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Salvator P. Cupcea (also known asSalvador Cupcea; August 8, 1908 – 1958) was aRomanian psychologist, physician, and political figure. From beginnings as a researcher for theVictor Babeș University of Cluj, alongside his friendAlexandru Roșca, he became noted as a pioneer ofexperimental psychology andpsychoanalysis, studying in particular the social marginals. He later immersed himself in thesocial hygiene andeugenics movement, also specializing ingenetic medicine,biological anthropology, andcriminology. A collaborator ofIuliu Moldovan, he taught classes at the latter's Institute for much of World War II, when he focused on studying the intelligence of various body types.
During those years, Cupcea flirted withfascism, and endorsed abiopolitical "national hygiene" program. In 1944, he reemerged as a supporter of theRomanian Communist Party andliberal eugenics, serving asHealth Minister and representative to theWorld Health Organization. A founder of theCluj Medical University and administrator of its Psychiatric Clinic, his final work was inhuman ecology,food science, andcardiology.
Salvator was born inCarei (Nagykároly),[1]Szatmár County, at the time part ofAustria-Hungary. His was a family of importance in theRomanian Eastern Catholic community ofCrișana region. His father, Petru Cupcea (1875–1940), was a priest, later theProtopope ofSupur and honoraryArchdeacon, who was active in theRomanian National Party from 1909. Although ethnically Romanian, his paternal and maternal ancestors, the Cupceas and the Rednics, had been received into theHungarian nobility ofPartium, tracing their aristocratic titles to 1609 and 1349 respectively.[2] Petru's wife, Augusta, was the distant descendant of peasants fromTiream, and daughter of George Pteancu.[3] A Romanian educator and honorary citizen of Carei,[1] Pteancu was also leader of theMarian Congregation branch inNăsăud.[4] Augusta's brother, Alexandru Coriolan Pteancu (1878–1956), was a theologian, antiquarian, schoolteacher, political figure, and honoraryProtopope.[5]
The couple, who moved frequently in keeping up with Father Cupcea's successive assignments, had six children born in various localities, of whom Salvator and three sisters reached maturity.[6] The eldest, Maria (1903–1980), was an educator, composer, and celebrated stage and film actress. She was for a while married one of Salvator's physician colleagues, Victor Munteanu, and had a son by him,Dan Munteanu, who became a noted biologist.[7] Another sister, Lucia, became the wife of Leontin Ghergariu (1897–1980), a philologist, adult educator, museum curator and sports enthusiast.[8] The youngest of the Cupcea siblings, Emilia, taught at the Biological Institute ofCluj.[9]
Cupcea's early childhood saw the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and the region'sincorporation with Romania. Directly involved in the process, Alexandru Pteancu was appointed chief inspector of secondary schools by the Romanian-ledRegional Directorate.[10] There followed an interlude ofHungarian Soviet rule, during which Inspector Pteancu narrowly escaped execution.[11] Father Cupcea, who had pledged Carei's support for theGreat Assembly, was also targeted, being kidnapped and sent toDebrecen, where he was reportedly tortured.[12] Rescued by his coreligionists, he made his way toOradea, which fell to the Romanians in themilitary operations of 1919.[13]
In 1925, when Crișana had been secured forGreater Romania, Salvator graduated from Carei's Lucaciu High School,[1] where he had become best friends with his schoolmate,Alexandru Roșca.[14] They both had a keen interest in psychology, and were urged on by their schoolteachers to pursue studies in the field.[15] Enlisting at the University of Cluj (known back then as "Upper Dacia University"), they attended the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, specializing under ProfessorFlorian Ștefănescu-Goangă at the Cluj Institute of Psychology. Together, they worked on Ștefănescu-Goangă'sapplied psychology teams, alongside various other young men who became figures of importance on the scientific, political, and literary scene:Nicolae Mărgineanu,Mihai Beniuc,Liviu Rusu,Lucian Bologa, andTeodor Bugnariu.[15]
Taking a degree in Psychology, Pedagogy and Aesthetics (February 1931),[16] Cupcea also attended the Faculty of Medicine, where he earned a diploma in psychiatry, after which he took a position on the staff of the Mental Hospital inSibiu.[15] In early 1935, he was among the founders of the Romanian Psychoanalytic Circle and an editor of its magazine,Revista Română de Psihanaliză, with which he sought to promote a more complete understanding ofSigmund Freud and his work.[17] Together with fellow Freudians Ioan I. Popescu-Sibiu, G. Preda, and Anastase Dosios, he worked onCercetări de psihologie experimentală la alienați ("Studies in Experimental Psychology among the Insane").[18]
In 1938, Cupcea became a contributor to Ștefănescu-Goangă's academic journal,Revista de Psihologie, where he wrote an introduction topsychological evaluation techniques.[19] Also that year, together with Ștefănescu-Goangă and Roșca, he published a study onAdaptarea socială ("Social Adaptation"), which looked into the social careers of misfits: 3,300 criminals, 9,636 victims of suicide, and 434 mental patients. The authors found thatmaladaptation was critical among women andSzékelys, that most homicides occurred inOltenia,southern Moldavia andCiuc, and that most suicides were reported inTransylvania.[20] With Mihai Kernbach and Vasile Hurghișiu, he co-authored other work inmedical jurisprudence, presenting his findings at the 21 Congress of Legal Medicine, inBonn.[21] Cupcea ultimately became aDoctor of Medicine in March 1939.[16]
While Bugnariu affiliated with the undergroundRomanian Communist Party (PCdR), Cupcea and Roșca were drawn into fascist politics. As noted by authorNicolae Balotă, who was also an employee of the Psychology Institute, they "contributed discreetly (and, what is more, prudently)" to theIron Guard.[22] Cupcea's father, meanwhile, was a leader of the mainstreamNational Peasants' Party inSălaj County and a figure of importance in local democratic circles, especially active in the propaganda effort againstHungarian irredentism.[23]
In 1940, at the height of World War II,Northern Transylvania, including Cluj, was ceded by Romania toHungary following theSecond Vienna Award. The entire university and its logistics moved to Sibiu. Cupcea remained in contact with his colleagues, publishing inRevista de Psihologie: in 1941,Constituția morfologică la bolnavii mintal ("The Morphological Built of the Mentally Ill"); in 1944,Încercarea unui sistem de psihopatologie constituțională evolutiv ("Sketching a System of Progressive Bodily Psychopathology").[24] He based these studies on theimpact of health on intelligence, and the theories ofErnst Kretschmer, by examining the body types of university students, industrial workers and mental patients in relation to theirintelligence quotient and state of mind, describing various correlations.[25] A disciple of physician and eugenicistIuliu Moldovan, he frequentedASTRA Society and published in its paper the 1941 tractCe este Eugenia ("What Eugenics Is"). It discussed "the improvement of the genetic dowry" through both positive and negative measures.[26] Quoting Moldovan andFrancis Galton, Cupcea tried to delimit his field of interest fromNazi racial science (too radical) andeuthenics (too mild), preferring Moldovan's term "hygiene of the nation".[27] At the time, he expressed himself as a supporter of strictbiological determinism, and demanded the universal introduction of prenuptial examinations to filter out thedysgenics.[28]
Cupcea later became editor ofRevista de Psihologie, also serving on the staffs ofMedicina Românească review and the Romanian Psychiatric Society.[16] Described by his friends as a "gentleman of imposing stature" and a fine public speaker,[15] he was attracted into teaching. From 1942, he hosted a seminar of "mental hygiene" andmedical genetics, under Moldovan's guidance.[29] In 1943, the university assigned him a lecturer's position in his alma mater, the Faculty of Medicine, where his oratorical skill drew in crowds.[1] Cupcea also affiliated with Moldovan's Institute of Hygiene andBiopolitics, as a researcher,[1] and, taking a diploma in Public Health and Hygiene in 1944, as a section leader.[16] His studies merged psychiatry andcriminology, investigating the role ofemotional instability disorder as a gateway to other psychiatric conditions in the general population, and its supposed presence as "impulsiveness" among the criminal population.[30]
In August 1944,King Michael's Coup aligned Romania with theAllies, while also ushering in aSoviet occupation. Discarding fascism, Cupcea and Roșca sought a rapprochement with the PCdR, passing themselves off as committed communists.[22] ASTRA published Cupcea's introduction toBiologia teoretică şi aplicată în U.R.S.S. ("Theoretical and Applied Biology in the USSR"), which was a condemnation ofscientific racism andsocial Darwinism, as well as a tentative defense ofnon-racial eugenics. The article announced that the era of eugenics as a separate discipline was coming to an end, as eugenics had infused the work values of Soviet biologists, especially those at the Maxim Gorky Medico-Biological Research Institute.[31] In one of his eugenic tracts for that year, he circulated the notion that genes "do not produce characteristics per se, but rather provide certain evolutionary guidelines", which suggested to his readers that pedagogy had a major role in cultivating innate qualities.[32]
In 1945, Cupcea joined theHealth Ministry staff as a general secretary,[1][33] underPremierPetru Groza and MinisterDumitru Bagdasar. On April 11, 1946, preparing for his retirement, Bagdasar delegated to Cupcea "all the rights that come with the office of minister [...], excepting those that are strictly reserved for the minister as head of his department and cannot therefore be delegated."[34] Following Bagdasar's resignation and death, Cupcea effectively became the acting minister.[35]
In August 1946, he spoke at the national conference on people's health, where he presented a report on the dire conditions facing "today's democratic government": "One millionsyphilitics, one and a half milliongonorrhea victims, 600,000tuberculosis victims, an 18 per centinfant mortality—that is the legacy of our past, the legacy of historical regimes".[36] In parallel, Cupcea was assigned the Chair of Mental Hygiene and Medical Genetics at the Cluj Hygiene Institute in September.[37] On May 9, 1947, he was created a Commander of theStar of Romania.[38]
Later that year, he resigned from his political posts[1] and became manager of the Cluj University Psychiatric Clinic, taking over fromIuliu Hațieganu, who had been purged by the communists.[39] In 1948, when, with his help, the Faculty of medicine became aMedical University, he was made a full professor of hygiene, and soon after served as Dean.[1] In parallel, he worked on a regional medical task-force formed by theRomanian Academy, while presiding over the Hygiene Institute, the Cluj clinics, and the local Medical Society.[1] In 1948, he was one of three Romanian representatives to the founding congress of theWorld Health Organization, where he proposed the creation of a Mental Hygiene Committee and concrete backing for national research programs.[40] For a while, he also headed a Cluj section of the Romanian–Soviet Institute.[41] During those years, with Ștefănescu-Goangă and Roșca, he became involved in a cabal against their former colleague Mărgineanu, whom they denounced to theSecuritate.[42]
With Leon Daniello, Leon Prodan, and 11 other researchers, he contributed the monographSilicoza și silicotuberculoza ("Silicosis and Silicotuberculosis"), which earned him the State Prize for 1952. He also worked alongsideAurel Moga in investigatingcardiovascular disease, making significant predictions about the contributing role ofcholesterol intake, and exploring connections betweenhuman ecology andbiological anthropology.[1][14] Later, Cupcea pioneered the study ofionization as an air pollution indicator.[43] He died suddenly in 1958,[14] at Cluj.[9]