Remaking history and remaking psychology: On the contributions of Janusz Reykowski and Janusz Grzelak to the Polish Round Table negotiations

Stephen Reicher

doi:10.32872/spb.v14i4.2631

Abstract

In this introductory piece to the special issue, I seek to establish the importance of the topic under discussion: that is, the psychology of the 1989 Polish Round Table Talks. I start by underlining the unique opportunity to gain insight into this topic given that two of the main protagonists, Janusz Reykowski on the Government side and Janusz Grzelak on the Solidarity side, are social psychologists. Next, I argue for both the world-historical significance of the Round Table Talks and for the necessity of a psychological dimension to the analysis of what happened. I then address what Psychology provides for an understanding of the Round Table process and what the Round Table process contributes to an understanding of Psychology. Specifically, this turns on the need for a more complex and historical conceptualisation of intergroup relations in which the very nature of the groups in relation may be transformed. I conclude by pointing to further research opportunities on this key question of the configuration and reconfiguration of social groups.

Highlights

In this introductory piece to the special issue, I seek to establish the importance of the topic under discussion: that is, the psychology of the 1989 Polish Round Table Talks
I address what Psychology provides for an understanding of the Round Table process and what the Round Table process contributes to an understanding of Psychology
When – at a special session of the Annual Conference of the International Society for Political Psychology in Warsaw, July 2016 – I listened to Janusz Grezlak (JG) and Janusz Rekowski (JR) discussing the Polish Round Table (RT), I knew that this was something truly special that needed to be preserved

Summary

The Round Table Process

The process began in 1988 when, following a wave of wildcat (illegal) strikes, General Jaruzelski offered negotiations to Solidarity This led to a number of discussions between Goverment figures and Solidarity (Lech Walesa in particular) and the terms and condi‐ tions of the talks. When talks began on 6th of February 1989, what was on offer to Solidarity were open elections for 35% of the seats in Parliament (the Sejm) with the other 65% reserved for the Party and its allies. Even this came with the introduction of a strong Presidency which could veto legislation, dissolve the Sejm and which retained control over national security and international relations. This was perhaps the most important invention of the twentieth century, the century of totalitarian dictatorships, the century of Auschwitz and the Holocaust, the century of Stalinism, Katyń, and the gulag” (as cited in Kennedy & Porter, 2000, p. 49)

The Significance of the RT

Putting Psychology in its Place

Rethinking the Paradigm of Intergroup Relations

Findings

Conclusion