Social psychological leadership training in East Germany as a transnational technology of the self, 1960s–1990s

• Applicant: Dr. Verena Lehmbrock
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 456325095

Western social psychology during World War II and the post-war period has been characterized as a science of democracy, its diverse applications from group psychotherapy to management training functioning as Foucauldian ‘technologies of the self’ that foster self-regulation and competent selfhood of free citizens which became crucial for liberal democracies. A little-known chapter in this story is the application of similar psycho-technologies in East Germany from the late 1960s onward. Among other sources, GDR social psychologists absorbed Western group dynamics and humanistic approaches to psychology and psychotherapy – largely in a discreet or surreptitious manner – and developed a social psychological training scheme for socialist leaders in the party, administration, in education, and in industry. The training aimed at transforming styles of communication and leadership, in order to improve overall human cooperation and ultimately productivity. Importantly, this involved practices which payed particular attention to the individual, its perspective, and feelings. Based on so far untapped archival sources and interviews, this project tackles questions relating to the role of technocracy and psychological expertise in the service of socialist governments as well as questions relating to the subjective level and possible un-intended side effects of techniques drawn from the field of humanistic psychology and psychotherapy. Can socialist leadership training be regarded as a technology of the self? In which ways became practices that were associated with liberal democratic assumptions in the West introduced in a collectivist society, party dictatorship, and planned economy? What happened to the corresponding psycho-technologies when they crossed the 'Iron Curtain' and how do we explain their adaptivity? And finally, how do we account for the fact that many GDR-trainers survived the system transition after 1989/90 by continuing to successfully offer the social psychological training, originally an academic endeavor, now on the free market?

• DFG Programme: Research Grants