1. Psychology and politics2. Certificate of political and professional incapacity3. Long-term consequences4. Echoes in social space5. The great social and moral dilemmas of psychology6. An inventory of social control techniques7. Techniques of control, manipulation and organizational blockage. The Constanta case8. Instead of conclusions
1.Psychology and politics
The underground connections between psychology and politics have never been officially recognized in our country 1). On the other hand, the Russians have acknowledged the massive use of psychology by the KGB. In a program produced by the French and broadcast by TV5 in June 1990 2), the chief psychiatrist of the KGB made sinister demonstrations on how human behavior can be controlled and cynically admitted that Russian researchers were not constrained in their work by deontological or moral considerations like their Western counterparts. This program was neither broadcast nor commented on in our public space. But the silence on a problem does not cancel its existence. The broadcasting by TVR 1 on the evening of June 13, 1990, during the 6:00 p.m. newscast, of close-ups of brutes uttering obscenities for the first time on a public channel, and the broadcasting also by TVR1 before the 1992 elections and at a prime time of some horrible scenes of cannibalism, indirectly demonstrates the use of psychological methods 3). The current situation of Romanian psychology has its roots in the past. To the extent that psychology existed in our country before 1990, it could not be separated from politics, being often used as a means of social control (the tendency to psychologically and periodically examine entire professional categories but only from the bottom of the social hierarchy, etc.). It is certain that from the moment of its emergence as a discipline until its disappearance from the social space, psychology, like all social sciences, was in a continuous "reorganization", which was nothing more than a means of bringing order or silence. The most important moment of the reorganization is the year 1978 when, instead of the established independent disciplines (psychology, pedagogy, sociology, philosophy, etc.), a single faculty of social sciences was established, which, in addition to all these disciplines, also included history. This was followed by the gesture of the three students from the Faculty of Philosophy in Bucharest who, in protest, publicly surrendered their UTC notebooks. In accordance with the provisions received on party lines, the students were declared schizophrenic and expelled with all the consequences that followed. But the moment of psychology's abolition had not yet truly arrived. The real reason why psychology was abolished lies in the universal conspiracy theory so dear to the communists. In a political system based on secrecy, social control, hatred and suspicion, a discipline that can investigate "what is not seen" and show "what is hidden" was considered by definition a subversive discipline. But the last straw seems to have come from outside, when it was discovered that some French psychologists had made a psychological portrait of Ceausescu based on his speeches, gestures, etc.,portrait that also included a possible diagnosis. From this moment the fate of psychology was sealed. It remained to be found the way to carry it out in such a way that there would be a justification for this measure in the eyes of the population. The pretext was used as transcendental meditation, a relaxation technique of oriental origin officially practiced for several years in some local intellectual circles. The coup de grace prepared by the regime was the decreeing of transcendental meditation as a sect, its practice being considered a subversive activity that threatened state security. From this moment it can be said that the witch hunt truly began.
2. Certificate of political and professional incapacity
It is interesting to note that the regime later repressed what it had first validated and this is a first argument that argues for the hypothesis of a premeditated action, more precisely of a trap in which intellectuals were lured. Although transcendental meditation was practiced in many circles, in the case of the Institute of Psychology the situation was special. A large number of personalities from various fields participated here, including two future ministers in the first post-December government (Andrei Plesu and Mihai Golu) and a future head of department at the National Academy of Information (Irina Holdevici). In addition, Dr. Vladimir Gheorghiu, the organizer of the action, and his assistant, asst. univ. Irina Holdevici, were renowned specialists in the field of suggestion and hypnosis. But even in these conditions the diversion still consisted in providing a false target. The attention of the intellectuals was focused on the transcendental meditation technique through which they hoped to resist the psychological terror of the regime without suspecting what was in reality being prepared for them under this poisoned gift. From here on, suspicions arise. If there is a certain connection between psychology and the transcendental meditation technique, there is no connection between psychology, flowers, bananas and oranges, and this is the second argument that argues for premeditation. At the moment when some valuable personalities and intellectuals of the regime were asked to bring flowers, bananas and oranges, to pay a fee, to take off their shoes and to kneel in order to receive each of them from Nicolae Stoian, in a confidential manner, his secret mantra and to sign a declaration by which "he was not allowed to divulge it to anyone" (a formulation very dear to the Securitate), theoretically there would have been enough elements to attract the attention of those targeted. In reality, we were dealing, for the most part, with “hesitant” intellectuals, uninitiated in the underground world of diversion and disinformation. From the current perspective, the staging and cynicism of the regime now become evident, the motivation for the repression being, among other things, that the citizen should not have secrets from the state. What followed followed this logic of repression. With very few exceptions (Dr. Vladimir Gheorghiu obtained approval to emigrate to Germany), regardless of status and professional training, the participants were excluded from their activities and sent to work as unskilled workers, which practically amounted to the awarding of certificates of political and professional incapacity. But things didn't stop there because an extreme technique of social control specific to the communist world was applied: administrative assassination or "civilian death". Although it did not recognize the world from Georges Orwell's book (''1984''), the regime behaved according to its rules: Psychology was removed from the nomenclature of professions.
3.Long-term consequences
The administrative assassination of this profession led to the almost complete disintegration of the field. If in other cases repression united consciences, in the case of psychology it was exactly the opposite. Even though in 1990 the profession of psychologist reappeared in the nomenclature, psychology and psychologists failed to solve their own problems. The interface with the social space was neglected and this attitude had consequences for the entire field. In the same year, the first meeting of all psychologists in the country took place, a meeting to which the press was not invited (this practice would later become the current rule) and to which the very one who would later become an academician - Paul Popescu-Neveanu - was booed. But the problems of the field would continue to persist. It was not clear whether the Romanian Psychologists Association that existed before 1989 would remain valid, whether it would transform into something else or whether an entirely new one would emerge. There has never been a clear and public record of the members of the Association of Psychologists in Romania (this record appeared only after 2000). By proposing that psychologists organize themselves in zonal associations or at the level of each county, the principle of autocephaly was practically adopted. In the period that followed, the press of that time published a piece of news that went unnoticed at the time, but which now has its significance. The initiative to establish a new faculty of psychology next to those in Bucharest, Cluj and Iasi did not belong, as we would have expected, to the traditional university environment or civil society, but to the SRI, which established such an institution in Bacau. Moreover, all the structures originating from the former Securitate showed a special appetite for psychology. This is natural if we consider that in the 1980s, students knew that Professor Paul Popescu-Neveanu taught psychology courses at the MI before 1989. Similarly, Irina Holdevici assists. univ. at the National Institute of Physical Education and Sports, teaches yoga, suggestion and hypnosis courses exactly at the structures that in 1981 will revoke his right to practice but to which he will return years later in a different position than the one to be followed 4). In 1994 the National Psychology Conference takes place, which again did not set out or failed to deal with the "administrative" problems and in this way the already existing difficulties or accentuated them. If in other fields there are professional organizations, professional status and a minimum of regulations, in psychology the situation is different. It is not known how many psychologists still exist (their number is estimated at approximately 10,000), there is no clear status of the psychologist in society and no regulations that would confer rights or deontological obligations to this professional body. Towards the end of the 90s the first psychology associations appeared that cover some sectors of the field (psychotherapy, hypnosis, transpersonal psychology, etc.) but only in 2003-2004 the Romanian Psychologists Association was reactivated by the re-registration/reconfirmation of approximately 2,200 psychologists. These organizational structures represent a great step forward, but they have a natural defect. They cannot solve problems for which they were not created. If we add to this internal situation of the field the classic state bureaucracy, we have the explanation for the fact that although the social and individual demand for psychological services is massive, the psychological offer is insufficient and unadapted to the rapid social transformations brought about by an accelerated transition. In reality, there is no administrative and social support for either private or state practice, and this is best seen among the graduates of this faculty. If such a graduate with a diploma and registered in the profile association wants to find out how he can practice his profession in the private or state sector, he will have to find the answer to two unanswered questions for at least 15 years: how can he obtain a minimum set of textbooks, tests, grids and standards adapted to the Romanian population (this adaptation would normally be the obligation of a National Institute of Psychology) so that he can carry out his work and what are the conditions he must meet in order to have the right... to start it. Since access to the tools of the profession is not regulated in our country, students and graduates are totally dependent on the reference authority, which may or may not be benevolent, and in addition, it has at its disposal the very effective technique of hesitation (“you will get tests… after you graduate from college… after you join the Association… after you join the College…). In the unfortunate event that they would like to provide “labor protection” services, they will have to present the invoice for the purchase of the laboratory (a complete laboratory costs about $30,000), or demonstrate that they own or have access (?!) to “test batteries for determining the psychoprofessional characteristics of applicants”5), tests that were not officially available in our country, anywhere. In short, the honest student who studied for four years in college, but did not know how to “orientate himself” can be sure that his homeland will be grateful for the lost years, but he must give himself another grade for having studied in vain: the competence obtained there will not be of much use to them. The problems are equally complicated if they are also viewed from the perspective of the beneficiaries of psychological services. By consensus and from the outside it is considered that a psychological exam for driving school, for example, is beneficial for everyone, but no one has asked the question why the subject who pays for the exam and sits in the room for 1-2 hours does not receive any kind of feed-back when it comes to his own psychological profile (the phrase "fit" means for the person in question only that he is not considered crazy).Things are the same or even worse in other fields because just as the rights and obligations of the psychologist are not clearly delimited, neither are the rights and obligations of the subject. The transition has brought individuals, groups, organizations and society into atypical situations that were not foreseen in the casuistry of classical psychology, be it Western or otherwise. Probably for these reasons, the initiative to regulate psychological activity was taken over by courts foreign to the field. A few years ago, two PSD senators suddenly interested in psychology initiated a project regarding the field in question, a project they called liberal. But in this way we return to where we started.
4. Echoes in social space
The history of psychology is a conspiratorial one. Almost nothing is known about the number and activity of psychologists who worked in the Securitate, nor about the possible dissidence of others, and the only published history of psychology is the military one. 6) The social and psychological traumas produced by the activity of the Securitate, the Pitesti experiment, the revolution, the mining raids, the study of mentalities, the suggestibility of groups and mass phenomena in general, social control, political, social, administrative and psychological pressure, manipulation and disinformation were not considered subjects worthy of psychology's attention. The prominent representatives of the field did not come out of their ivory tower, did not manifest themselves in social life and did not have opinion leaders. Psychology and psychologists did not pronounce on the dramatic events in the social space and did not take a stand even when lives, destinies and consciences were destroyed. More than that. The press recorded a sinister story from the time of the revolution that was not later refuted. One of the individuals arrested through the CC's holes from where he shot at unarmed people on the street had traces of gunpowder on his hands and according to the story he was a psychology graduate. Of course, this is a specific and marginal case, but the story remained somewhere in the collective unconscious. On another level, things are even more interesting. Before the June 1990 mining riot, students from the Faculty of Psychology in Bucharest were advised from the height of the amphitheater: "Don't get involved!" And they didn't get involved. 15 years after the 1990 mining riot, the press finally reported, in person, the dramas of the citizens hunted and killed then on the streets of the capital. During the same period, and in the good tradition of diversion, psychology had much higher concerns than these "non-psychological" events. The press enthusiastically invited the population to interpret their dreams at the Palace Hall where the “National Psychology Salon” was taking place. Within it, at the Center for Dream Analysis, this interpretation was offered by a former officer in the Ministry of Interior who became a psychologist overnight 7). After 15 years of transition, psychologists are judged according to a code of ethics that does not provide clear sanctions for those who have engaged or are engaging directly or indirectly in actions contrary to human rights and personal dignity. At the same time, they are investigated according to a code of military (or even criminal) procedure that does not provide under what clear conditions the right to practice can be suspended or revoked but judges, through a formulation typical of military regulations, “any acts committed in connection with the profession that are likely to prejudice its honor and prestige” (Code of Disciplinary Procedure, Chapter I, Paragraph 1). Moreover, psychologists are not allowed to express themselves in the social space about colleagues, colleagues' clients,students and members of organizations - it is not clear which members and which organizations - (Code of Ethics, Chapter VI, art. VI.) but they have the obligation to denounce each other (Code of Ethics, Chapter VII, Art. VII.5). In these arbitrary circumstances, the lifting of the right to practice, etc. remains at the discretion of the reference authority which, in order to clarify the reported aspects, "may request the point of view of specialists/experts who will have the probative force of any other evidence in the case file (?!)" (Code of Disciplinary Procedure, Art. 14, paragraph 3) judges the violations "in a meeting without assistance" (Code of Disciplinary Procedure, Art. 16) and may notify the criminal prosecution bodies (Code of Disciplinary Procedure, Art. 198). In fact, the concept underlying the regulation of the activity of psychologists sees almost no difference between doctors, lawyers and psychologists. The professional forum of psychologists has mechanically taken over the title from doctors and the form of professional association from lawyers ("professional civil societies") through which, without taking into account the specifics of psychological activity, social demand and new opportunities offered by the business environment, psychologists are forced to associate "unionally" in a liberal profession in order to be more easily controlled. Since psychologists do not actually know by what rules they must exercise their profession in order not to trigger the mechanism by which they are deprived of the right to do so, it is unlikely that they will be able to define and achieve their objectives but it is even less likely that they will be given credit.Since psychologists do not actually know by what rules they must practice their profession in order not to trigger the mechanism by which they are deprived of the right to do so, it is unlikely that they will be able to define and achieve their goals, but it is even less likely that they will be given credit.Since psychologists do not actually know by what rules they must practice their profession in order not to trigger the mechanism by which they are deprived of the right to do so, it is unlikely that they will be able to define and achieve their goals, but it is even less likely that they will be given credit.
5. The great social and moral dilemmas of psychology
From the perspective of Romanian society, the big question to which there is still no answer is the silence of psychology but also the embargo maintained by the mass media on this field and its problems. In the last 50 years of communism and in the 15 years of demented transition, Romanian society was devastated by political cataclysms, social and psychological traumas, alienation and estrangement reached unbearable levels, but these events experienced and perceived at the individual level never had a confirmation, a feedback and an explanation in the social consciousness. The consequence was dramatic at the level of the citizen who, each time, was put in the situation of rebuilding the image of the whole by himself when the system, society, the state and his institutions systematically stole from him the pieces of the mosaic built all with his money. Under these conditions, if there is any merit in preserving social normality, it goes entirely to the anonymous citizen who should have received the gold medal for not having gone crazy yet. The dilemma of Romanian psychology is that it must choose between maintaining the tradition of over 50 years of "working together" with state structures for the "common good" but sacrificing the good of the individual for it, and between working for the benefit of the individual but by denouncing the abuses of the state and its structures over him. This field has in reality been permanently under social command, it has never truly had an independent status, so as such psychologists have not actually been led by psychologists, and here we find the true explanation of the fact that the rights and interests of psychologists have always been neglected and of the secrecy that has always surrounded one of the most transparent professions. Entire generations of psychologists can no longer describe now, under what conditions and according to what rules they practiced their profession because there has never been a real professional community that truly defended the interests of its members. Before the year 2000, meetings were of a conspiratorial type, there was never (or was not published) a clear record of the members of the organization, although at psychologists' meetings the personal data of the participants were constantly requested. The confusion by blurring the boundaries of the organization generated permanent uncertainty because no one could have the feeling of belonging to a community if they did not know for sure whether they were part of it or not, and the feeling of group cohesion could not appear since you did not know who you were a colleague with and who your colleagues actually were. To the same extent, it was not possible for a feeling of professional identity to appear because, in the same period in which the boundaries of the organization were blurred, there was no regulation, no statute, no code of ethics or clear professional norms.There has never been a national test bank like there has long been in other countries that transparently and in the name of the professional community, based on a fee, would ensure non-discriminatory access to all members of the professional community to the tools of the profession. Therefore, each graduate who left the faculty was always put in the position of reinventing the wheel on his own and of being kept dependent on the faculty or older colleagues who were already "in the system". Under these conditions, there has never been a real system of values capable of ensuring a minimum of social coherence in the field. Unfortunately, the lessons of the past have been overlooked. In the name of defending the interests of psychologists and by establishing the system of Commissions and authorizations that prevail over the diploma, the College of Psychologists actually violates the principle of university authority and autonomy (Figure 1). In countries with tradition, the only authority authorized to train psychologists is the University (or the faculty of psychology) and the right to practice must be conferred by the psychologist's diploma as is normal and not by an authorization for "labor protection", etc. ("What does labor protection actually mean?!" asked a professor of organizational psychology from Cluj at the April meeting of the College of Psychologists) because this opens the door to pseudo-equivalences. The College of Psychologists declares itself an organization under private law that represents and protects (but does not guarantee!) the interests of psychologists (Law 213 on the exercise of the profession of psychologist, Art. 23, Paragraph 1) but when it comes to the rights of its central and local management structures, it suddenly becomes amnesiac. Under the arm of the law and in its shadow, it manifests a special appetite for "state living and working conditions" respectively for the spaces of the Autonomous Directorate of the Administration of the State Protocol Heritage. Bizarrely, the College of Psychologists has an initiative that blocks access to professional expression of that sacrificed generation that knew the abuses and acutely experienced the feeling of professional frustration. The condition that graduates from before 1990 prove with documents that they have practiced for 10 years when the profession was ... abolished for the same number of years, is of a cynicism rarely seen (Methodological Norms for the Application of Law 213, Chapter I, Art. 4).the lessons of the past have been overlooked. In the name of defending the interests of psychologists and by establishing the system of Commissions and authorizations that prevail over the diploma, the College of Psychologists actually violates the principle of university authority and autonomy (Figure 1). In countries with tradition, the only competent body for training psychologists is the University (respectively the faculty of psychology) and the right to practice must be conferred by the psychologist diploma as is normal and not by an authorization of “labor protection”, etc. (“What does labor protection actually mean?!” asked a professor of organizational psychology from Cluj at the April meeting of the College of Psychologists) because this opens the door to pseudo-equivalences. The College of Psychologists declares itself a private law organization that represents and protects (but does not guarantee!) the interests of psychologists (Law 213 on the exercise of the profession of psychologist, Art. 23, Paragraph 1) but when it comes to the rights of its central and local management structures, it suddenly becomes amnesiac. Under the arm of the law and in its shadow, it manifests a special appetite for "state living and working conditions" respectively for the spaces of the Autonomous Administration of the State Protocol Heritage. Bizarrely, the College of Psychologists has an initiative that blocks access to professional expression of that sacrificed generation that experienced abuses and acutely experienced the feeling of professional frustration. The condition that graduates from 1990 prove with documents that they practiced for 10 years when the profession was... abolished for the same number of years, is of a cynicism rarely seen (Methodological Norms for the application of Law 213, Chapter I, Art. 4).the lessons of the past have been overlooked. In the name of defending the interests of psychologists and by establishing the system of Commissions and authorizations that prevail over the diploma, the College of Psychologists actually violates the principle of university authority and autonomy (Figure 1). In countries with tradition, the only competent body for training psychologists is the University (respectively the faculty of psychology) and the right to practice must be conferred by the psychologist diploma as is normal and not by an authorization of “labor protection”, etc. (“What does labor protection actually mean?!” asked a professor of organizational psychology from Cluj at the April meeting of the College of Psychologists) because this opens the door to pseudo-equivalences. The College of Psychologists declares itself a private law organization that represents and protects (but does not guarantee!) the interests of psychologists (Law 213 on the exercise of the profession of psychologist, Art. 23, Paragraph 1) but when it comes to the rights of its central and local management structures, it suddenly becomes amnesiac. Under the arm of the law and in its shadow, it manifests a special appetite for "state living and working conditions" respectively for the spaces of the Autonomous Administration of the State Protocol Heritage. Bizarrely, the College of Psychologists has an initiative that blocks access to professional expression of that sacrificed generation that experienced abuses and acutely experienced the feeling of professional frustration. The condition that graduates from 1990 prove with documents that they have practiced for 10 years when the profession was... abolished for the same number of years, is of a cynicism rarely seen (Methodological Norms for the application of Law 213, Chapter I, Art. 4).Bizarrely, the College of Psychologists has an initiative that blocks access to professional expression of that sacrificed generation that knew the abuses and acutely experienced the feeling of professional frustration. The condition that graduates from before 1990 prove with documents that they have practiced for 10 years when the profession was ... abolished for the same number of years, is of a cynicism rarely seen (Methodological Norms for the Application of Law 213, Chapter I, Art. 4).Bizarrely, the College of Psychologists has an initiative that blocks access to professional expression of that sacrificed generation that knew the abuses and acutely experienced the feeling of professional frustration. The condition that graduates from before 1990 prove with documents that they have practiced for 10 years when the profession was ... abolished for the same number of years, is of a cynicism rarely seen (Methodological Norms for the Application of Law 213, Chapter I, Art. 4).
FIGURE 1- Social control - infiltration and seizure of the psychological domain
After they assassinate their own colleagues in civil terms, the College replaces them with psychologists fabricated ad-hoc from priests, psychiatrists, social workers, teachers, philosophers, etc. This strategy is nothing more than a diversion that diverts attention from the real problem: the leading role of psychologists in the force structures within the College of Psychologists and of the force structures within our social system. The Psychology Commission for Defense, Order and National Security has a special status within the College and its psychologists certified “through specific procedures” inexplicably benefit from “all the competencies of a psychologist certified in labor and organizational psychology, on similar levels of specialization” (Methodological Norms, Art.187, paragraph 3). Moreover, in the College’s view, law school graduates can become ad-hoc judicial psychologists if they complete a study package (Methodological Norms, Art.18 Paragraph 2). It is exactly the old tactic by virtue of which graduates of MI officer schools "completed" their studies by becoming lawyers through equivalencies; now they have made another leap and become psychologists). The result of this invasion of military psychologists and their leading role in the field is exactly the opposite: the press is full of articles about the behavior of the most tested and approved citizens (namely, military personnel in service, police officers, gendarmes, secret police, etc.) who, when they are not shooting citizens with their weapons or torturing them, shoot each other, commit suicide or become a social danger when they get behind the wheel, and a simple monitoring of the press over the course of a few months highlights this fact 8). And it cannot be otherwise when those in question are tested under the umbrella of the state and of authorizations obtained "according to specific procedures" in which the evaluators benefit only from the advantages of the position but not from the responsibilities of the profession, the excuse being broadly the same: the subjects rarely come to the exam, they sit for too little and... they are not honest, that is, they mislead the psychologists, the organs and the system. From the privileged position within the system one inevitably reaches the leading role within the field. In Constanta, the College of Psychologists is led by a person who, according to his own statements, in a very short period of time managed to simultaneously complete an MI officer school (after which he resigned), the law faculty and the psychology faculty (with the corresponding diplomas), being also enrolled in a master's degree, has authorization for labor protection examinations (i.e. labor and organizational psychology), examinations for the use of firearms, driving school and according to press statements (Evenimentul Zilei, June 17, 2005) he also appears as a psychologist at the Center for Dream Analysis in Bucharest. But apart from these picturesque super-performances and specific to inflatable and fulminating MI-type careers,The reality of the College of Psychologists in Constanta is even more brutal: out of 10 members of the College, 5 are military. Their first initiative was the proposal to go to Japan to import a code of disciplinary conduct from there, followed by that of establishing the position of spokesperson to manipulate information in relations with the press.
Military component of the College of Psychologists in Constanta
(Board of Directors)
Ion Anghel Gradinaru - president, former MI officer (resigned), law and psychology graduate, psychologist at PSIHOGRAD SRL in Constanta, psychologist at the Center for Dream Analysis Bucharest
Filaret Santion - University professor at Ovidius, former psychologist at the Military Navy C-ta
Enache Stanica - Psychologist at SRI Constanta, Anti-Terrorist Brigade - recent graduate
Balan Cristinel - Psychologist at the Border Police Constanta - recent graduate
Zavoi Alin - Psychologist at the Ministry of National Defense - Ialomita - recent graduate
These initiatives probably explain why when, within the College, when it was proposed that each member present their psychology diploma or its equivalent, the members of the military wing avoided “in corpore” presenting the documents certifying their qualification as a psychologist. As such, psychologists are not actually led by psychologists but by the military and psychology is in reality becoming a means of control over citizens. If, under EU pressure, the justice system has started cleaning up its own backyard, with the law clearly establishing that the profession of magistrate is incompatible with belonging to the former political police and, very interestingly, with being a member of a secret service, psychology strikes a note that is discordant with society’s tendency to align with European standards: it sees no incompatibility between these two qualities and the exercise of the psychology profession, quite the opposite, although a counseling session in which when you enter the psychologist’s office you tend to reflexively reach for your ID card no longer resembles psychological counseling. Under these conditions, it becomes explicable why the "work psychology" model is maintained in which people are sent for examination for "labor protection" in corpore and "in an organized manner" (respectively with the help of the law), the tendency being in fact that of moving from industry to education, from education to administration, and from this to health, etc. The underlying model is an inductive one: if there is a single case of a teacher with deviant psychological behavior then "preventively" we must test all the teachers in the country to eradicate the evil from the root and in this way find all those who could have problems (in the future). It's as if "everyone" has to pay for the mistakes of "one" (sounds familiar) because no one takes into account the fact that the first could be counseled and the others could go voluntarily if they weren't sent by force, there being also the fear that they could lose their jobs because: "after the testing we can tell (the employer) exactly whether the person is suitable or not for that position" 9). As a result, the tests are done in an "industrial" manner, with the minimum number of people examined at a time sometimes being over 20 people 10). In this case, the psychologist actually becomes "an institution to put stamps on" for which the priority is the quantity of examinations 11) and psychology becomes very profitable because the state sends clients to the office door in droves with the help of the law. And it's normal for it to be like this when the nostalgia for the military model according to which everything is done "in an organized manner" and with "approval" has its say. From this perspective, the fact that, for the first time in the case of a professional meeting of psychologists, one of the members of the presidium of the April meeting of the College of Psychologists proudly wore the uniform of "captain-commander" during a meeting of civilians,is no longer a surprise but a confirmation of a state of affairs. In essence, an organization whose leadership includes the Minister of Education and Research, military and intelligence officers strategically spread throughout all the Commissions, not to mention those in the Commission for the Defense of Order and National Security (regardless of whether all of them are also psychologists) no longer sounds like a professional organization but downright governmental (not to mention military) as if the field of psychology is no longer the domain of psychologists but has become an objective of national security. And then we should not be surprised that this organization has the mentality of a besieged citizen: “We have noticed, in recent years, that there are many "enemies" who attack us from outside the profession, but also from within it” 12). Let's see briefly who is attacking the "fortress" and why. When the Minister of Education and Research declares that before becoming a psychologist he was first a teacher and in this capacity while on an internship at a school in Turda after he consumed alcohol together with a colleague and they both urinated on the history and geography maps in the school, “just to be sure that they are above historical-geographical determinism” 13), how does the College of Psychologists react after this episode that delighted students, the press and readers?! According to the same logic sometimes applied, traditionally, in the state selection 14) according to which a step taken from behind most of the time means another step forward. Together with another colleague who also did not deign to come to the meeting, the Minister is elected, in absentia, a member of the Ethics Commission. We do not know if in other countries ministers also manage psychologists, but since all the "spicy" exploits are described by the minister himself in a book written together with his colleague Mihaela Miroiu, a distinguished university professor (also a member of the College of Psychologists) who implicitly approves of these deontological behaviors, then we have a problem, but not of attacking the College in the first place, but of insulting the beneficiaries of psychological services. The subliminal model transmitted with these piquancies by the minister, his colleague, the College of Psychologists and implicitly by psychologists to students and the general public is briefly the following: if you do "this" during the internship, you will end up "the same" after finishing it! In this context, it is logical that the decisions of the College are taken by definition at the central level, it can revoke without explanation the members elected on the basis of voting of the local Colleges because the local Colleges do not actually have any powers other than making proposals to the center. As such, the deregulation that has hovered over this field for 15 years was not a coincidence but was motivated precisely by the intention of not losing control over it, ignoring the fact that psychology does not belong to the state, the government, or the military, but to the people.On the surface, Romania is noisily moving towards the European Union. Deep down, civil society denounces the captive state, the infiltration and parasitism of the system by hidden structures, while psychologists discreetly line up in the front.
6. An inventory of social control techniques
The most important means of social control over citizens is dependence on the state and its structures, which manifests itself not only in the natural positioning of the citizen under the arm of the law but also in the mechanism of periodic approvals and authorizations, which in one form or another represent a certificate of social and professional capacity that the state can give. From this point of view, the history of state-citizen relations can be assimilated to a permanent struggle with a potential winner (the state) and a potential loser (the citizen) but also to a history of manifest (in communism) or latent (in post-communism) fear. On the other hand, the intensification of social dependencies is equivalent to the increase in control over citizens. This is exactly what is happening today. If at first the dependence was primitive (from the state the citizen received a job, housing, salary, and approval for everything), now the dependence is more sophisticated. The state, although it was relieved of almost all the obligations it had towards the citizen during communism, has maintained all its rights over him in post-communism. Now the citizen can get a job from a private individual, but the approval for employment is still received from the state, which sends him for examination with the help of the law. In Constanta, for example, out of 170,000 employees, it is stated and lamented that "only" 70,000 were psychologically tested (respectively an average of almost 7,000 examinations per office), given that there are only 12 psychological offices authorized for "labor protection examinations, driving licenses and weapons licenses" 15). The simple enumeration of these types of examinations and these competencies of the psychologist shows the official vision of this profession, which implicitly induces a certain mental representation of it 16). This behavior of the psychologist is maintained through the report that he must submit annually to the College of Psychologists for approval and which includes the following sections considered very important: Beneficiary / Employment examinations / Periodic examinations / Other examinations / Total examinations / Number of incapacity opinions 17). The multiplication of social dependencies and bureaucratic control of behaviors become possible by constantly maintaining the lack of feedback characteristic of the previous social mega-machine (apparently paradoxically, 15 years after the revolution, no social sector is going well!) not to mention the bureaucratic control of professions and careers. But the most efficient means of control is the permanent and massive generation of situations of impossibility (Figure 2) for the citizen and social actors in general by permanently maintaining the gap, cleavage and fracture between 4 fundamental planes of reality:
FIGURE 2- Generation of situations of impossibility
From this point of view, some of the state institutions at least, if not the state as a whole, function as a factory of victims continuously fed with a raw material for which a perfect model has been found: the sacrificial citizen who is potentially always to blame for everything even though he pays for everything out of his own pocket. How did we get here? By the classic translation already from the “security” of a nation to the siege of its own citizens. From the invocation of “national security” to “state secret” and from there to “service secret” is only a step that has already been taken. The secrecy of some structures and the secretophobia of citizens are only a logical consequence of this approach to social encapsulation that continues by forcefully introducing in all areas “internal order regulations”, regulations and codes of disciplinary procedure, etc. With these, there are enough opportunities to subsequently invoke their violation and to resume infinitely the same vicious circle in which the game of cat and mouse has continued for over 50 years through the interstices of the social space between the structures of the state and its citizens. The parable of the “bag of mice” that circulated before 1989 among the activists of the CC convincingly illustrates this situation: “If we have a tied bag full of mice left on the floor, the mice gnaw it and get out. On the other hand, if we lift it and shake it, the mice cannot get hold of the bag, they remain alive, but captive. That is what is being pursued” 18). But at what price over time?! At the price of establishing parabiosis at the level of society and destructuring the system of values that induce the idea of erasing moral boundaries and the indistinction of behaviors in the political, social and moral space 19). The consequences are obvious. The value system of a part (we do not know how large) of society already has a particular configuration. The cold computer statistics recently recorded, following the access of domain names by users at a given time of the site ("http://www.dl.ro/index/most/pageno/2") the following priorities, respectively a state of affairs (Figure 3) that no longer needs any comment:
FIGURE 3 - A value system
The simplest way to control a field is first to deregulate it, followed, logically according to the purpose, by overregulating it. From this point of view, the elections that took place for the College of Psychologists in Constanta are instructive. First of all, the organizers took advantage of an ambiguous situation: the establishment of the College of Psychologists in parallel with the Association of Psychologists was equivalent to the establishment of a filter that records a bizarre situation and which created a lot of confusion: there are two different organizations but which may have the same members, but on the other hand there are psychologists from the Association of Psychologists who are not in the College of Psychologists and at the same time psychologists who are in the College of Psychologists but who are not registered in the Association of Psychologists. But since there was no clear and public evidence of the members of the two different organizations, the situation that was reached was even more bizarre. The elections for the College of Psychologists in Constanta took place at the end of last year. The participants in the hall put their names on the lists. But no one knew exactly:
- how many members of the Association of Psychologists were in the hall,
- how many members of the College of Psychologists were in the hall,
- how many members of the Association of Psychologists were not registered in the College
- how many members of the College of Psychologists were not registered in the Association of Psychologists 20)
- how many participants in the hall were graduates with a diploma who were not yet registered in either the Association of Psychologists or the College of Psychologists
- how many participants were students or simply “invited”.
Other control, manipulation and blocking techniques used (blocking the speaker, verbal domination, ignoring interventions, selection of expressed points of view, unauthorized prolongation of voting, etc., the presence in the hall of a single journalist from a single newspaper who in the dry "investment" announcement selected only the "pro" opinions, systematic avoidance of presenting the election minutes, etc.) do not even matter if we consider that it was not known exactly how many people were present in the hall or in what capacity. Example:
- 133 voters were present in the hall (statement of the president of the College).
- on the website of the Association of Psychologists in Constanta, there were 87 members. Moreover, the president of the presidium who led the meeting failed to clearly answer even the fundamental question asked by a psychology graduate with a diploma but not yet registered in any organization: Who actually has the right to vote?! The rest is silence…
8. Instead of conclusions
In the West, psychological intervention is mainly focused on the individual and is motivated by the fact that in this way both cause and effect are treated because there the state, society, institutions, laws, norms, rules, customs, citizens' rights, individual responsibility and social life function exasperatingly normally. Here the situation is different. After decades of generalized suspicion, restoring social trust is not an easy undertaking if we consider that after the unlived life that passed under communism the individual tried for 15 years to recover his stolen identity on his own. Psychological intervention can be focused on the individual but will in some cases act only on the effects because the causes of the individual's problems often originate in the problems of our society (many of the cases treated in psychiatric hospitals are actually social cases). That is why psychology cannot honor its obligations, psychological performance does not live up to society's expectations, and in the empty space left, surrogates appear. The general public's image of psychology is reduced to the marginal aspects presented in newspapers (the selection of contestants for Big-Brother, the sentimental problems of teenagers, ladies and gentlemen and the new sexual revolution) or in television shows (ostentatious live hypnosis, etc.) and to the cliché according to which psychologists have the same occupation as psychiatrists but with a different name. Psychology is thus blurred by parapsychology (parapsychologists, astrologers, zodiac signs and sex have invaded TV screens), the psychology of normality by psychopathology and the social role assigned to the psychologist is that of an instance that you know when you are approaching but you do not know when you will escape. According to this image, people who feel normal but urgently want to talk about their problems will naturally avoid going to a psychologist and even more so to a psychiatrist. This state of affairs actually hides a desertion from the social obligations of the discipline, the field and the practitioners. In other words, if people are unable to solve their problems themselves, they have no choice but to choose between going to a parapsychologist, astrologer, priest, fortune teller or, as was found with a Bivolaru and, we must admit, they have the right to any option. A vicious circle has been created. The social demand for psychological services exists, psychologists do not benefit from the social and administrative support necessary to fulfill their profession according to social demand and the potential beneficiaries of psychological services are non-psychologists.Certainly, however, this disorder and deregulation of the field that did not bother anyone for 15 years provided the ideal pretext for an overregulation that would ensure an efficient control over the field or at least over psychologists… And since there are countless examples in our recent history that demonstrate that the intervention in a field by other than professional bodies instead of solving old problems has always generated new problems, it is to be assumed that the initiative to break this vicious circle will come from the representatives of the new generation of psychologists. Although they live in the same world, they perceive it completely differently and the hope remains that in this way they could find the way out of the labyrinth.
Sergiu Simion
Notes
1) In a show broadcast by Realitatea TV a few years ago, psychiatrist Florin Tudose categorically denied the use of psychiatry for political purposes by the communist regime when it was a well-known fact that opponents were arrested under a famous decree (disturbance of public order…) that allowed the authorities to forcibly intern a person in a psychiatric hospital.
2) The show could also be watched in our country on the TV5 channel a few days after June 19, 1990, approximately between 02:00 and 04:00 at night. On June 19, 1990, at 02:00 at night, in the student show “Gaudeamus”, scenes of torture from the miners’ strike were presented for the first time. The press later reported that one of the three producers of the show was employed (as a psychologist?) by the Police. 4) Prof.univ.dr. Irina Holdevici from the University of Bucharest is also a professor at the "Faculty of Psychosociology of the National Academy of Information" cf. www.arpt.ro
5) Art.7 of the Regulation on the authorization of individuals and legal entities to provide psychological services in the field of labor protection, dated / 22/10/2004, Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 1036 of 09/11/2004
6) At the psychologists' meeting in April of this year, in the hall there were stacks of copies of the only history of Romanian psychology published so far: THE HISTORY OF MILITARY PSYCHOLOGY.
7) Felicia Traistaru - “Interpretati-va dâmurile la Sala Palatului”, Evenimentul Zilei, 17 July 2005. For the quality of MI officer, see below the military component of the College of Psychologists Constanta ( (chapter 5).
8) “Potential criminal with proper documents. The gunman guard from Constanta” - Romania Libera, 15 February 2005
“Grenade found in the center of Constanta” - Romania Libera, 17 February 2005
“Counselors and police officers involved in road accidents” - Romania Libera, 21 February 2005
“Former SRI officer arrested for human trafficking” - Gandul, 11 May 2005
“A new wave of dismissals sweeps the Constanta Border Police” - Romania Libera, 6 May 2005
“An SRI officer escaped with 2 years in prison (after a bloody assassination)” - Romania Libera, 26 April 2005
“Brutes in uniform” - Ziua, August 11, 2005
“Traffickers supported by law enforcement officers” Ziua - August 17, 2005
“The Chief of the Hunedoara Police was fired….” Ziua, - August 27, 2005
“Policeman drunk at the wheel”, Ziua - August 30, 2005
9) “Following the tests, we can tell (the employer) whether the person is suitable or not for the position he has chosen” - quoted from Ion Anghel Gradinaru, in Cuget Liber, April 21, 2004
10) The Director of the Cernavoda City Hospital states that for the occupational safety examinations the proposed condition was that the number of people examined in a series be at least 20. Before 1990 in industry, up to 70 people were examined in a series. The Western norm is 5 people.
11) Annex 2, Regulation on the authorization of individuals and legal entities to provide psychological services in the field of labor protection, dated / 22/10/2004, Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 1036 dated 09/11/2004
12) Interview given by the president of the College, prof.dr. Nicolae Mitrofan, to colonel Dumitru Roman, and presented on the website www.psihograd.ro at the beginning of this year.
13) “Ministerul” in Gardianul, no. 11 dated March 12, 2005. The article presents “spicy” excerpts from the book “R`estul si Vestul” written by Mircea Miclea and Mihaela Miroiu and published by Polirom publishing house this year.
14) “It is forbidden to judge or publicly criticize those party-appointed leaders who, through their activity, have caused losses or aroused the dissatisfaction of the employees. In drastic cases, they are recalled from office, being appointed to similar or superior positions. Finally, they must be placed in management positions and kept on record as reserve cadres for the period of subsequent changes.” Directive 43 -NKVD, in Christopher Andrew & Oleg Gordievski, KGB, ALL Publishing House, Bucharest, p 487.
15) Ileana Gheorghiu - The black market of psychology laboratories - Cuget Liber, 21 April 2004
16) This summer, Realitatea TV presented images from Galati with dozens of teachers waiting at the door of a psychiatric clinic because the County Education Inspectorate had decided that all teachers in the city (or even the county) should be examined at a single clinic in the city (there were only two). The opinion of an outraged teacher was that he should also have “the right to choose the psychiatrist he goes to”. At General School No. 2 in Cernavoda it was even simpler. The teachers received the questionnaires to complete at home. A week later, their opinions arrived at the school.
17) Annex 2, Regulation on the authorization of individuals and legal entities to provide psychological services in the field of labor protection, dated / 22/10/2004, Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 1036 dated 09/11/2004
18) Conversation in 1981 with Prof. Ion Nanut, Secretary of Propaganda of Tulcea County.
19) Show broadcast by Realitatea TV, Friday, August 12, 6:00 PM, with Andrei Gheorghe (media star) and Marian Trifu (theology graduate and specialist in "political marketing") as guests, who promoted the "political detergent" model according to which there is no difference between behaviors in the political space because "everyone is the same" and the citizen's choice is equally indifferent in its consequences.
20) At one of the first meetings of the College of Psychologists in Constanta, it was found that two members of the College were not members of the Association of Psychologists. They were initially invalidated by the leadership in Bucharest. The decision was later reversed without explanation.
Bibliography
1. Law no. 213 of May 27, 2004 regarding the exercise of the right of psychologist with the right of free practice, the establishment, organization and functioning of the College of Psychologists of Romania (Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 492 of June 1, 2004)
2. METHODOLOGICAL RULES regarding the exercise of the profession of psychologist with the right of free practice, the establishment, organization and functioning of the College of Psychologists of Romania
3. CODE OF DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURE (OF PSYCHOLOGISTS) - www.copsi.ro
4. CODE OF ETHICS OF THE PROFESSION OF PSYCHOLOGIST WITH THE RIGHT OF FREE PRACTICE - - www.copsi.ro
5. Regulation on the authorization of natural persons and legal entities to provide psychological services in the field of labor protection, dated / 22/10/2004 (Published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 1036 of 09/11/2004).
Published in:
ASYMETRIA. Magazine of culture, criticism and imagination. Paris
http://www.asymetria.org/data/simionsergiupostpitesti.html
AGERO- Stuttgart (Germany)
NEW YORK MAGAZINE, Year 9, No. 455,Year 9, No. 455, February 1, 2006
http://www.nymagazin.com/arhiva/html/453_comunitare_12.html
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