Andrey Yevgenyevich Lichko (russian: Андре́й Евге́ньевич Личко; 1926–1994) was a Russian

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

, an honored science worker of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Medicine, and vice principal of

Saint-Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Psychoneurological Institute n.a. V.M. Bekhterev. His main directions of scientific research were

diagnostics Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine "cause and effect". In systems engineer ...

and treatment of

mental disorders A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

of adolescents.

Contributions

Lichko created his own personality typology on the basis of works by

Pyotr Gannushkin Pyotr Borisovich Gannushkin (russian: Пётр Бори́сович Га́ннушкин; March 8, 1875 – February 23, 1933) was a Russian psychiatrist who developed one of the first theories of psychopathies known today as personality disorder ...

and Karl Leonhard. He has written several psychiatry books: "Adolescent Psychiatry", " Psychopathy and Accentuations of Character at Teenagers", " Schizophrenia in Teenagers", and "Adolescent Narcology". He is also known as the author of a book called "History as Viewed by a Psychiatrist: Ivan the Terrible, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Nikolai Gogol, and Others". He has written at length about

Haltlose personality disorder Haltlose personality disorder was a type of personality disorder diagnosis largely used in German-, Russian- and French-speaking countries. The German word ''haltlose'' refers to being "unstable" (literally: "without footing"), and in English- ...

. Lichko, A. E.br>Psychopathies and Character Accentuation in Adolescents
Chapter 32 In the late eighties Lichko spearheaded an effort to revive the '' Bekhterev Review of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology''. After the journal had been reestablished, he became its deputy editor.

Accentuations of character

His

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

entitled "Psychopathy and Accentuations of Character of Teenagers" (1977) has become an indispensable textbook for many generations of Russian

s and

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 ...

s. For writing this book, Andrey Lichko was awarded the Honorary Certificate n.a. V.M. Bekhterev by USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. In this monograph, Andrey Lichko has enriched the theory of psychopathy (what is known today as

personality disorders Personality disorders (PD) are a class of mental disorders characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by the individual's culture ...

) by demonstrating that along with psychopathy it is necessary to distinguish the so-called accentuations of

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

. Lichko's typology has parallels with those of Karl Leonhard and

. Persons with accentuations of character are placed somewhere between mentally sane persons and psychopaths (those who have different personality disorders). Referring to the famous monograph by the German psychiatrist Karl Leonhard, "Accentuated Persons", Andrey Lichko emphasized that it is more correct to use the term "accentuations of character" instead of the term "accentuated personality" because personality appears to be a wider notion, which includes IQ, skills, worldview, and so on. With his theory of accentuations of character, Andrey Lichko has contributed to the understanding of

etiology Etiology (pronounced ; alternatively: aetiology or ætiology) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek (''aitiología'') "giving a reason for" (, ''aitía'', "cause"); and ('' -logía''). More completely, e ...

neuroses Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving chronic distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. The term is no longer used by the professional psychiatric community in the United States, having been eliminated from th ...

by proposing the concept of the so-called "locus of the least resistance" (locus minoris resistentiae) within the character structure. This conception emerged as the result of elaboration of the idea of the "individual sensibility" to psychic traumas proposed by the eminent Russian developmental psychologist,

Vladimir Nikolayevich Myasishchev Vladimir Nikolayevich Myasishchev (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Мяси́щев; 10 July 1893 – 4 October 1973) was a famous Soviet psychologist and developmental psychologist. Biography Myasishchev was born in Latvia. ...

.Alexandrov, A. A. "The Contemporary Psychotherapy". Saint Petersburg: Academic Project, 1997, p. 173. By improving and elaborating the conception of "situativity" and "individual hypersensibility" to outside influence, Andrey Lichko has developed the theory stating that each type of accentuation of character has its own different "

Achilles' Heel An Achilles' heel (or Achilles heel) is a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, idiomatic references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to ...

". On the assumption of these observations, Andrey Lichko supposed that neurosis is mostly linked with the juxtaposition of a pathogenic situation and the individual peculiarities of character.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lichko, Andrey Yevgenyevich 1926 births 1994 deaths People from Luga, Leningrad Oblast Russian psychiatrists Russian social scientists Schizophrenia researchers Soviet psychiatrists