L.S. Vygotsky and the Theater

The article presents the analysis of L.S. Vygotsky's works dedicated to the theater arts and is organized according Vygotsky's different life and work stages. Meanwhile special attention is paid to the Gomel period during which a large number of reviews were written by Vygotsky and published in “Nash ponedel'nik” and “Polesskaia pravda” newspapers. Biographical facts are widely used in this analysis and help to clarify Vygotsky's interest in art. It is shown that even at the beginning of his oeuvre, he was interested not only in a range of problems in art, but also psychological problems related to art perception and creativeness. Vygotsky's usage of structural concept ideas about the peculiar properties of literary text composition are also explored. Vygotsky analyzes the socio-psychological mechanisms of theatrical art effect. Furthermore, those areas which are widely used by Vygotsky in determining the characteristics of cast reincarnation are examined. Special emphasis is placed on the different elements of the actor techniques (speech, movement, emotional expression, acting personality and etc.). Materials are widely used in this study and help identify the socio-cultural context that defined Vygotsky's values at different stages of his work, related to his drama criticism and his formation as a professional psychologist.     

The Grundproblem in the Theory of Art

Ivanov's article presents background information and a methodological approach to Sergei Eisenstein's two-volume work on the method of art. Eisenstein himself considered film to be an art in which the basic problem of art is clearly visible. He argued that successfully combining regressive and progressive elements in art can solve the problem of form and content. The article demonstrates the personal cooperation that took place between Eisenstein, Marr, Luria, and Vygotsky at the beginning of 1930's.     

Vygotsky's Crisis: Argument, context, relevance

Vygotsky’s The Historical Significance of the Crisis in Psychology (1926–1927) is an important text in the history and philosophy of psychology that has only become available to scholars in 1982 in Russian, and in 1997 in English. The goal of this paper is to introduce Vygotsky’s conception of psychology to a wider audience.I argue that Vygotsky’s argument about the “crisis” in psychology and its resolution can be fully understood only in the context of his social and political thinking. Vygotsky shared the enthusiasm, widespread among Russian leftist intelligentsia in the 1920s, that Soviet society had launched an unprecedented social experiment: The socialist revolution opened the way for establishing social conditions that would let the individual flourish. For Vygotsky, this meant that “a new man” of the future would become “the first and only species in biology that would create itself.” He envisioned psychology as a science that would serve this humanist teleology.I propose that The Crisis is relevant today insofar as it helps us define a fundamental problem: How can we systematically account for the development of knowledge in psychology? I evaluate how Vygotsky addresses this problem as a historian of the crisis.     

L.S. Vygotsky: In Memoriam

On the night of 11 June, death took from the ranks of our country's outstanding scientists Professor Lev Semenovich Vygotsky. In him Soviet psychology has lost not only a great scientist and brilliant educator, not only a person with remarkable personal qualities, but also one of those people whose appearance in our science has been of tremendous importance for its development, whose life and death are as much a part of the history of psychological knowledge as of his personal biography. Indeed, the system of theoretical psychological ideas Vygotsky created requires an understanding of the biography of its creator to be fully grasped. Yet the opposite is also true: only analysis of this system can provide the real key to understanding the personality of the deceased.     

L. S. Vygotsky and the Problem of Functional Localization

Forty years ago, in the middle of the 1920's, a young Soviet psychologist, still under thirty, came to the Clinic of Nervous Diseases, at first to observe, later to conduct his own independent research. His name was L. S. Vygotsky.     

L.S. Vygotsky and Reform of Today's School

The name Lev Semenovich Vygotsky is by now very well known to scholars and scientists in many of the humanities, especially to psychologists and educators and even teachers in some countries. Although Vygotsky died almost sixty years ago, considerable interest may be observed at the present time in his theoretical views and in how these views influence the process of improving and even reforming modern education. What are the reasons for such a paradoxical circumstance? I submit that these reasons are to be found, first, in the profoundly hypothetical nature of Vygotsky's views; they have therefore required a long time to be empirically confirmed and substantiated. Second, there is a discrepancy between these views and the needs and requirements of education in preceding decades. It was only about ten years ago that our Russian education began to sense a general need for a new and substantial reform. One of the pillars of these reforms was Vygotsky's views, which concentrated the ideas of many other outstanding people in our education in the first third of this century (for example, the ideas of Blonskii, Shatskii, and others).     

Is Agrammatism an Anomaly?

Kolk, van Grunsven, and Keyser (1985) and Kolk and Hofstede (1987) answer "No" to the question posed in the title of this article. Let us consider instances when normal subjects use "telegraphic style." The authors mentioned above point to dialogue markers, talking to foreigners and children as such cases. However, the offered list seems incomplete and may be enlarged; in doing so, it is important to define the structure and function of agrammatical utterances in normal language users. A Russian author has an advantage in solving this because in the Russian scientific tradition the problem has been approached from both the linguistic (Potebnia, 1888; Iakubinsky, 1923; Zemskaia, 1973; Zemskaia, Kitaigorodskaia, and Shir'aev, 1981) and psychological (Vygotsky, 1934) perspectives.     

"The Key to Human Psychology"

This article investigates the notebook kept by Lev Vygotsky during the first half of 1926. In addition to discussing the notebook's structure, content, and time frame, the article analyzes its significance within the context of the development of Vygotsky's ideas. Among the notebook's content discussed here are: supplementary material to The Psychology of Art; a preliminary outline for "The Historical Meaning of the Crisis in Psychology"; the first propositions of cultural-historical theory associated with the idea of sign mediation; an outline for the unwritten monograph "Zoon politikon"; as well as thoughts on a general psychological theory of consciousness that assigns a key role to speech and communication in the genesis of consciousness. Particular attention is paid to Vygotsky's remarks on the ontological status of mental reality and the problem of the psychophysical.     

Three Facets of Meaning

Vygotsky and Luria's "cultural-historical theory of psychology" is little known to broad circles of the Soviet public. Nor is this theory yet very familiar in the world of pedagogy, since the leaders in this area of psychology do not yet have a completed system of views. The "cultural-historical theory of psychology" is just in the process of being formed, but even so has managed to do much damage to psychology's theoretical front, deftly concealing its pseudoscientific aspects alien to Marxism with quotations from the works of the founders of Marxism. This theory is being aggressively introduced into pedagogical practice in higher education; its authors are forcefully publicizing it in the pages of journals and books, textbooks, and encyclopedias; and it makes claims to being the closest to Marxism of all the psychological currents existing in the USSR.     

So you think you can edit?

This article presents one scientist''s perspective on the transition from life at the bench to an editorial career.     

Introduction

In this and the next issue of Soviet Psychology, the international readership will have an opportunity to gain access to the work of Russian developmental psychologist Mikhail Basov, whose relevance for developmental psychology in Russia and, later, the Soviet Union has been profound (see Valsiner, 1988, chap. 5). Basov's intellectual development paralleled that of his contemporary Lev Vygotsky, whose ideas are currently increasingly mentioned in the international discourse of psychologists and educators, and whose synthesis of ideas from various sources in international social sciences continues to command respect (see Kozulin, 1990; van der Veer and Valsiner, 1991).     

On the Phenomenon of “Perezhivanie”

The author presents a short historical review of the concept of “perezhivanie” beginning with L.S. Vygotsky. She compares this concept with reflection as two central concepts revealing a person's consciousness. A systemic picture of these two phenomena is elaborated by introducing a hierarchy of reflection. A further step is made that relates the “perezhivanie—reflection” system to (psychoanalytic) self-formations. Empirical studies shed light on phenomena connected to “perezhivanie.”     

Do you have any regrets about entering medicine?

Do today''s students have any second thoughts about their decision to pursue a career in medicine? Gabriel Leung, who graduates in June from the University of Western Ontario, considers the problems and dilemmas that have confronted him and his classmates during their short careers and muses on the uncertain future today''s physicians face.     

Alpine restoration in the NSW Snowy Mountains: Interview with Roger Good

With a career stretching from the 1960s, Roger Good clocked up over 50 years’ experience in restoring alpine ecosystems, particularly bogs and fens. This interview (recorded not long before Roger's untimely death in 2015) shows how the evolving approaches to restoration in Australia's Snowy Mountains mirror the evolving broad discipline of restoration.     

Printed in the Holiday Mood

Teachers' careers are often considered to consist of two parts: pre-service and in-service. In-service refers to the entire time between a teacher's entry and exit from the profession. Recent research suggests teachers' careers actually consistent of several parts, known as phases or stages and, collectively, as the career cycle. This further suggests that as they pass through different stages, teachers' professional development needs may change. This article presents a review of literature on the career cycle, examines the portion known as the “second stage,” and discusses the policy and professional development implications for music teachers.     

McMaster's pioneer in evidence-based medicine now spreading his message in England.

Dr. David Sackett, formerly of McMaster University and now at Oxford University in England, is considered one of the pioneers of the evidence-based medicine movement. This article looks at his colleagues'' assessment of Sackett''s contributions to medicine and at Sackett''s own views on his lengthy career.     

Experiencing of Music as the Basis of the Effectiveness of Music Therapy

In transposing the discussion of L.S. Vygotsky’s ideas to the cross-cultural area of science, the authors summarize the contexts and positions regarding the contribution of the Russian psychological school to the substantiation of musical therapeutic theory and practice. The analysis by Dr. Mastnak of European and American academic periodicals in psychology and music therapy showed that Western science does not have access to all of the content and achievements of Russian and Russian-language psychology. Reading Vygotsky’s works from a musical therapeutic perspective and, in addition, in a cross-cultural interpretation, the authors discuss the abundance of the psychological scientist’s methodological ideas that could provide a theoretical substantiation of effective music therapy.     

Would you recommend a medical career to your children?

Physicians are frustrated by cutbacks, threats to their practices, income restrictions and government interference. However, in spite of complaints from practising physicians medicine remains an attractive career option for Canada''s best and brightest, with four to five candidates for every first-year position in medical school.