Stefan Odobleja (1902-1978)

Stefan Odobleja who originated from a family of peasants in Romania, was obliged to be a self-educated man (that is, as a self-taught person) the last forms of the High School and the Faculty of Medicine he was able to finish only with the financial support of the Medical-Military Institute of Bucharest (whose scholar he was). Endowed with an uncommon capacity of work and with an astonishing spirit of inventivity, Stefan Odobleja has dedicated the greatest part of his life to the problems of knowledge in general, to the knowing of human nature, especially. In spite of the vicissitudes which the unfair fate gave to him, this great scientist of Romaine (and of the world!) left an impressive work to the posterity. This work was comprised in about 50.000 pages. The most important of these writings is "Psychologie consonantiste". This book which in the Princeps edition (vol.I in 1938 and vol.II in 1939) totalized almost 900 pages and included 300 figures in the text. The author considers that "this book is rather a table of contents, an index or a dictionary of psychology, a general plane for a great Treatise of Psychology that should contain 20-30 volumes". This fact confirms us the proportions of the work at whose achievement the bold personality of Stefan Odobleja engaged himself .

In this work Stefan Odobleja was laying the theoretical foundations of the generalized cybernetics. It was forgotten for over 35 years, maybe also because of same difficulties caused by the Second World War. The book was printed in French and diffused by the famous "Librairie Maloine" from Paris

The appearance of this pioneer work in the domain of cybernetics drew the attention of the scientists through only two published review. The first was published in a Romanian magazine (in 1939) and the second in the well-known American magazine "Psychological Abstracts" (p.59-60), in January 1941. S.M. Strong was signing the latter. It is also to be noticed that the author himself - Stefan Odobleja - has diffused the prospect by which he announced the participants at the International of Military Medicine about the appearance of this paper "Psychologie consonantiste". That Congress took place at Bucharest between 8-12 June 1939. At this Congress also participated a delegation of the Military Navy of USA, lead by Dr. W.S. Bainbridge.

The first edition in Romanian of this work of an inestimable value appeared only in 1982.

Last update: 2004, October 27
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