JÁNOS LÁSZLÓ & CSABA PLÉH

János László (born 1948) received his PhD from Eötvös Lóránd University,
Budapest, in 1974. A specialist in social psychology, he is the author of two
books: Dráma és elóadás (Drama and performance)and Beszed a szavak
mogott (Nonverbal communication), the latter with Bela Buda. Other publica-
tions have focused on cognitive and social psychological approaches to behavior.
A recipient of the Youth Award of the Hungarian Academy of Science and an
associate editor of Pszichologia (Psychology)since 1981, László is head of the
Research Group in Cognitive Social Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of
Science.

Csaba Pléh (born 1945) received his PhD from Eötvös University in 1970. His
books include A psyzicholingvisztika horizontga (A psycholinguistic over-
view)and A történetszerkezet és az emlékezeti sémák (A history of patterns
of the mind). He has also published, in English, research on the development of
sentence interpretation in Hungarian. A section editor of Magyar Pszichológiai
Szemle (Journal of Hungarian psychology), Pléh is head and associate professor
of psychology in the Department of General Psychology at Eötvös University in
Budapest.

Psychology in Hungary has a long tradition both as a scientific
enterprise and as a profession, although it has been interrupted several
times. The roots of Hungarian psychology can be found in the progressive
intellectual movement around the turn of the century. Experimental psychol-
ogy started in the laboratory of Paul Ranschburg, who excelled as an experi-
mentalist in the German tradition and as a founder of the child counseling
movement in Hungary. The early involvement of Hungarian psychologists
in the psychoanalytic movement dates from the same period. Between the
two wars, development of psychology was gradual but slow and not well re-
ceived officially. Political and racial discrimination was present that resulted
in the emigration of many psychoanalysts and academics, such as Geza
Révész, who became well known in the Netherlands. After the liberation
in 1945, psychology, as a natural ally of progressive social and educational
movements, flourished for a few years. This intellectually varied and open
period was followed by a politically forced reduction of psychological activi-

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