Abstract
This article explores some notable uses of psychological language in the Securitate archives. We examine Securitate files concerning Constantin Vaman, a suspected legionary subjected to surveillance work by the Securitate. This article seeks to show how Securitate activities, particularly the writing of informer notes and operatives’ reports, are the upshot of strategic use of morally implicative psychological language. Constantin Vaman’s Securitate files are used to explore two categories of psychological language: the language of mental states and the language of disposition and motive. We show that Securitate’s writing of informer notes and operatives’ reports were dependent on the strategic use of morally implicative psychological descriptions. We argue that close attention to the many facets of psychological language used in Securitate documents discussed in this article may enable researchers to understand more fully the complex nature and inner workings of surveillance work.
Highlights
This article charts the evolution of Constantin Vaman’s psychological portrait and moral career, as narrated in Securitate files produced during his arrest in 1948, owing to ties to the Legionary movement, and following his release from prison, in the 1960s, and from the period when he was placed under surveillance for suspected adherence to legionary ideology.[1]
The information note by Puiu Cornel describes Vaman, again, as a meek soul—the psychological language of disposition is again on record. In these notes on Vaman, and more generally on other people subjected to intensive surveillance work, psychological language is rhetorically mobilized in the service of organizational processes of classification/reclassification, ordering/reordering of material about people
We explored the part played by psychological language in informer notes and other key documents of the Securitate concerning Vaman
Summary
East European Politics and Societies and Cultures Volume XX Number X Month 201X 1–18. This article explores some notable uses of psychological language in the Securitate archives. We examine Securitate files concerning Constantin Vaman, a suspected legionary subjected to surveillance work by the Securitate. This article seeks to show how Securitate activities, the writing of informer notes and operatives’ reports, are the upshot of strategic use of morally implicative psychological language. Constantin Vaman’s Securitate files are used to explore two categories of psychological language: the language of mental states and the language of disposition and motive. We show that Securitate’s writing of informer notes and operatives’ reports were dependent on the strategic use of morally implicative psychological descriptions. We argue that close attention to the many facets of psychological language used in Securitate documents discussed in this article may enable researchers to understand more fully the complex nature and inner workings of surveillance work
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