politically and economically motivated movement, a study of its religious dimensions lends insight into the psychosocial factors underlying the quest for a return to Poland’s “true identity.” This study employs the theoretical concepts of Donald Winnicott in order to demonstrate how figures and symbols of religious authority may play the role of the “good enough” parent at the collective level, and how religious institutions may provide a “holding environment” that allows for the de-atomization of society, permitting community members to co-create and explore non-violent alternatives of resistance.