Cultural-historical psychology is a branch of
psychological theory and practice associated with
Lev Vygotsky
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (russian: Лев Семёнович Выго́тский, p=vɨˈɡotskʲɪj; be, Леў Сямёнавіч Выго́цкі, p=vɨˈɡotskʲɪj; – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet psychologist, known for his work on ps ...
and
Alexander Luria
Alexander Romanovich Luria (russian: Алекса́ндр Рома́нович Лу́рия, p=ˈlurʲɪjə; 16 July 1902 – 14 August 1977) was a Soviet neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He develope ...
and their
Circle
A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is con ...
, who initiated it in the mid-1920s–1930s.
[Yasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., & Ferrari, M. (Eds.) (2014)]
The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press The phrase "cultural-historical psychology" never occurs in the writings of Vygotsky, and was subsequently ascribed to him by his critics and followers alike, yet it is under this title that this intellectual movement is now widely known.
[Yasnitsky, A., & van der Veer, R. (2014)]
What is this book and what is it about?
In Yasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., & Ferrari, M. (Eds.) (2014). The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press[Keiler, P. (2018). A history of the social construction of the “cultural-historical”. In Yasnitsky, A. (Ed.) Questioning Vygotsky's Legacy: Scientific Psychology or Heroic Cult. New York & London: Routledge] The main goal of Vygotsky-Luria project was the establishment of a "new psychology" that would account for the inseparable unity of
mind,
brain
A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a ve ...
and
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
[Toomela, A. (2014). There can be no cultural-historical psychology without neuropsychology. And vice versa. A. Yasnitsky, R. van der Veer, & M. Ferrari (Eds.). The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (313 - 349). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] in their development (and/or degradation) in concrete socio-historical settings (in case of individuals) and throughout the
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
of
humankind
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
as socio-biological species.
In its most radical forms, the theory that Vygotsky and Luria were attempting to build was expressed in terms of a "science of Superman",
[Yasnitsky, A. (2018)]
Vygotsky’s science of Superman: from Utopia to concrete psychology
In Yasnitsky, A. (Ed.). (2018)
Questioning Vygotsky’s Legacy: Scientific Psychology or Heroic Cult
London & New York: Routledge.[Dr. Clay Spinuzzi blog](_blank)
book review
/ref>[Spinuzzi, C. (2018)]
From superhumans to supermediators: Locating the extraordinary in CHAT
In A. Yasnitsky (Ed.), Questioning Vygotsky’s legacy: Scientific psychology or heroic cult (pp. 137–166). New York, NY: Routledge. and was closely linked with the pronouncement for the need in a new psychological theory of consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...
[Zavershneva, E. (2014). The problem of consciousness in Vygotsky's cultural-historical psychology. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (63-97). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] and its relationship to the development of higher psychological functions. All this theoretical (mostly, speculative) and experimental empirical work was attempted by the members of the Vygotsky Circle The Vygotsky Circle (also known as Vygotsky–Luria CircleYasnitsky, A. & van der Veer, R. (Eds.) (2015)Revisionist Revolution in Vygotsky Studies London and New York: RoutledgeYasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., Aguilar, E. & García, L.N. (Eds.) (201 ...
(also referred to as "Vygotsky- Luria Circle").
Theoretical premises
Cultural-historical psychology never existed as such during Vygotsky's lifetime. He never accomplished a developmental theory of his own and, by his own admission, died at the threshold of a new psychological theory of consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...
.
Vygotsky believed in the " new man" that he referred to as a "superman" of the future Communist society
In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of co ...
and advocated for a psychological theory that would account for the development from the actual level of human development to the potential one of a "superman". To that end, he claimed that the development of "higher psychological functions" are a result of the impact of the society (including, according to Marxist principles, its economic basis and the relations of production) and the culture at large. This idea was well known at least fifty years before Vygotsky, was advocated for by a number of other psychologists, and is frequently discussed under the label of "sociogenesis
Sociocultural evolution, sociocultural evolutionism or social evolution are theories of sociobiology and cultural evolution that describe how societies and culture change over time. Whereas sociocultural development traces processes that tend t ...
". In contradistinction to Freud's and Freudian "depth psychology
Depth psychology (from the German term ''Tiefenpsychologie'') refers to the practice and research of the science of the unconscious, covering both psychoanalysis and psychology. It is also defined as the psychological theory that explores the rel ...
" and the behaviorists (and many others) "surface psychologies" of the average people in their everyday environment, Vygotsky postulated "peak psychology" of his own, which would focus on the highest, "peak" performance of people in their actual life and potential, future "superman" capacity. This "peak psychology" was never accomplished and largely remained an interesting and promising, yet utopian
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
scientific project of considerable interest in the contemporary context of 21st century psychological research.[Yasnitsky, A. (2018)]
Vygotsky’s science of Superman: from Utopia to concrete psychology
In Yasnitsky, A. (Ed.). (2018)
Questioning Vygotsky’s Legacy: Scientific Psychology or Heroic Cult
London & New York: Routledge.
The benefits and failings of the theory
The larger project of the new psychology of Vygotsky and Luria failed,[Cf.: "He laid out a most ambitious program of unification with an 'historico-cultural' approach as the central feature. Though tuberculosis cut him off at a very early age, Vygotsky left prolific disciples, most notably Luria and A.N. Leont'ev, who founded the Vygotsky school of cognitive psychology, focused on brain damage and on child development. There is a great irony in that history: preaching a comprehensive science, Vygotsky started one more school" (p. 254). Joravsky, D. (1989) ''Russian Psychology: a Critical History'', Cambridge: Blackwell.] and no universal integrative theory of human mind and development was built by the time of Vygotsky's death in 1934 or afterwards. However, the earlier intellectual effort and the legacy of the Soviet scholars of the 1920s-1930s produced a range of specialized, loosely-related fields of psychological theory and practice including cultural[Arievich, I.M. & Stetsenko, A. (2014)]
The "magic of signs": developmental trajectory of cultural mediation
In Yasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., & Ferrari, M. (Eds.). (2014). The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology. Cambridge University Press (pp. 217-244)[Subbotsky, E. (2014)]
Luria and Vygotsky: challenges to current developmental research
In Yasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., & Ferrari, M. (Eds.). (2014). The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology. Cambridge University Press (pp. 295-312) and child psychology
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult developmen ...
[Grigorenko, E.L. (2014). Tracing the untraceable: the nature-nurture controversy in cultural-historical psychology. In Yasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., & Ferrari, M. (Eds.). (2014). The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology. Cambridge University Press (pp. 203-216)] and education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
(most notably, in the subfields of dynamic assessment
Dynamic assessment is a kind of interactive assessment used in education and the helping professions. Dynamic assessment is a product of the research conducted by developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky. It identifies
* Constructs that a student ...
[Kozulin, A. (2014). Dynamic assessment in search of its identity in Yasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., & Ferrari, M. (Eds.). (2014). The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology. Cambridge University Press (pp. 126-147)] (which stems from Vygotsky's speculations on the so-called Zone of proximal development
The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a concept in educational psychology. It represents the distance between what a learner is capable of doing unsupported, and what they can only do supported. It is the range where they are capable only with ...
, the ZPD[Valsiner J., Van der Veer R. (2014). “Encountering the border: Vygotsky’s zona blizaishego razvitya and its implications for theory of development” in The Cambridge handbook of cultural-historical psychology. eds. Yasnitsky A., van der Veer R., Ferrari M., editors. (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press; ), 148–173]) and the so-called ''developmental education''[Zuckerman, G. (2014). Developmental education. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (177-202). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]), neuropsychology,[Akhutina, T. & Shereshevsky, G. (2014). Cultural-historical neuropsychological perspective on learning disability. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (350-377). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press][Kotik-Friedgut, B. & Ardila, A. (2014)]
Cultural-historical theory and cultural neuropsychology today
In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (378-399). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press or psycholinguistics.[Werani, A. (2014). A review of inner speech in cultural-historical tradition. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (272-294). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] Other notable areas of theory and practice that are in the dialogue with the cultural-historical tradition of Vygotsky and Luria are psychotherapy,[Venger, A. & Morozova, E. (2014). Cultural-historical psychotherapy. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (403-422). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] theory of art
A theory of art is intended to contrast with a definition of art. Traditionally, ''definitions'' are composed of necessary and sufficient conditions and a single counterexample overthrows such a definition. ''Theorizing'' about art, on the other ...
,[Bulgakowa, O. (2014). From expressive movement to the "basic problem": The Vygotsky-Luria-Eisensteinian theory of art. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (423-448). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] " dialogical science",[Bertau, M.-C. (2014). The need for a dialogical science: Considering the legacy of Russian-Soviet thinking for contemporary approaches in dialogic research. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (449-473). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] cognitive science,[Falikman, M. (2014). Cognition and its master: New challenges for cognitive science. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (474-487). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
[ Ivanov, Vyacheslav V. (2014). Cultural-historical theory and semiotics. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (488-516). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] and, in the words of Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the Uni ...
, somewhat vague perspective, mindset and philosophy of " romantic science".[ Sacks, O. (2014). Luria and "Romantic Science". In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (517-528). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]
Influences
The major influences on cultural-historical psychology were the mechanist neurophysiology of Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov ( rus, Ива́н Петро́вич Па́влов, , p=ɪˈvan pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈpavləf, a=Ru-Ivan_Petrovich_Pavlov.ogg; 27 February 1936), was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist, psychologist and physio ...
and Vladimir Bekhterev
Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev ( rus, Влади́мир Миха́йлович Бе́хтерев, p=ˈbʲextʲɪrʲɪf; January 20, 1857 – December 24, 1927) was a Russian neurologist and the father of objective psychology. He is best know ...
(during the so-called "instrumental period" of the 1920s),[Friedrich, J. (2014). Vygotsky's idea of psychological tools. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (47-62). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] philosophy of language and culture of Wilhelm von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (, also , ; ; 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named afte ...
and his followers,[Bertau, M.-C. (2014). Inner form as a notion migrating from West to East: Acknowledging the Humboldtian tradition in cultural-historical psychology. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (247-271). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] socio-economic philosophy of Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ,["Engels"](_blank)
'' Gestalt psychology
Gestalt-psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology that emerged in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany as a theory of perception that was a rejection of basic principles of Wilhelm Wundt's and Edward ...
—specifically, the works of Max Wertheimer
Max Wertheimer (April 15, 1880 – October 12, 1943) was an Austro-Hungarian psychologist who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. He is known for his book, ''Productive Thinking'', and ...
and Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin ( ; 9 September 1890 – 12 February 1947) was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. During his professional career Lewin applied hi ...
.[Yasnitsky, A. (2012)]
К истории культурно-исторической гештальтпсихологии: Выготский, Лурия, Коффка, Левин и др.
PsyAnima, Dubna Psychological Journal, 5(1), 60-97[Yasnitsky, A. (2012)]
A History of Cultural-Historical Gestalt Psychology: Vygotsky, Luria, Koffka, Lewin, and others
PsyAnima, Dubna Psychological Journal, 5(1), 98-101 The holism of the German-American Gestaltists gradually became the dominant theoretical framework of cultural-historical psychology of Vygotsky and Luria in the 1930s and virtually totally eradicated Vygotsky's physiological mechanism
Mechanism may refer to:
* Mechanism (engineering), rigid bodies connected by joints in order to accomplish a desired force and/or motion transmission
*Mechanism (biology), explaining how a feature is created
*Mechanism (philosophy), a theory that ...
and reductionism of the 1920s.[Zavershneva, E. (2014). The problem of consciousness in Vygotsky's cultural-historical psychology. In A. Yasnitsky, R. Van der Veer & M. Ferrari (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology (63-97). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]
A few of these earlier influences were subsequently downplayed, misunderstood or even totally ignored and forgotten. Thus, cultural-historical psychology understood as the Vygotsky-Luria project, originally intended by its creators as an integrative and, later, holistic "new psychology" of socio-biological and cultural development should not be confused with later self-proclaimed "Vygotskian" theories and fields of studies, ignorant of the historical roots and the intended breadth and depth of the original proposal and its consistent emphasis on the need in a new theory of consciousness. These include such as ''sociocultural psychology'', ''socio-historical psychology'', ''activity theory
Activity theory (AT; russian: link=no, Теория деятельности) is an umbrella term for a line of eclectic social-sciences theories and research with its roots in the Soviet psychological activity theory pioneered by Sergei Rubinste ...
'', ''cultural psychology
Cultural psychology is the study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members.Heine, S. J. (2011). ''Cultural Psychology. ''New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
It is based on the premise that mind and culture are i ...
'', or ''cultural-historical activity theory
Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) is a theoretical framework which helps to understand and analyse the relationship between the human mind (what people think and feel) and activity (what people do). It traces its origins to the founders of ...
(CHAT)''.[Toomela, A. (2000). Activity theory is a dead end for cultural-historical psychology. Culture & Psychology, 6(3), 353-364][Chapters 7. Michael Cole: artefact-mediated action -- setting the record straight; 8. James V. Wertsch: cultural tools and mediated action -- getting it wrong; 9. James V. Wertsch: mediation and the zone of proximal development; and 10. The essential commentators in Part II. Vygotsky in America in Miller, R. (2011). Vygotsky in perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]
Vygotsky-Luria Circle
Vygotsky and Luria informally collaborated with other psychologists, educationalists, medical specialists, physiologists, and neuroscientists. The foundation of the integrative science of the mind, brain, and behavior in their bio-social development, was the main work of the Circle. They incorporated ideas of social and interpersonal relations, the practices of empirical scientific research, and "Stalinist science" founded on the discursive practices of Soviet science in the 1930s. There were around three dozen people involved in the research for Vygotsky's theory, at different periods of time.
In 1924, the Circle was formed in Moscow after Vygotsky moved there from Gomel, Belarus. At the Institute of Psychology he met Zankov, Solv'ev, Sakharov, and Varshava, as well as Alexander Luria, with whom he would go on to collaborate with.
The group grew at a gradual rate and all research was conducted in Moscow, Kharkov, and Leningrad, located in the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany during the Great Patriotic War
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sou ...
(1941), the group disbanded and any further post-Vygotskian research after the beginning of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, was conducted by Luria, Leontiev, Zankov, and Elkonin.
See also
* Critical psychology
Critical psychology is a perspective on psychology that draws extensively on critical theory. Critical psychology challenges the assumptions, theories and methods of mainstream psychology and attempts to apply psychological understandings in diffe ...
* Constructivism (learning theory)
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s ...
* Leading activity
* Dynamic assessment
Dynamic assessment is a kind of interactive assessment used in education and the helping professions. Dynamic assessment is a product of the research conducted by developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky. It identifies
* Constructs that a student ...
* Zone of proximal development
The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a concept in educational psychology. It represents the distance between what a learner is capable of doing unsupported, and what they can only do supported. It is the range where they are capable only with ...
* Sociogenesis
Sociocultural evolution, sociocultural evolutionism or social evolution are theories of sociobiology and cultural evolution that describe how societies and culture change over time. Whereas sociocultural development traces processes that tend t ...
References
External links
* Yasnitsky, A. (2018)
Vygotsky: An Intellectual Biography
London and New York: Routledg
BOOK PREVIEW
* Yasnitsky, A. & van der Veer, R. (Eds.) (2015)
Revisionist Revolution in Vygotsky Studies
Routledge.
* Yasnitsky, A., van der Veer, R., & Ferrari, M. (Eds.) (2014)
The Cambridge Handbook of Cultural-Historical Psychology
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
* Yasnitsky, A. (2011)
Vygotsky Circle as a Personal Network of Scholars: Restoring Connections Between People and Ideas
Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, .
{{Human psychological development
Psychological theories
Educational psychology
Developmental psychology
Psychological schools