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 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.     

The Graphic Art of Bykhovskii

Vygotsky's preface to A. Bykhovskii,'s book Graphika is among the prefaces he wrote in various domains of art during his career before entered psychology. He offers readers the key (taken from Hans Christiansen) to looking at and understanding the special character of Bykhovskii's creativity. Vygotsky emphasizes Bykhovskii's style of using lines in a dualistic way thus creating an original style. Vygotsky analyzes this characteristic using paintings from Bykhovskii's career.     

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.     

The Problem of Generalization in the Works of L. S. Vygotsky

An aspect of Vygotsky's psychological theory which is still meaningful as a genuine scientific problem today is the treatment he gave to the structure, function, and formation of generalization as a special means of reflecting reality in human consciousness. Many of the central propositions of the theory — concerning such questions as the role of symbols in the establishment of higher mental functions, the hierarchical structure of consciousness, and the connection between instruction and development — were refined, concentrated, and cast in a new light by the concept of generalization which Lev Semyonovich worked on so intensively in the last years of his life. The problem of generalization is the knot that ties together the fundamental strands of the whole conception. By carefully untying it one can avoid misunderstandings in evaluating some of Vygotsky's propositions, and, even more important, one can then correctly understand his fundamental ideas, which he clearly formulated but was not able to develop fully. The significance of these ideas is such that they belong in the arsenal of modern psychology to resolve burning theoretical and practical problems of the day.     

The Category of Age in the Psychology and Pedagogy of Development

Vygotsky's words, uttered about sixty years ago, may serve as a very special epigraph to the analysis that follows; they have not lost their meaning even today: "The problem of age is not only central to the whole of child psychology: it is the key to all questions of practice as well" [4. P. 260].

The key importance of the concept of age as a category in educational psychology has become obvious now, in light of the urgent need for a reorganization of education, a need to give it a developmental character. This category is just as important for a practice-oriented pedagogy, which can no longer be satisfied with simple study of individual phenomena in educational psychology; it must necessarily become a composite and, even more, a projective science, since it involves contriving complex, synthetic objects that bring together concrete studies, blueprints for educational systems, the programs and technology of continuous education throughout a person's entire life, and expert systems for evaluating and means for monitoring the effectiveness of such continuous education.     

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 1920s, 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.     

Comments on L.S. Vygotsky's Theater Review on E.V. Gel'tser's Performance

This article presents detailed comments on L.S. Vygotsky's review of the famous Russian ballerina E.V. Gel'tser's performance during her Gomel tour in the autumn of 1922. We present a reconstruction of the cultural context, which is quite essential for understanding multiple aspects of the content of Vygotsky's review. We stress the importance of the distinction between artificial and natural movements introduced by Vygotsky's when considering the uniqueness of expressive movement in choreography.

The uniqueness of cathartic experience, which became a central theme in Vygotsky's research monograph The Psychology of Art (1925), is examined in this review using the analysis of classical dance perception. We establish the methodological importance of Vygotsky's account of the opposition between classical and so-called untaught, natural dance (I. Duncan and M. Fokine), which in turn makes it possible to designate the fundamental difference between “spiritual” [dukhovnyi] and “mental/emotional” [dushevnyi] experience.     

Prayer,Silence, and Psychotherapy

A new interpretation of L.S. Vygotsky's “The Tragedy of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark” and his little-known publication “Traurnye stroki-Den' 9 ava.” An essential question (object) of these texts is the secret of genuine human overcoming of suffering. This is also the main problem of psychotherapy. Vygotsky's answer has both psychological and religious sgnificance: the experience of a tragedy is mediated by prayer. Vygotsky's idea creates the basis for religiously oriented, “synergetic” psychotherapy where the main process will be spiritual, including prayer.     

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.     

Pathways in the emergence of developmental neuroethology: antecedents to current views of neurobehavioral ontogeny.

The historical forces that have contributed to our current views of neurobehavioral development (and thus to the fields of developmental psychobiology and neuroethology) are many and varied. Although similar statements might be made about almost any field of science, it is in particular true of this field, which represents a kind of mongrel discipline derived from at least three major sources (psychology, embryology, and neuroscience) and several more minor ones (including developmental psychology and psychiatry, psychoanalysis, education, zoology, ethology, and sociology). Although I attempt to demonstrate here how each of these sources may have influenced the emergence of a unified field of developmental psychobiology or developmental neuroethology, because the present article represents the first attempt of which I am aware to trace the history of these fields I am certain that there is considerable room for improvement, correction, and revision of the views expressed here. Accordingly, I consider this inaugural effort a kind of reconnaissance intended to trace a necessarily imperfect historic path for others to follow and improve upon. In the final analysis, I will be satisfied if this article only serves to underscore two related points: first is the value derived from historical studies of contemporary issues in development, and the second concerns the extent to which our current ideas and concepts about neurobehavioral development, ideas often considered new and contemporary, were already well known to those who came before us. The first point underscores the arguments expressed in the Introduction that the present must always be reconciled with the past, for the past is never entirely past. The second point returns full circle to an important thought expressed in the opening quotation to this article, namely, that even though our historic predecessors lacked much of the empirical facts available to us they were nonetheless able to attain a surprisingly deep understanding of neurobehavioral ontogeny.     

Canadian medical education: 50 years of innovation and leadership.

Over the past 50 years, many Canadian medical educators have pursued ideas and visions, as individuals in the 1950s and 1960s and later in partnership with various national bodies. Relations between universities and national medical organizations have been productive in dealing with issues of postgraduate education and clinical assessment, in particular. From 1970 to 1990, strong education offices and formally trained educators led to many successes in the areas of research in cognition, continuing medical education and clinical assessment. Canadian medical education has now achieved international recognition for its work in all aspects of the continuum of the physician''s education through vision, initiative and cooperation.     

A successful transplant of embryonic adrenal tissue in a patient with Addison's disease.

Well documented reports of the successful transplantation of human adrenal cortical tissue cannot be found in the literature. In 1951 we achieved the successful transplantation of human embryonic adrenal gland (cortical tissue) in a patient with symptomatic adrenal insufficiency (Addison''s disease), apparently the first instance of histologically documented successful homografting of human adrenal cortex. Because of its historical pertinence, the authors, many years later, herein report on this case, which appeared in the senior author''s medical thesis. The report must be viewed in the context of the existing clinical knowledge and technology available 40 years ago.     

Author Index to Journal of Russian and East European Psychology: Volume 44 (January-December 2006)

I had occasion, in the late 1930s, to address directly the question of how to teach beginners to read. By then I was a relatively mature psychologist and a pupil of Vygotsky, and had already been teaching for several years in the primary grades. My practical work convinced me of the difficulties of teaching beginners to read and of the deep contradictions between method and the scientific data accumulated in linguistics and psychology—ideas that could be tested only many years later.     

Pathways in the emergence of developmental neuroethology: Antecedents to current views of neurobehavioral ontogeny

The historical forces that have contributed to our current views of neurobehavioral development (and thus to the fields of developmental psychobiology and neuroethology) are many and varied. Although similar statements might be made about almost any field of science, it is in particular true of this field, which represents a kind of mongrel discipline derived from at least three major sources (psychology, embryology, and neuroscience) and several more minor ones (including developmental psychology and psychiatry, psychoanalysis, education, zoology, ethology, and sociology). Although I attempt to demonstrate here how each of these sources may have influenced the emergence of a unified field of developmental psychobiology or developmental neuroethology, because the present article represents the first attempt of which I am aware to trace the history of these fields I am certain that there is considerable room for improvement, correction, and revision of the views expressed here. Accordingly, I consider this inaugural effort a kind of reconnaissance intended to trace a necessarily imperfect historic path for others to follow and improve upon. In the final analysis, I will be satisfied if this article only serves to underscore two related points: first is the value derived from historical studies of contemporary issues in development, and the second concerns the extent to which our current ideas and concepts about neurobehavioral development, ideas often considered new and contemporary, were already well known to those who came before us. The first point underscores the arguments expressed in the Introduction that the present must always be reconciled with the past, for the past is never entirely past. The second point returns full circle to an important thought expressed in the opening quotation to this article, namely, that even though our historic predecessors lacked much of the empirical facts available to us they were nonetheless able to attain a surprisingly deep understanding of neurobehavioral ontogeny. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Vygotsky's Nonclassical Psychology

Nonclassical psychology has laws that differ from those in classical psychology. Nonclassical psychology uncovers the specifically human course of development and views people as self-regulated individuals. Vygotsky's writings reveal his lifelong engagement with the psychology of art, which for him was the essence of the new nonclassical psychology. The author looks at "play" and "positioning" as two key units in understanding nonclassical psychology.     

Intraocular lens providing good vision 23 years after placement.

A Ridley Perspex lens was placed in the posterior chamber of a man''s eye 23 years ago; 20/25 vision has been maintained since. This technique, first carried out in 1949, has been abandoned because of the high incidence of lens dislocation and glaucoma, but many modified versions of the lens have been produced. Implantation of intraocular lenses is still considered experimental, though careful selection of cases and meticulous surgical procedure can yield good results.     

Neurotransmitter release at central synapses

Our understanding of synaptic transmission has grown dramatically during the 15 years since the first issue of Neuron was published, a growth rate expected from the rapid progress in modern biology. As in all of biology, new techniques have led to major advances in the cell and molecular biology of synapses, and the subject has evolved in ways (like the production of genetically engineered mice) that could not even be imagined 15 years ago. My plan for this review is to summarize what we knew about neurotransmitter release when Neuron first appeared and what we recognized we did not know, and then to describe how our views have changed in the intervening decade and a half. Some things we knew about synapses--"knew" in the sense that the field had reached a consensus--are no longer accepted, but for the most part, impressive advances have led to a new consensus on many issues. What I find fascinating is that in certain ways nothing has changed--many of the old arguments persist or recur in a different guise--but in other ways the field would be unrecognizable to a neurobiologist time-transported from 1988 to 2003.     

The emergence of abstract ideas: evidence from networks and babies

What is abstraction? In our view, abstraction is generalization. Specifically, we propose that abstract concepts emerge as the natural product of associative learning and generalization by similarity. We support this proposal by presenting evidence for two ideas: first, that children''s knowledge about how categories are organized and how words refer to them can be explained as learned generalizations over specific experiences of words referring to categories; and second, that the path of concepts from concrete to more abstract can be observed throughout development and that even in their more abstract form, concepts retain some of their original sensory basis. We illustrate these two facts by examining, in two kinds of learners--networks and young children--the development of three abstract ideas: (i) the idea of word; (ii) the idea of object; and (iii) the idea of substance.