Henri Paul Hyacinthe Wallon (March 15, 1879 – December 1, 1962) was a French
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
,
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
(in the field of
social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the re ...
),
neuropsychiatrist
Neuropsychiatry or Organic Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with psychiatry as it relates to neurology, in an effort to understand and attribute behavior to the interaction of neurobiology and social psychology factors. Within neurop ...
,
teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
, and
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
. He was the grandson of the historian and statesman
Henri-Alexandre Wallon.
Career
Henri Wallon conducted two parallel careers. As a convinced
Marxist, he took up political duties while carrying out scientific work in the field of
developmental 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 development, ...
.
Politics
In 1931, Wallon joined the French
socialist political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or po ...
SFIO
The French Section of the Workers' International (french: Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière, SFIO) was a political party in France that was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the modern-day Socialist Party. The SFIO was found ...
and became a member of the
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Uni ...
in 1942. In 1944 he was named Secretary of
National Education. He was elected Communist Deputy (1945-1946) and chaired an education reform commission that durably marked the National Education system under the name
"The Langevin-Wallon Project" (1945).
Psychology
Henri Wallon is better known by his scientific work primarily devoted to
child development
Child development involves the biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the conclusion of adolescence. Childhood is divided into 3 stages of life which include early childhood, middle childhood, ...
. Following his education, he occupied the highest positions in the French university world where he fostered leading research activity.
Wallon was admitted to the
École Normale Supérieure
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savo ...
in 1899, where he passed higher-level competitive examinations for teachers and professors (''agrégation'') in philosophy in 1902. In 1908 he became a doctor of medicine, and from 1908 to 1931 worked with
mentally retarded
Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability in the United Kingdom and formerly mental retardation,Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010). is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by signific ...
children.
During
World War I, Wallon was mobilized as an army medical officer and became interested in
neurology
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...
. In 1920 he became a junior lecturer at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
, and then in 1925 attained his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
(
Docteur ès lettres
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doct ...
) with a thesis on "the turbulent child". He was named director of studies at the
École Pratique des Hautes Études
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savo ...
in 1927 and created the Laboratory of Pediatric Psychobiology (''laboratoire de psycho-biologie de l'enfant'') at
CNRS
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
, where
Paul Diel came under his direction upon joining the laboratory in 1945. From 1937 to 1949 he was a professor with the
Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ...
(as chair of the department of Childhood Psychology and Education). In 1948, as director of the
University of Paris
The University of Paris (french: link=no, Université de Paris), metonymically known as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, active from 1150 to 1970, with the exception between 1793 and 1806 under the French Revolution. ...
's Institute of Psychology, he created the journal ''Enfance''. He was a president of the ''Groupe français d'éducation nouvelle'' from 1946 until his death in 1962.
Theoretical positions
Henri Wallon organized his observations by presenting the development of the child's personality as a succession of stages. Some of these stages are marked by the predominance of
affectivity over
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be d ...
whereas others appear characterized instead by the primacy of intelligence over affectivity. The child's personality is developed in this discontinuous and competitive succession between the prevalence of intelligence and affectivity. Thus, Wallon articulated at the core of a
dialectic
Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to ...
al model of concepts such as emotion, attitudes, and interpersonal bonds. His conception of the stages implied the idea that regression was possible, contrary to
Piaget's model.
The principal stages
# The ''impulsive and emotional stages'' (0 to 12 months). Dominating infantile life, they are the ''internal feelings'' (introceptives) and the affective factors fostered with the surroundings. On the motor plane this period is characterized by weak motor control and thus gestural disorder. The quality responses from the infant's surroundings will enable him to pass from the ''gestural disorder'' to ''differentiated emotions''.
# The ''sensorimotor and projective stage'' (1 to 3 years). What prevails then for the child is the influence of the external world. The integration of this external influence will support the awakening of two types of intelligence: one ''practical'' (through the handling of objects and child's own body), the other the ''discursive'' through imitation and appropriation of language.
# The ''personalism stage'' (3 to 6 years) is characterized by a predominance, once again, of affective functions over intelligence. Around 3 years of age the child tends to be opposed to the adult in a kind of ''negativist'' crisis, but this attitude is soon followed by a period of motor and social imitation. The child expresses thus the ambivalence binding him to the prestigious model that the adult represents for him.
# The ''categorial stage'' (6 to 11 years). Here, intellectual faculties seem to take the lead over the affective one. During his schooling the child acquires capacities for voluntary memory and attention. His intelligence approaches the formation of ''mental categories'', which lead to the capacities for abstraction.
# The ''adolescence stage'' begins after 11 years and is characterized by a primacy of the affective concerns.
Émile Jalley showed how Henri Wallon was an attentive reader of the German scientific and philosophical literature and how he contributed to the introduction and diffusion of certain concepts of
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
and
Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...
into French psychological theory.
While insisting on discontinuity and the concept of crisis underlying this discontinuity, Henri Wallon demonstrated his fidelity to the
Hegelian theses of the dialectic. In this regard, Wallon differed from Jean Piaget, who in his own description of the stages of infantile development instead valorized interactions to the detriment of discontinuity.
Henri Wallon had a marked influence on psychoanalysis equally in France and abroad. Émile Jalley showed that he had revisited certain of Freud's observations or concepts in his theoretical developments. In turn, certain psychoanalysts adapted his observations, in particular
René Spitz
René Árpád Spitz (January 29, 1887 in Vienna – September 11, 1974 in Denver) was an Austrian-American psychoanalyst. He is best known for his analysis of hospitalized infants in which he found links between marasmus and death with unmothered ...
,
Donald Winnicott
Donald Woods Winnicott (7 April 1896 – 25 January 1971) was an English paediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory and developmental psychology. He was a leading member of the Briti ...
, and
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...
, the latter of whom highlighted the focus on "social relativity in...Wallon's remarkable work". Lacan went on to borrow and adapt the concept of the
mirror stage
The mirror stage (french: stade du miroir) is a concept in the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. The mirror stage is based on the belief that infants recognize themselves in a mirror (literal) or other symbolic contraption which induces apper ...
from Wallon, who saw the child's self-recognition in the mirror around six-eight months as a key to the transition from the specular to the imaginary and the symbolic concept of the ego/I - both the
Imaginary and the
Symbolic providing further borrowings for Lacan.
[E. Roudinesco, ''Jacques Lacan'' (1999) p. 111 and p. 216]
See also
*
Theory of cognitive development
Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence. It was originated by the Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). The theory deals with the nature of kn ...
*
Ferenc Mérei
*
Henri Ey
Henri Ey (; 10 August 1900, Banyuls-dels-Aspres – 8 November 1977, Banyuls-dels-Aspres) was a French neurologist, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and philosopher.
Biography
Ey was born on 10 August 1900 in Banyuls-dels-Aspres, Pyrénées-Oriental ...
References
Bibliography
Henri Wallon's Works
* ''Délire de persécution. Le délire chronique à base d'interprétation'', Baillière, Paris, 1909, reissued L'Harmattan, 2015
* « La conscience et la vie subconsciente » in G. Dumas, ''Nouveau traité de psychologie'', PUF, Paris (1920-1921)
* ''L'enfant turbulent'', 2 vol., Alcan, Paris, 1925, reissued PUF, Paris 1984 (the first volume)
* ''Les origines du caractère chez l'enfant. Les préludes du sentiment de personnalité'', Boisvin, Paris, 1934, reissued PUF, Paris, 1973, 2015
* ''La vie mentale'', Éditions sociales, Paris, 1938, reissued 1982 (intro by Émile Jallley)
* ''L'évolution psychologique de l'enfant'', A. Colin, Paris, 1941, reissued 1974, 2012 (intro by Émile Jalley)
* ''De l'acte à la pensée'', Flammarion, Paris, 1942
* ''Les origines de la pensée chez l'enfant'', PUF, Paris, 1945, reissued 1963, 2015
* ''Psychologie et dialectique. La Spirale et le miroir (textes écrits de 1926 à 1961)'', Messidor, 1990 (presented by Émile Jalley and Liliane Maury)
* ''Œuvres d'Henri Wallon'', 6 tomes, L'Harmattan, 2015. (led by Émile Jalley and Philippe Wallon)
** Œuvres 1, délire de persécution, psychologie pathologique.
** Œuvres 2, 1903-1929.
** Œuvres 3, 1930-1937.
** Œuvres 4, 1938-1950.
** Œuvres 5, 1951-1956.
** Œuvres 6, 1957-1963.
Studies on Henri Wallon
*
René Zazzo, ''Psychologie et marxisme ; la vie et l’œuvre d’Henri Wallon''. Paris, Denoël Gonthier, 1975.
* Émile Jalley, ''Wallon lecteur de Freud et Piaget. Trois études suivies des textes de Wallon sur la psychanalyse'', Éd. sociales, Paris, 1981
* Émile Jalley, ''Freud, Wallon, Lacan. L'enfant au miroir'', éd. EPEL, Paris, 1998
* Émile Jalley, ''Wallon et Piaget : pour une critique de la psychologie contemporaine'', Paris, L'Harmattan, coll. « Questions contemporaines », 2006 (notice BnF no FRBNF40244780).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallon, Henri
1879 births
1962 deaths
20th-century French philosophers
Collège de France faculty
Continental philosophers
French psychologists
French Marxists
French Communist Party members
Writers from Paris
French male writers