Nicolae Mărgineanu (psychologist)

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Nicolae Mărgineanu
Born(1905-06-22)June 22, 1905
Obreja, Alsó-Fehér County, Austria-Hungary
DiedJune 13, 1980(1980-06-13) (aged 74)
Cluj-Napoca, Socialist Republic of Romania
Alma materUniversity of Cluj
ChildrenDana Țăranu Mărgineanu
Nicolae Mărgineanu
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology
InstitutionsUniversity of Cluj
Thesis (1929)
Websitemargineanu.ro

Nicolae Mărgineanu (1905–1980) was a Romanian psychologist. In his publications, he incorporated concepts from philosophy, literature, science and logic. A key work, Psihologia persoanei (1940), focuses on the uniqueness of the individual and his development.[1]

He was born on June 22, 1905 in Obreja, Alsó-Fehér County (now in Alba County), in the Transylvania region of Austria-Hungary.[2] Mărgineanu attended high school in nearby Blaj and in Orăștie. He graduated from the psychology faculty of the University of Cluj in 1927, followed by a doctorate in 1929. In 1931 he became a docent of psychology. He attended training in Leipzig, Berlin, and Hamburg (1929), at the Sorbonne (1935) and in London (1935). He obtained a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship (the first Romanian to hold such a fellowship[3]), which allowed him to conduct research at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Chicago, and Duke Universities (1932–1934). He was instructor (1926–1928), teaching assistant (1928–1936), head of research at the Cluj Psychology Institute (1936–1938), and associate professor (1938–1947). From 1938 to 1942, he was substitute professor of psychology and director of the institute. In 1941–1943 he headed the psycho-technical laboratory in Cluj, under temporary Hungarian administration.[1]

Mărgineanu (standing, to the right), with Alexandru Roșca, Salvator Cupcea, Lucian Bologa, Liviu Rusu [ro], Teodor Bugnariu [ro] and various others, at the Psychology Institute, in or around 1928

Towards the end of

communist regime. Mărgineanu served sixteen years (1948–1964), being incarcerated at the notorious Văcărești, Jilava, Gherla, Dej, Pitești, and Aiud prisons.[2][4]
In December 1951, together with Mircea Vulcănescu (who was detained with him at Aiud), he planned a mass escape of the prisoners, so that, once they were free, they would contact the anti-communist resistance in the mountains. However, not all the detainees agreed, and in the end only three of them (aviators Tudor Greceanu [ro] and Gheorghe Spulbatu [ro], and journalist Valeriu Șirianu) managed to escape.[5] After being liberated in 1964, he returned to work, but was not fully rehabilitated. From 1969 to 1971, he was a researcher at the Institute of Pedagogical Sciences. Until his death, Mărgineanu was a substitute professor of psychology at what was now Babeș-Bolyai University. He was an invited professor at the Universities of Bonn (1971) and Hamburg (1972), and again a Rockefeller invitee in the United States (1979–1980).[1] While in the US, he was diagnosed with cancer; he returned home and died in Cluj-Napoca on June 13, 1980.[6][2]

He had two children: a daughter, Oana,[7] and a son, also called Nicolae Mărgineanu, who is a film director.[8] In 2012, he was posthumously elected a member of the Romanian Academy.[9] A street in Cluj-Napoca is named after him.[10]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c (in Romanian) Ionuț Tudor, Mărgineanu, Nicolae in Enciclopedia online a filosofiei din România
  2. ^ a b c d "Nicolae Mărgineanu". www.memorialsighet.ro (in Romanian). Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1-58046-579-3
    .
  4. ^ "Nicolae Mărgineanu". www.pitestiprison.org (in Romanian). Pitești Prison Memorial. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  5. ^ Iancu, Mariana (December 8, 2018). "Poveștile extraordinare ale evadaților din teroarea închisorilor comuniste române". Adevărul (in Romanian). Retrieved April 25, 2024.
  6. OCLC 54390035
    . Retrieved April 20, 2024.
  7. ^ "Copilăria ca luptă de clasă: Dana Țăranu Mărgineanu și Nicolae Mărgineanu". www.memorialsighet.ro (in Romanian). Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  8. ^ Laurențiu Ungureanu, "Mărturiile regizorului Nicolae Mărgineanu, despre tatăl său, marele psiholog închis de comuniști", Historia, March 16, 2013
  9. ^ (in Romanian) Posthumous members of the Romanian Academy at the Romanian Academy site
  10. ^ "Strada Prof. Nicolae Mărgineanu". orasul.biz.
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