Symbolic Images of International Relations in Consciousness of Russian Citizens: Political-Psychological Analysis

The article presents results of the empirical study of symbolic aspects of perception of international relations by Russian mass consciousness. Attention is paid to the consideration of symbolic images of international relations as an integral part of symbolic map of the world. The results of qualitative study allow us to consider the ideas of Russians about the subjects, structure, principles of international relations, as well as about the likely, desirable and undesirable trends in the transformation of international relations. The study of symbolic representations of international relations is based on political and psychological approach. The study of images takes into account both rationalized assessments and unconscious aspects of the perception of the political map of the world. For this purpose, the author used projective techniques as part of the polls. The article identifies factors of symbolic representations of international relations in mass political consciousness. The results of study makes it possible to assert that the symbolic perception of international relations is Russian-centered, fragmented and situational in nature, which is to a large extent determines the dependence of the process of forming political map of the world on the specifics of communication. As a result of the study, several models of the political perception of world maps are identified: a model of an alarming type, a positive-optimistic type, a pragmatic-rational type, and a fragmented-indefinite type. The revealed tendencies in the perception of political map of the world include some incongruence of symbolic images of the world map in case of pragmatic type of perception; anxiety at the level of mass political consciousness; blurry images of «friends» and «strangers» in international relations. The ambiguity of Russians' ideas about the place of Russia in the world and its possible strategies for behavior in international politics makes the perception of political map of the world hypersensitive and dependent, first of all, on stereotypes, clichés and media’s information agenda.

Keywords: political and psychological approach; symbolic space; political perception;political map of the world; country image; image of international relations; symbolic representations; factors of political perception