Psychology in the GDR

The term psychology in the GDR (also: GDR psychology ) deals with the institutional development of psychology and its establishment as a science and in professional practice in the GDR. Mostly it is shown that the uniform and specific "GDR psychology" did not exist, that different currents and schools existed with different and sometimes strong involvement in international developments (e.g. schools of Friedhart Klix or Winfried Hacker ). Experimental, scientifically oriented basic psychology (e.g. Friedhart Klix at the Institute of the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Fundamentals of Cybernetics department at the Central Institute for Cybernetics and Information Processes (ZKI) of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR ) were represented as well as psychological methodology ( Lothar Sprung ), Psychological diagnostics ( Jürgen Guthke , Uwe Schaarschmidt ), industrial and engineering psychology ( Werner Straub , Winfried Hacker), clinical psychology ( Johannes Helm , Hans-Dieter Rösler ), medical psychology ( Hans Szewczyk ), developmental psychology ( Hans-Dieter Schmidt ) or more socially oriented psychology (social psychologist, personality psychologist, educational psychology mainly in Leipzig and Jena and at the Academy of Educational Sciences of the GDR (APW) Berlin; Hans Hiebsch, Manfred Vorwerg, Adolf Kossakowski, Joachim Lompscher).

Training as a qualified psychologist was possible at the universities of Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden and Jena. In fact, there was a numerus clausus and a selection was made according to technical and political criteria.

The political abuse of psychology and psychiatry, adaptation and resistance are objects of coming to terms with the GDR past .

Institutional development

In 1954, a good thirty clinical psychologists formed the working group of psychologists in the health system in the GDR . From 1960 the interests were represented by the establishment of scientific societies:

• 1960: Society for Medical Psychotherapy of the GDR
• 1962: Society for Psychology of the GDR

You were in contact with the Medical Psychology Section of the Society for Psychiatry and Neurology of the GDR (1949) and the Scientific Council for Psychology of the GDR (1977). Through the Society for Medical Psychotherapy of the GDR and the Society for Psychology of the GDR, as well as the direct study course for clinical psychology (from 1963), training opportunities for certain forms of psychotherapy were created in the GDR, which made it possible for psychologists to be admitted at the end of the 1960s. The first occupational field that dominated until the end of the GDR was the mental hospital, followed by internal medicine, pediatrics and neurosurgery . With the expansion of the health care system and an increasing number of graduates, rehabilitation clinics, geriatric facilities, counseling for alcoholics as well as educational, marriage and sexual counseling were added over time. As with the other doctors, there were no vacant branches. The number of clinical psychologists rose continuously until 1990. Nevertheless, the increasing demand could not be met. In contrast to the doctors, the clinical psychologists initially lacked statutory rights and obligations. In 1981, analogous to the specialist training in medicine, the certificate "Specialist Psychologist in Medicine" was introduced, which was organized as a 4- to 5-year advanced training course by the Academy for Advanced Medical Training. According to a decree of the last health minister of the GDR, this authorized him "to independently manage departments in inpatient or outpatient health facilities in his field or to work as a freelancer". The legal status of clinical psychologists in the health system in the GDR was thus better secured than in the Federal Republic of Germany at the time. Specialist psychologies in psychology were later recognized as licensed psychotherapists in Germany as a whole, in fact, without intensive new further training.

See also

• Operative Psychology

literature

• 100 years of the Institute for Psychology at the Humboldt University Berlin Berlin HU Berlin 2000.
• Heinz-Elmar Tenorth: History of the University of Unter den Linden 1810-2010: Practice of their disciplines. Volume 6: Self-Assertion of a Vision Sven Ebisch, Mitchell G. Ash: Psychology at the Humboldt University. de Gruyter 2010
• Wolfgang Schönpflug, Gerd Lüer: Psychology in the German Democratic Republic: Science between ideology and pragmatism. Springer 2011
• Helmut Lück, Harald Grünwald, Ulfried Geuter, Rudolf Miller, Wolfgang Rechtien: Social history of psychology. Springer 2013
• Klaus Behnke , Jürgen Fuchs (ed.): Decomposition of the soul. Psychology and psychiatry in the service of the Stasi. 3. Edition. European Publishing House, Hamburg, Leipzig 2010. ( Review )
• Sonja Suess: Politically Abused? Psychiatry and State Security in the GDR, Berlin 1998.
• Norbert Kapferer : The psychology of the GDR in the field of tension between political functionalization and scientific emancipation. In: Ralf Rytlewski (Ed.): Politics and Society in Socialist Countries, Opladen 1989 pp. 77–98. ( Brief description )

Web links

• Rosemarie Stein: GDR psychotherapy: adaptation, resistance and the Stasi - Freud was banned until the end

Individual evidence

1. ↑ jump Lothar and Helga: The development of psychology ... in: The Humboldt University Unter den Linden 1945-1990, ed. by W. Girnus and Klaus Meier
2. ↑ Schönpflug, W., Lüer, G 2011: Psychology in the GDR: Science between ideology and pragmatism.
3. ↑ Klix era (1962-1990) at Humboldt University
4. ↑ Hans Hiebsch at www.bundesstiftung-aufverarbeitung.de
5. ^ Manfred Vorwerg on bundesstiftung-aufverarbeitung.de
6. ↑ Adolf Kossakowski on bundesstiftung-aufverarbeitung.de
7. ↑ Hartmut Giest: Memories for the future - educational psychology in the GDR : proceedings of the symposium in memory of Joachim Lompscher on August 31, 2005 in Berlin Lehmanns Media 2006
8. ↑ Stefan Busse: Was there a GDR psychology?
9. ↑ On the history of clinical psychology in the GDR 1 Hans-Dieter Rösler (Manuscript Report Psychologie long version 2011)
10. ↑ On the history of clinical psychology in the GDR , Report Psychologie 2011 on report-psychologie.de