Shaping the ‘Socialist Self‘? The Role of Psy-Sciences in Communist States of the Eastern Bloc (1948–1989)

International Workshop

Venue: Prague. Online.
Date: November 6, 2020
Organizer: Jakub Střelec (FSV UK/CEFRES)
Partner institutions: CEFRES, Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Collegium Carolinum – Research Institute for the History of the Czech Lands and Slovakia

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This workshop aims to bring together researchers dealing with the history of psy-sciences in communist Europe. The main aim is to (1) discuss contemporary approaches, topics and themes in current research about the role of psy-sciences in the communist states of the Eastern Bloc and to (2) outline possible questions and issues relevant for future research in this field.

Read the call for contributions.

Program:

9.00     Conference Opening

Producing Psy-expertise in the Eastern Bloc

Chair: Martin Schulze Wessel (Collegium Carolinum)

9:30     Ana Antic (University of Copenhagen)
Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Beyond the Hospital in Socialist Yugoslavia

9:50     Melinda Kovai (Eötvös Lorand University)
From a Movement to the Privatization of Psychotherapy – Group Psychotherapy in Hungary in the 1970s and 1980s

10:10     Sarah Marks (Birkbeck, University of London)
From Pavlov’s Dogs to Cybernetic Tortoises: The Psy-Professions and the New Science of Cybernetics in Communist Czechoslovakia

10.30 – 11.15     Discussion

11.15 – 11.30     Break

 

Defining (Ab)normality

Chair: Adéla Gjuričová (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences)

11:30     Cristiane Brenner (Collegium Carolinum)
Judging the Anti-Socialist Element: The Role of Psychiatric Experts in Trials Against “Parasitic Women” in Socialist Czechoslovakia

11:50     Kate Davison (University of Melbourne)
From Prague to Sydney: Rethinking Psychiatry, Sexology and ‘Sexpertise’ in the Cold War

12:10     Jakub Střelec (Charles University in Prague)
Psychopaths as ‘New Danger‘ to the Socialist Society. Forensic Psychiatry, Criminology and Crime in Communist Czechoslovakia in the 1960s

12:30 – 13:15     Discussion

13:15 – 14:15     Lunch break

 

Shaping the ‚Socialist Self’

Chair: Jérôme Heurtaux (CEFRES)

14:15     Verena Lehmbrock (Erfurt University)
Psychological Leadership Training in East Germany – A Transnational Technology of the Self?

14:35     Frank Henschel (Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel)
Bowlby vs KPČ: Knowledge Transfer, Psychology and the System of State Childcare in Socialist Czechoslovakia

14:55     Lisa Dittrich (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Partnership and the Socialist Personality: Marital Coping Strategies in the GDR between Empowerment and Subjection

15:15 – 16:00     Discussion

16:00 – 16:30     Closing remarks