Interdisciplinary Lecture

18.11.2024

Olena Mezhenska, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, held an interdisciplinary lecture “Legal Regulation of Mental Health Protection during Information Warfare.”

On November 15, 2024, Olena Mezhenska, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and International Relations of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University, held an interdisciplinary lecture “Legal Regulation of Mental Health Protection during Information Warfare” within the framework of the educational component of the elective “Jurisprudence” in the areas of training: Hotel and Restaurant Business; Tourism; Entrepreneurship, Trade and Stock Exchange Activities; Professional Education; Secondary Education; History and Archaeology; International Relations, Public Communications and Regional Studies; Sociology; Political Science and the educational component “Law” (in the area of ​​training “Psychology”) of the first (bachelor’s) and second (master’s) levels of education. The lecture was held in classroom and online.

During the lecture, the theoretical foundations of mental health, information wars and their destructive methods of influencing the mental state of people were considered. We got acquainted with such new trends of information influence on the mass audience as “infotainment” and “infodemic”, modern types of information weapons, manipulative technologies that are focused on “rocking the psyche”. Exposed to the influence of information war, which is a stress-generating factor, a person experiences such mental states as tension, irritation, anger, confusion, hopelessness. If such stress lasts for a long time, it can lead to physiological and mental exhaustion, and therefore, the loss of one of the significant values ​​​​of our life – health.

The lecturer drew attention to the importance of countering disinformation. After all, the main goal of disinformation is to: weaken our moral, physical and moral forces; to sow hostile, harmful ideas and views in the public and individual consciousness; to contribute to the disorientation of the masses and the intimidation of the enemy with their power, etc. Therefore, the destruction caused by information warfare in the psychology of the individual exceeds the consequences of armed wars in scale and significance. Therefore, the issue of countering disinformation requires regulation by the state.