Paying attention to each other. An essay on the transnational intersections of industrial economy, subjectivity, and governance in East Germany's social‐psychological training

Abstract

This article examines a little‐known chapter both in the history of socialist labor relations and the history of psychology: Social Psychological Training (SPT) for industrial leaders in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Based on previously untapped archival sources, it uncovers the transnational genesis of SPT and its intricate relationships with Western “therapeutic culture” of the 1970s. Governmental perspectives are addressed, as well as the level of individual appropriation of SPT and possible unintended side effects of techniques that were drawn from the social psychological and therapeutical fields. This case study helps to explore the functions of psychological expertise in authoritarian political contexts, as well as the polyvalence of group methods of change, the effects of which could turn out repressive as well as liberating on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The history of SPT solicits a polycentric view on therapeutic culture, capturing its diverse manifestations and interconnections between different societies and political economies.

Revival of psychology in central and eastern Europe after the fall of communist regimes

“…We aimed to initiate an analysis of the periods of transition from the ideological control of science to democratization and to present milestones of this change. Recent research of great value, such as that of Savelli and Marks (2015) on the specific development of psychotherapy in Central and Eastern European countries, Antić (2022) on non‐aligned psychiatry during the Cold War, or Lehmbrock's (2022) analysis on organizational culture, have successfully explored the impact in the period up to the fall of the Iron Curtain. Our objective is to understand the long‐term impact that a particular way of organizing science, in this case under totalitarian control, has on scientific practice.…”