The rhetoric of ideological transgression: History and psychological language in the archives of the Securitate

This paper presents a discursive and sociocultural approach to the rhetoric of ideological transgression in the archives of the Securitate (the infamous Romanian communist secret police) during the Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (1948–65) and Nicolae Ceaușescu (1965–89) periods. First, we explore Securitate ’s discursive practices of defining and responding to ideological transgression and antagonism. We examine the case of two suspected legionaries (Constantin Vaman and Petru Mureșan) to illustrate how the Securitate chose to catalogue and describe those it considered prototypical ideological antagonists. We look at the language and categories used in Securitate files, surveillance operative reports, and instructional manuals to describe people the communist state deemed ‘enemies of the state.’ The first part of the paper offers a brief historical overview of the Securitate and its role in quelling opposition and dissent. We then highlight the contribution of discursive psychology to the analysis of discursive practices of a professional community in the service of state power as a cultural form of communication. Finally, we show how psychological language is strategically mobilized to define a particular class of ideologically transgressive behavior in Securitate ’s surveillance apparatus.