Journal o/ fhe Hislory of the Behavrorrrl Sciences Volume 28, October 1992 THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA: AN OVERVIEW KSENIJA MARINKOVIC The development of psychology in the country formerly known as Yugoslavia reflects different paths in the three republics of Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia due to their distinct cultural and historical backgrounds. Although Marko MaruliC, a Croatian Renaissance humanist, was credited with the introduction of the term “psychology” in the sixteenth century, psychology as a discipline was not introduced until the late nine- teenth century. The establishment of psychology in academe and experimental work be- tween the two World Wars were initiated by Yugoslavian students who were educated in prestigious laboratories in the West - Austria, England, France, and Germany. Immediately after World War I1 Yugoslavian psychology was influenced by Soviet experiences, but a “westward” shift followed Tito’s breakup with Stalin. In the con- text of a unique nonaligned and nondogmatic form of communism, Yugoslavian psychol- ogy grew rapidly, providing contributions to diverse and primarily applied fields. Yugoslavia, a patchwork-country in the Balkans put together in 1918 survived many difficult times, wars, different occupying forces, and unjust political regimes. However, unable to find a peaceful way out of the post-communist labyrinth of nationalist ideology and territorial appetites, it is undergoing a process of bloody disintegration. The differences among the constituent republics of former Yugoslavia are primarily due to their distinct cultural and historical backgrounds. While the southern part of the coun- try (principally Serbia) was a part of the Ottoman Empire for almost five hundred years, the northern republics (Slovenia and Croatia) were dominated by the Austro-Hungarian and Venetian Empires. The modest but promising development of scientific psychology after WWI was arrested by WWII, and then severely restricted by the subsequent Marxist regime. Under Tito’s liberal form of communism, Yugoslavian psychology has never- theless evolved into a respectable, primarily applied science. Being thus seriously disadvantaged in its development by the restrictive political context for the past fifty years, Yugoslavia did not contribute any major theories or important schools of psychology. In short, Yugoslavian psychology probably epitomizes development of psychology in a number of small developing countries, especially the ones whose political and economic progress has been stalled and largely controlled by a one-party communist system. Due to their distinct cultural and historical backgrounds, the early development of psychology took independent paths in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia which will be described separately and in turn. CROATIA During the Renaissance, Croatian writers and Latinists published numerous essays, tracts, and discourses on psychological topics including, among others, the mid-fifteenth century works of Juraj Dalmatinac’s “De Animae Potentiis,” and Juraj DragiiiC’s “De Animae Regni Principe.”’ A Croatian philosopher, Marko MaruliC (Marcus Marulus, 1450-1542) has been credited with the introduction of the term “psychology”2 about 1517 in his treatise “Psichiologia de Rationae Animae Humanae, lib l.”3 KSENIJA MARINKOVIC is a Ph.D. candidate in psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA. 340