Salvator Cupcea
From beginnings as a researcher for the Victor Babeș University of Cluj, alongside his friend Alexandru Roșca, he became noted as a pioneer of experimental psychology and psychoanalysis, studying in particular the social marginals.
Although ethnically Romanian, his paternal and maternal ancestors, the Cupceas and the Rednics, had been received into the Hungarian nobility of Partium, tracing their aristocratic titles to 1609 and 1349 respectively.
[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.
[13] In 1925, when Crișana had been secured for Greater Romania, Salvator graduated from Carei's Lucaciu High School,[1] where he had become best friends with his schoolmate, Alexandru Roșca.
Together, they worked on Ștefănescu-Goangă's applied 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, and Teodor 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 in Sibiu.
[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 of Sigmund Freud and his work.
[17] Together with fellow Freudians Ioan I. Popescu-Sibiu, G. Preda, and Anastase Dosios, he worked on Cercetări de psihologie experimentală la alienați ("Studies in Experimental Psychology among the Insane").
The authors found that maladaptation was critical among women and Székelys, that most homicides occurred in Oltenia, southern Moldavia and Ciuc, and that most suicides were reported in Transylvania.
[20] With Mihai Kernbach and Vasile Hurghișiu, he co-authored other work in medical jurisprudence, presenting his findings at the 21 Congress of Legal Medicine, in Bonn.
[22] Cupcea's father, meanwhile, was a leader of the mainstream National Peasants' Party in Sălaj County and a figure of importance in local democratic circles, especially active in the propaganda effort against Hungarian irredentism.
[25] A disciple of physician and eugenicist Iuliu Moldovan, he frequented ASTRA Society and published in its paper the 1941 tract Ce este Eugenia ("What Eugenics Is").
[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.
[1] In 1948, he was one of three Romanian representatives to the founding congress of the World Health Organization, where he proposed the creation of a Mental Hygiene Committee and concrete backing for national research programs.
He also worked alongside Aurel Moga in investigating cardiovascular disease, making significant predictions about the contributing role of cholesterol intake, and exploring connections between human ecology and biological anthropology.
