Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal

https://reference-global.com/journal/MHGCJ

ISSN 2612-2138

Stigmatization of Mental Self-Regulation under

Ideological Governance:

Transcendental Meditation and the Politics of

Interior Life in Socialist Romania

Mircea-Adrian Gorunescu 0009-0004-1145-4208 , Daniela Dumitru 0000-0003-1440-0403

University of Bucharest, Romania

Abstract

Introduction: Mental self-regulation practices are not socially neutral; their legitimacy is shaped

by political, normative, and institutional frameworks that define acceptable forms of interior life.

Under ideological governance, practices oriented toward inner calm and attentional

regulation may become objects of suspicion rather than care.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how mental self-

regulation becomes

stigmatized and pathologized under ideological governance, using the late socialist Romanian

reception of Transcendental Meditation (TM) as a historically grounded case.

Methodology:

The article employs a qualitative historical research design based on archival

document analysis and critical interpretive methods. The empirical material consists of state-

produced documents accessed through the archives of the National Council for the Study of

the Securitate Archives (CNSAS), including informative reports, internal correspondence, and

institutional assessments.

Results: Archival evidence shows that TM was framed as a “foreign ideological influence” and

progressively reclassified through moralizing and medicalized vocabularies. Practitioners’

reports of calm, improved concentration, and emotional balance were recoded as passivity,

instability, and diminished ideological vigilance, while universities emerged as key sites of

surveillance and sanction.

The findings indicate that stigma functioned preventively, marking inward-oriented autonomy as

administratively unmanageable and therefore risky. Mental health language enabled

ideological governance to appear scientifically neutral while regulating interior life.

Conclusion:

The study clarifies how mental health vocabularies can be mobilized for social

control, contributing to debates on mental health governance and the legitimacy of self-

regulation practices in contemporary societies.

The Romanian case demonstrates how calm, introspection, and self-

regulation become

illegitimate when they escape institutional supervision, highlighting the political conditions under

which interior life is governed.

Keywords

Mental Health, Health Policy, Social Questions, Health, Discrimination, Governance, Education,

Communication

Address for correspondence:

Prof. Daniela Dumitru, Doctoral School of Psychology and Educational Sciences,

University of Bucharest, Romania

E-mail: daniela.dumitru@ase.ro

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- 4.0 International

License (CC BY 4.0).

©Copyright: Dumitru, 2026

Publisher: Paradigm (De Gruyter)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56508/mhgcj.v9i1.356

Submitted for

publication: 23

December 2025

Revised: 08 February

2026

Accepted for

publication: 16 February

2026

Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal

https://reference-global.com/journal/MHGCJ

ISSN 2612-2138

Introduction

Mental health does not arise solely from

individual psychological processes; it is

continuously shaped, evaluated, and regulated

within social, cultural, and political contexts that

define which forms of mental life are considered

legitimate. Practices concerned with attention,

emotional balance, and inner stability are

therefore never socially neutral. They are

embedded in normative assumptions about

psychological normality, responsibility,

productivity, and acceptable modes of self-

regulation. As a consequence, the boundaries

between care, control, and moral evaluation

remain fluid, particularly in settings where mental

life becomes an object of institutional scrutiny.

From a critical perspective, mental health can

be approached not only as a clinical domain

concerned with diagnosis and treatment, but

also as a field through which conduct, self-

relation, and norms of normality are actively

produced and governed (Foucault, 1977; Rose,

1999).

Late socialist Romania provides a revealing

historical context for examining these dynamics.

During this period, the regulation of mental life

intersected with broader strategies of ideological

governance, generating a climate in which

certain forms of mental self-regulation were

tolerated only conditionally, while others became

objects of suspicion, surveillance, and

stigmatization. Practices that could not be fully

translated into instrumental or ideologically

sanctioned frameworks were vulnerable to

reclassification as psychologically or socially

problematic, regardless of their experiential or

therapeutic value.

Using the case of Transcendental Meditation

(TM), this article analyzes how mental self-

regulation became stigmatized within the

institutional and ideological landscape of socialist

Romania. Rather than approaching TM primarily

as a spiritual or religious phenomenon, the

analysis treats it as a practice of mental self-

regulation whose social meaning was shaped

through ideological responses and institutional

interventions. By combining conceptual analysis

with qualitative examination of archival

documents, the article explores how inward-

oriented mental practices can become targets

of stigma and pathologization under conditions

of ideological constraint, thereby contributing to

broader debates on mental health governance

and the political regulation of interior life.

Purpose

The purpose of this qualitative study is to

examine how practices of mental self-regulation

become stigmatized and pathologized under

conditions of ideological governance, using the

late socialist Romanian reception of

Transcendental Meditation (TM) as a historically

grounded case. The study focuses on the

institutional reframing of inward-oriented

practices—associated with calm, attentional

regulation, and psychological balance—into

objects of suspicion, psychological risk, and

administrative intervention, despite the absence

of demonstrable harm.

The central phenomenon examined is the

transformation of Transcendental Meditation from

a self-presented technique of mental self-

regulation into a stigmatized and pathologized

practice within official and institutional discourse.

Particular attention is paid to how experiential

claims related to inner calm, concentration, and

emotional stability were reinterpreted as

indicators of passivity, vulnerability, or ideological

unreliability.

Accordingly, the study addresses the following

research questions:

(1) How was Transcendental Meditation

constructed as a deviant or risky practice within

official and institutional discourse in late socialist

Romania?

(2)What stigmatizing and medicalizing

categories were used to transform a practice of

mental self-regulation into an object of

surveillance and sanction?

(3) How did these classifications function as

mechanisms of governance over interior life

within an ideologically constrained system?

By addressing these questions, the study

clarifies the conditions under which mental self-

regulation becomes illegitimate when it escapes

institutional supervision. It contributes to debates

on mental health governance by demonstrating

how stigma and pathologization can operate as

instruments of social control rather than as

responses to psychological dysfunction.

Methodology

This article employs a qualitative historical

research design based on archival document

analysis and critical interpretive methods. The

primary empirical material consists of documents

produced by state and institutional actors in late

socialist Romania, consulted at the archives of

the National Council for the Study of the

Securitate Archives (CNSAS), Bucharest, and

dating primarily from the late 1970s to the early

1980s. These materials include informative

reports, internal correspondence, and institutional

Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal

https://reference-global.com/journal/MHGCJ

ISSN 2612-2138

assessments concerning Transcendental

Meditation and related practices of mental self-

regulation.

The analysis follows a document-centered

approach, treating archival texts not as

transparent reflections of social reality, but as

discursive artifacts shaped by specific institutional

logics, power relations, and normative

assumptions. Documents were examined for

recurring patterns of categorization, evaluative

language, and implicit psychological judgments

through which meditative practices were framed

as ideologically, socially, or psychologically

problematic.

Rather than reconstructing individual

biographies or organizational histories, the study

focuses on how mental self-regulation was

conceptually reclassified within official discourse.

Particular attention was paid to moments where

experiential descriptions of calm, concentration,

or emotional balance were reinterpreted as

indicators of passivity, instability, or ideological

vulnerability. This interpretive strategy allows for the

identification of stigmatization and

pathologization processes as mechanisms of

governance rather than as responses to

demonstrable psychological harm.

To contextualize the archival findings, the

analysis is situated within a broader theoretical

framework drawing on critical mental health

studies, sociology of stigma, and governmentality

scholarship. This combination of archival analysis

and conceptual interpretation enables an

examination of how mental health practices were

evaluated, regulated, and delegitimized under

conditions of ideological constraint.

Ethical considerations

This study is based exclusively on the analysis

of archival documents and publicly accessible

historical materials. It does not involve human

participants, living subjects, or the collection of

personal data through direct interaction. As a

result, ethical approval from an institutional review

board or ethics committee was not required for

the present research. All sources were consulted

and cited in accordance with applicable

archival regulations and academic standards of

research integrity.

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-

Assisted Technologies in the Writing

Process

No generative artificial intelligence tools were

used to create research data, fabricate sources,

or generate substantive scholarly claim.

Results

This section presents the findings of the

archival analysis concerning the institutional

framing and administrative management of

Transcendental Meditation (TM) in late socialist

Romania. Across the examined documents, a

consistent pattern emerges through which

inward-oriented practices of mental self-

regulation were rendered problematic and

governable through stigmatization and

medicalization, despite the absence of

demonstrable psychological harm.

Archival materials indicate that

Transcendental Meditation was not initially treated

as an explicit political threat, but as an

anomalous practice that resisted established

categories of ideological surveillance. Unlike

religious movements or organized dissent, TM

lacked formal organizational structures,

identifiable leadership, or articulated doctrine.

This classificatory indeterminacy generated

institutional concern, as the practice could not

be easily located, monitored, or neutralized

through conventional mechanisms of control. The

perceived risk lay not in hostile intent, but in the

emergence of a mode of mental self-regulation

unfolding primarily at the level of interior

experience and informal interpersonal

transmission. This pattern is consistent with

contemporaneous journalistic and documentary

accounts, which retrospectively describe

Transcendental Meditation as a loosely

organized, informally transmitted practice that

attracted institutional attention precisely because

of its diffuse character and limited ideological

legibility (Jela, Strat, & Albu, 2004).

Early security reports demonstrate that

stigmatization preceded any evidence of

concrete political activity. TM was repeatedly

described as a “foreign ideological influence”

capable of undermining vigilance among

students and intellectuals, despite the absence

of explicit political messaging or coordinated

action. Such language constructed a diffuse

moral threat, implicitly associating inner calm,

introspection, and reduced reactivity with

ideological weakness and susceptibility to

external influence. In this way, stigma operated

pre-emptively, marking particular forms of mental

experience as potentially dangerous rather than

responding to demonstrable deviance (Goffman,

1963; Link & Phelan, 2001).

A recurrent pattern in the archival material is

the systematic reinterpretation of practitioners’

experiential accounts. Reported experiences of

calm, improved concentration, or emotional

balance were recoded as signs of passivity,

disengagement, or diminished ideological

Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal

https://reference-global.com/journal/MHGCJ

ISSN 2612-2138

alertness. Rather than being assessed in relation

to psychological well-being, such states were

evaluated against implicit norms of productivity,

vigilance, and ideological responsiveness. This

interpretive reversal constitutes an early stage of

pathologization, in which inward-oriented self-

regulation itself became a marker of deviance,

even in the absence of diagnosable disorder

(Conrad, 2007).

Educational institutions emerged as focal sites

of surveillance and intervention. Universities were

repeatedly identified as environments in which

psychological autonomy was perceived as a

threat to ideological formation, and students

were described as particularly vulnerable to non-

conforming practices of interiority. Interest in

meditation was framed less as an individual

coping strategy and more as evidence of

pedagogical failure. Archival documents further

show that scrutiny extended to educators and

psychologists who displayed even limited

openness toward meditative practices, indicating

that professional authority was conditional upon

ideological alignment.

The consequences of this surveillance were

tangible. Archival evidence documents

disciplinary measures, exarticulation, and

professional marginalization imposed on

individuals associated with Transcendental

Meditation. These interventions functioned both

as punishment and deterrence, producing a

climate of anticipatory conformity in which

individuals learned to regulate not only their

actions, but also their interests and internal

orientations. Mental self-regulation thus became

a paradoxical demand: discipline and emotional

stability were expected, yet penalized when

cultivated outside sanctioned frameworks (Illouz,

2007).

Medicalized language played a central role in

consolidating this process. Transcendental

Meditation was increasingly framed as a source

of psychological instability, associated with vague

risks such as emotional imbalance or reduced

social usefulness. These claims were not

grounded in clinical diagnosis, but relied on the

symbolic authority of psychological discourse to

redefine deviation as pathology. Medicalization

thus functioned as a technique of governance,

allowing ideological concerns to be reframed as

issues of mental health while preserving the

appearance of scientific neutrality (Conrad,

2007; Horwitz, 2002).

Finally, archival materials reveal a tendency to

inflate the perceived scale and impact of

Transcendental Meditation. Reports frequently

referred to “hundreds of adherents” and warned

of rapid expansion, despite internal

acknowledgments that groups were small,

dispersed, and loosely connected. This numerical

exaggeration constructed an image of collective

danger that legitimized intensified surveillance

and intervention, transforming an otherwise

marginal practice into an administratively urgent

problem (Douglas, 1992).

Taken together, the findings show that inward-

oriented practices of mental self-regulation were

rendered governable by being re-described

through stigmatizing and medicalized

vocabularies. In the absence of demonstrable

psychological harm, Transcendental Meditation

was reframed as a risk to ideological order,

legitimizing surveillance and sanction while

narrowing the boundaries of acceptable interior

life.

Discussion

The findings of this study demonstrate that the

stigmatization of Transcendental Meditation in

socialist Romania did not arise from

demonstrable psychological harm or clinical

concern, but from a structural incompatibility

between inward-oriented mental self-regulation

and the rationalities of ideological governance.

Rather than being evaluated according to criteria

of mental well-being or therapeutic efficacy, the

practice was reframed through moralizing,

medicalized, and security-oriented vocabularies

that rendered interior calm and attentional

withdrawal politically and psychologically

suspect.

The analysis confirms that stigma functioned

pre-emptively, marking Transcendental

Meditation as risky before any evidence of

deviance or dysfunction could be established.

Archival materials show that early stages of

repression relied on discursive associations

between reduced reactivity, introspection, and

sustained attention on the one hand, and

passivity, ideological weakness, or susceptibility to

foreign influence on the other. This finding is

consistent with sociological accounts that

conceptualize stigma as a classificatory

mechanism defining the boundaries of

acceptable subjectivity, rather than as a

response to pathology already identified

(Goffman, 1963; Link & Phelan, 2001). In the

Romanian case, stigma did not follow deviance;

it actively produced it by redefining inward-

oriented practices as normatively incompatible

with ideological expectations.

Pathologization emerged as a central

mechanism through which this stigmatization was

legitimized. Experiential descriptions offered by

practitioners—such as improved concentration,

emotional balance, or psychological calm—

were systematically reinterpreted as indicators of

Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal

https://reference-global.com/journal/MHGCJ

ISSN 2612-2138

instability, maladjustment, or diminished social

usefulness. This transformation illustrates how

medicalized language can be mobilized in the

absence of diagnosis, functioning symbolically to

convert non-normative practices into objects of

expert concern. As Conrad (2007) has argued,

medicalization frequently extends beyond clinical

necessity and operates as a means of social

regulation. In socialist Romania, this process

allowed ideological anxieties to be reframed as

psychological risk, thereby preserving the

appearance of scientific neutrality while

legitimizing coercive intervention. The

marginalization of experiential knowledge

observed here reflects broader dynamics in

mental health governance, whereby lived

experience is subordinated to institutional

expertise (Beresford, 2002).

A key contribution of this study lies in clarifying

the distinction between self-regulation as an

autonomous, inward-oriented practice and self-

regulation as an institutional norm tied to

productivity, vigilance, and ideological

responsiveness. While socialist discourse officially

valorised discipline, emotional control, and self-

mastery, these qualities were acceptable only

when cultivated within sanctioned frameworks

that ensured political alignment. When similar

outcomes—calm, focus, emotional stability—

were achieved through unsupervised practices,

they became grounds for suspicion. This paradox

underscores the selective and conditional nature

of psychological norms under ideological

governance and resonates with analyses showing

how modern regimes of self-regulation

simultaneously promote autonomy while

transforming it into a normative obligation aligned

with performance and engagement (Ehrenberg,

2010).

Strength and Limitations of the Study

Limitations of the Study

Several limitations of this study should be

acknowledged. First, the analysis relies exclusively

on archival documents produced by state and

institutional actors, which reflect the classificatory

frameworks and strategic concerns of authorities

rather than the perspectives of practitioners

themselves. As a result, experiential accounts of

Transcendental Meditation are accessible

primarily through mediated and often distorted

representations.

Second, the historical scope of the study is

confined to late socialist Romania, which

constrains the generalizability of the findings to

other political or cultural contexts. While the

mechanisms identified may resonate with

broader discussions of mental health

governance, their specific configuration is

shaped by the institutional and ideological

conditions of Romanian socialism.

Importantly, the archival corpus analyzed is

itself a product of ideological governance and

therefore tends to reproduce the language of

power more readily than dissent or ambivalence.

The relative coherence of the discursive patterns

identified should thus be understood as a

structural feature of the archival field rather than

as empirical exhaustiveness. The absence of

practitioners’ direct voices should not be read

solely as a methodological limitation, but as an

effect of stigmatization itself, since silencing and

indirect representation formed part of the

mechanisms through which mental self-

regulation was rendered governable.

Finally, the study does not aim to assess the

psychological efficacy or clinical outcomes of

Transcendental Meditation. Its focus lies on

institutional framing and political regulation;

therapeutic effectiveness therefore falls outside

the scope of the present research.

Strengths of the Study

Despite these limitations, the study offers

several important strengths. By combining

archival research with critical mental health

theory, it bridges historical analysis and

contemporary conceptual debates on stigma,

medicalization, and governance. The use of

primary archival sources allows for a detailed

reconstruction of institutional logics and discursive

strategies through which mental self-regulation

was problematized, moving beyond retrospective

or anecdotal accounts.

Moreover, by conceptualizing Transcendental

Meditation as a practice of mental self-regulation

rather than as a religious or spiritual movement,

the study avoids reductive interpretations and

foregrounds the political significance of interiority

itself. This analytical framing enables the article to

contribute not only to Romanian historiography,

but also to interdisciplinary discussions in mental

health studies, sociology, and political theory

Practical and Social value

The findings of this study have relevance

beyond their historical context. They highlight the

need for critical reflection on how mental health

practices are evaluated, legitimized, or

marginalized within institutional frameworks. By

demonstrating how inward-oriented self-

regulation was stigmatized when it escaped

supervision, the Romanian case cautions against

narrowly instrumental approaches to mental

health that privilege productivity, compliance, or

Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal

https://reference-global.com/journal/MHGCJ

ISSN 2612-2138

measurability over subjective well-being and

autonomy.

From the perspective of Global Mental Health,

the study underscores the risks associated with

deploying mental health vocabularies as tools of

normalization and control rather than as

resources for care. It draws attention to the

importance of safeguarding pluralism in mental

health practices and recognizing experiential

and inward-oriented forms of well-being that may

not align neatly with institutional metrics. These

insights are particularly pertinent in contemporary

educational, organizational, and policy contexts,

where mental health discourse increasingly

intersects with governance agendas and where

the boundary between support and regulation

remains fragile.

Conclusions

This article has examined the stigmatization of

mental self-regulation under ideological

governance through the case of Transcendental

Meditation in socialist Romania. Drawing on

archival evidence and critical theoretical

perspectives, the analysis has shown that the

marginalization of TM was not driven by

demonstrable psychological harm, but by its

capacity to cultivate autonomous forms of

interior life that eluded institutional supervision.

Mental health discourse was mobilized as a

regulatory instrument, transforming inward-

oriented calm and attentional withdrawal into

markers of psychological and social risk.

By situating the Romanian case within broader

debates on stigma, medicalization, and

governance, the study demonstrates that stigma

functioned pre-emptively as a mechanism for

defining the boundaries of acceptable

subjectivity. Practices associated with

introspection and emotional balance became

problematic precisely because they disrupted

dominant models of vigilance, productivity, and

ideological responsiveness. What was at stake

was not belief or doctrine, but the possibility of

cultivating inner states resistant to standardized

monitoring and normative assessment.

The findings further highlight the contested

status of interiority in ideologically governed

systems. The repression of Transcendental

Meditation reveals a structural anxiety toward

practices that relocate regulation from external

authority to the individual. In this sense, the

Romanian case illustrates how psychological

autonomy itself can become stigmatized when it

threatens established regimes of governance.

Beyond its historical specificity, the analysis

offers insights relevant to contemporary mental

health frameworks. While overt repression has

largely been replaced by subtler forms of

normalization, the conditional acceptance of

self-regulation persists. Mental health practices

are often legitimized insofar as they enhance

adaptability and performance within existing

institutional arrangements, leaving limited space

for inward-oriented autonomy. Recognizing these

dynamics is essential for developing approaches

to mental health that genuinely respect pluralism,

subjective well-being, and the autonomy of

interior life.

Funding statement

The authors declare that this research did not

receive any specific grant from funding agencies

in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit

sectors. The publication fee was covered by the

authors personally.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known

competing financial interests or personal

relationships that could have appeared to

influence the work reported in this paper.

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