Stigmatization of Mental Self-Regulation under Ideological Governance: Transcendental Meditation and the Politics of Interior Life in Socialist Romania
Mental Health Global Challenges Journal February 18, 2026 Mircea-Adrian Gorunescu, Daniela Dumitru
Mental self-regulation practices like Transcendental Meditation became stigmatized under late socialist Romanian governance because they fostered inward-oriented autonomy that escaped institutional supervision. Archival documents from the Securitate archives show that TM was framed as a foreign ideological influence, and practitioners' reports of calm and improved concentration were recoded as passivity and diminished ideological vigilance. Universities became key sites of surveillance. Mental health language was used to make ideological governance appear scientifically neutral while regulating interior life. The case demonstrates how calm and introspection become illegitimate when they threaten administrative control, contributing to debates on mental health governance and the legitimacy of self-regulation practices.