Oficializarea reprezentării private a propriei vieți Making Own's Life Private Representation Official Section Miscelanea

Abstract

This article discusses from a social psychology perspective the personele file, a form of surveillance and control that has existed throuought the entire communist period in Romania. The archival material used deals with the 1950-1965 period. The working hypothesis is that such an empirical material may offer interesting suggestions about the ways in which individuals had to reinvent their self, due to the pres¬sures of the moment. In order to decribe these transformations, two empirical materials have been compared: on the one hand memories, informal interviews and autobiographies; on the other hand official autobiographies and answers demanded by the human resources departments. The comparison suggests contractions and expan¬sions of time, the avoidance of the delicate issues (voluntary social amnesia), as well as a different logic of confession. The study emphasizes the advantages and the dissadvantages of the personelle file as a social document. Finally the process of officialization of personal representation of private life is described.