The Psychologization of the Socialist Self: East German Forensic Psychology and its Deviants, 1945-1975

Abstract

Over the past decade or so, a thesis has emerged which has been gaining ever wider currency among historians of twentieth-century Europe and the United States, particularly among historians of the human sciences. The thesis can, in part at least, be traced back to one of Michel Foucault' s ® nal projects: the attempt to explore so-called`technologies of the self' , the historically diOE erent tools of self-knowledge used to represent, speak about, and govern one's own as well as others' subjectivities. 1 In pursuing this research agenda, a range of scholars have noted the uniquely prominent role played by psychological professionals and their knowledge in twentieth-century public life. Serving as both cause and eOE ect in the general trend toward a pluralization of social identities in the contemporary world, it is argued, the psychological sciences (psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy) during the second third of the last century witnessed a pronounced growth in the number of their practitioners, while simultaneously extending their reach to inspire and support a wide range of activities. Besides laboratory research and psychiatric care, these included human resource management in the workplace and military, pedagogy, social work, new social movements, advertising and market research, and various counselling services. 2 The eOE ect was a psychologization of human subjectivity.

Cold War Pavlov: Homosexual aversion therapy in the 1960s

“…In the West, fields like industrial psychology boomed and intelligence research – including in the area of sexuality – received boosted funding (Kinsman and Gentile, 2010; Solovey, 2001: 167–8). In the Eastern bloc, where an entirely new economic system was being built from scratch, research into sexuality was interwoven with the political project of creating new socialist men and women, socialist economic and family policy, and socialist gender relations (Eghigian, 2004; Havelková and Oates-Indruchová, 2014; Lišková, 2018b). In July 1950, at a joint meeting of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow, the Pavlovian doctrine was ‘elevated to official dogma’ across the Soviet-allied states and became the basic framework for all medical research and treatment, including psychiatry (Zajicek, 2015: 65).…”

“Fake Happiness”: Counseling, Potentiality, and Psycho‐Politics in China

“…While psychologization is often associated with Western liberal societies (cf. Gordo and De Vos ; Rose ), Eghigian points out that psychological sciences also flourished in former Communist societies such as East Germany and the former Soviet Union in the 1940s (:183). Studying the role of (forensic) psychology in preventing youth crimes in East Germany, Eghigian argues that, while the agendas and methods of policy makers, researchers, and psychologists cross‐pollinated one another, prompting a psycho‐pedagogical turn in the East German approach toward delinquency, such a development was not a departure from authoritarian political rule but “an extension of the socialist utopian project” (2004:184).…”

Introduction: The Self as Project: Politics and the Human Sciences in the Twentieth Century

“…89 Reinforced by détente in the 1970s, the new openness also provided a window for American and Western European scholarship to be reintroduced into the fields of psychiatry and psychotherapy in Eastern Europe. 90 The aim was to keep up with Western professional literature so as to "overtake and surpass" Western scientific advances. 91 This receptiveness, however, came at a price.…”