Stephen Fry & Yurko Prokhasko with Kateryna Mikhalitsyna

Our Damaged Souls

Lviv BookForum 2025, Sunday 5 October 2025

How can we care for the mind when the world feels on the verge of breakdown? In this conversation, acclaimed British author, actor and Hay Festival president Stephen Fry joins Ukrainian psychoanalyst Yurko Prokhasko to discuss the challenges for our mental health in times of upheaval.

Together they will explore the fragility and resilience of the human psyche, how individuals and societies cope with trauma, and why open conversations about mental health are crucial for our collective survival. The conversation asks: who breaks first – the world, or our capacity to withstand it – and what practices of care can help us sustain balance, dignity, and hope in the “new normal”?