Institute of Psychology (Szeged) - The Decades Following World War II

The Decades Following World War II

Following the retirement of Cecil Bognár, the Institute of Psychology was incorporated into the Institute of Education and Psychology, in academic year of 1950-1951, led by the university's former Privatdocent, Béla Tettamanti (1884–1959). He was famously well-educated, his personality and intellect manifested itself even across the compulsory curtain of political ideology. In the 1960s his fame spread along the student grapevine: there is an excellent teacher at the Institute of Education and Psychology, Béla Tettamanti. Even then it was possible to relay worthwhile ideas towards to audience under the guise of Education History.

It is important to note that the role of Psychology was reduced in the 1950s, mainly due to political reasons. It was taught at a rate of merely two lectures per week, and only the study of General Psychology was allowed. This rather unfavorable, repressed position was brought about by the influence of high Party echelons, who were infamous for their malevolence towards Psychology.

Psychology, together with Sociology, was claimed to be seditionary and counter-ideological, and was generally thought of as a media of bourgeois ideology. Thus, under the leadership of Béla Tettamanti, the only possible approach for the Institute was to mimic the Soviet example, and teach in accordance with the ideology prescribed by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.

In 1959, Béla Tettamanti was replaced by the new director of the Institute of Education and Psychology, György Ágoston. Ágoston represented the Marxist pedagogy, and almost completely repressed Psychology; for all practical purposes, Psychology was only present in the name of the institute. György Ágoston directed the Institute of Education and Psychology from 1959 to 1970; and afterwards the Department of Education between 1970 and 1. January 1990.