The legacy of Russian psychologist Lev Semenovich Vygotsky is most closely associated with the cultural-historical paradigm and, in the West, has found its most extensive application in contemporary developmental and educational psychology. However, Vygotsky’s project was far more ambitious than this perspective implies—in fact, he conceived a new, original program of general psychology that could address human beings in their full measure, foregrounding the human potential for freedom and agency. The distinctive characteristic of Vygotsky’s approach was his profound interdisciplinarity and, specifically, his evolving dialogue with art practices and aesthetics, the scope of which has only become clear with the recent publication of previously unpublished archival material and his writings as an art and literary critic. This article has two aims: to outline a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of Vygotsky’s views on general psychology, on the basis of recent archival discoveries and publications, and attending to these materials closely, to explicate the role that Vygotsky allocated to art in his radical project of creating the “height psychology.”
This article analyzes the unique historical collaboration between
the revolutionary Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948), the cultural
psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), and the founder of contemporary
neuropsychology, Alexander Luria (1902–1977). Vygotsky’s legacy is associated
primarily with the idea that cultural mediation plays a crucial role in the emergence
and development of personality and cognition. His collaborator, Luria,
laid the foundations of contemporary neuropsychology and demonstrated
that cultural mediation also changes the functional architecture of the brain.
In my analysis, I demonstrate how the Eisenstein-Vygotsky-Luria collaboration
exemplifies a strategy of productive triangulation that harnesses three disciplinary
perspectives: those of cultural psychology, neuropsychology, and film
theory and practice.
The author traces the changes in Russian psychology in the past 25 years and links these changes to the earlier Russian legacy of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) and Aleksei N. Leontiev (1903-1979). The move into the 21st century coincided for Russian psychology as well as for the Russian society at large with the reforms of perestroika, leading to greater openness in the academic sphere. In particular, Russian psychology was able to connect in a more free and fundamental way with its own heritage and with various developments around the world. The author discusses how these factors affected continuity and innovation with regard to the 2 dominant theoretical perspectives in Russian psychology--the cultural-historical theory of Vygotsky and the theory of activity, initially developed by Leontiev. The author argues that while there are now original and substantial shifts within Russian psychology--namely toward the new paradigm characterized by various researchers as "organic psychology," "nonclassical psychology," or even "post-non-classical" psychology--the issues of agency and meaning, which were central for the previous generation of Russian psychologists, such as Vygotsky, Leontiev, Luria, Zaporozhets, Rubinstein, and others, continue to inform the development of the discipline in the 21st century.
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