{"id":23,"date":"2012-07-16T16:27:20","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T20:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2012-08-02T03:31:24","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T07:31:24","slug":"katie-k-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/moderneurope\/katie-k-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychology and the Soviet"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" id=\"il_fi\" src=\"http:\/\/www.imgbase.info\/images\/safe-wallpapers\/miscellaneous\/flags\/20648_flags_soviet_union_flag.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"186\" \/><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><strong>Psychology and the Soviet<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #800080\"><em><strong>By Katie Kelly<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #1107f7;text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Introduction:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The twentieth century was a time for great developments in the field of psychology.\u00a0 Sometimes movements\u00a0in schools of psychology\u00a0were present across many countries and\u00a0others were\u00a0limited\u00a0to\u00a0a singular state.\u00a0 The Cold War began in the later half of the 1900s and competition between US and USSR was fierce, even in the field of psychology.\u00a0 A new desire to learn more about how these Soviets thought developed and many\u00a0western psychologists\u00a0searched for this answer.\u00a0 Yet, the best information they found was straight from the Soviet psychologists&#8217; works.\u00a0 Theories like Ivan Pavlov&#8217;s one concerning higher nervous functioning directly attacked the western ideas of physiology.\u00a0 This gave many American psychologists reason\u00a0to study Pavlov&#8217;s\u00a0experiments and publish their own rebuttals in scholarly works.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">To aid in the clarification of Soviet psychology, the sources below contain a general history of psychology in the Soviet Union\u00a0to primary sources of distinguished Soviet\u00a0psychologists.\u00a0 A great website pertaining to Soviet psychology has yet to be created, but websites and online archives are abundant with knowledge about certain key players like Lev Vgotsky and Ivan Pavlov.\u00a0 Because of the popularity of this subject due to the Cold War, there was a desire for formal publication\u00a0of\u00a0information in books\u00a0rather than posting it\u00a0online.\u00a0 The\u00a0need\u00a0to understand Soviet psychology also sparked before the internet was even\u00a0popular (see publication dates of sources) and by the time it was popular, the need to understand it\u00a0declined along with the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #800080\">1. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>General Overview<\/strong><\/span>:<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Murphy, Gardner,\u00a0and Joseph K. Kovach.\u00a0 <em>Historical Introduction to Modern Psychology.<\/em> New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Murphy and Kovach show the history of psychology from Ancient Greece to modern day.\u00a0 One of the last chapters (Chapter 23) is about Soviet Psychology.\u00a0 It demonstrates the major events in Soviet psychology that have influenced the whole field of psychology.\u00a0 It also discusses Marx&#8217;s effect on Soviet psychology.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Ash, Mitchell G.,\u00a0and William R. Woodward.\u00a0 <em>Psychology in Twentieth-Century Thought and Society. <\/em>Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ash and Woodward give an overview of the field of psychology during the 1900s.\u00a0 It also shows the beginning of experimental psychology, before Ivan Pavlov became famous following their design.\u00a0 It has a chapter designated for psychology in many different countries, one being the Soviet Union.\u00a0 The author of that chapter, David Joravsky, discusses Vgotsky&#8217;s impact on Soviet psychology.\u00a0 At the end of the chapter, he lists multiple sources which would be good for further investigation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Zusne, Leonard. <em>Names in the History of Psychology: A Biographical Sourcebook. <\/em>Washington, D.C.: Hemisphere Publishing, 1975.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This is an encyclopedia containing all of the famous psychologists in history until 1975.\u00a0 It contains Ivan Pavlov and &#8220;Leon&#8221; Vgotsky and provides data such as demographics, education, and various positions held, along with the experiments and theories which made them famous.\u00a0 It is a good source to get background and basic\u00a0information about these two Soviet psychologists.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #800080\">2. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Thematic Sections<\/strong><\/span>:<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Simon, Brian\u00a0(ed.). \u00a0<em>Psychology in the Soviet Union. <\/em>Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1957.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Brian Simon wrote the introduction of the book and states that &#8220;Soviet psychology is dialectical materialism.&#8221;\u00a0 He\u00a0discusses that &#8220;materialist philosophy&#8221;\u00a0is\u00a0even present in the psychology of the Soviet Union and\u00a0links it to Marx, Engels, and Lenin.\u00a0 Besides the introduction, this book is a collection of secondary viewpoints of works such as Pavlov&#8217;s theory of higher nervous function (also see Primary Sources).\u00a0 It is pertinent, because the\u00a0commentators are members of the Institute of Psychology in Moscow (or other closely linked institutions in the Soviet Union or\u00a0Ukraine), which\u00a0gives it\u00a0a unique perspective from Western thought.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Valsiner, Jaan.\u00a0 <em>Developmental Psychology in the Soviety Union. <\/em>Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This is a good source to understand the Soviet&#8217;s view of child development and has a more recent publication date which allows it to cover most of the history of psychology in the Soviet Union (except for the last few years).\u00a0 It discuses the influential Lev Vygotsky and other cultural concepts of developmental psychology.\u00a0 Valsiner attributes the interest of Soviet psychology to not only political but also natural interest in the field of psychology.\u00a0 He also writes that developmental psychology is important to understand the social processes occurring in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Kozulin, Alex. \u00a0<em>Psychology in Utopia: Toward a Social History of Soviet Psychology. <\/em>Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This book discusses the history of psychology specifically in the\u00a0Soviet Union.\u00a0\u00a0Naturally it mentions the works or Ivan Pavlov\u00a0and Lev Vgotsky, but it also mentions Nikolai Bernstein and the backlash against Pavlovianism.\u00a0 One of the most interesting and useful parts of this book is the Chronological Table from 1885 when the Moscow Psychological Society was formed to 1980 when\u00a0the <em>Psychology Journal <\/em>was created.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Sexton, Virginia Staudt,\u00a0and Henry Misiak. \u00a0<em>Historical Perspectives in Psychology: Readings. <\/em> Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1971.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This book is mainly about American psychology, but it does contain a chapter about psychology in other countries, with an except about Soviet psychology.\u00a0 The author of that section, Gregory Razran, at first discusses Ivan Pavlov&#8217;s experimental psychology and his contemporary Vladimir Bekhterev&#8217;s further studies.\u00a0 He also shows the division between Pavlov&#8217;s Soviet psychology and American psychology.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #800080\">3. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Primary Sources<\/strong><\/span>:<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Vgotsky,\u00a0Lev. \u00a0<em>Thought and Language. <\/em>Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1962.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Lev Vgostsky was one of the distinguished psychologists in the Soviet Union.\u00a0 While Vgotsky does discuss his theories about thought and language, he also a major development in intellectual development.\u00a0 He unexpectedley died (28 years before this book was published), but he had\u00a0a major influence on Soviet psychology and those who came after him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" id=\"il_fi\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/vygotsky\/images\/portrait.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"175\" height=\"232\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Pavlov, Ivan P.\u00a0 \u00a0<em>Lecture on Human Reflexes, Vol. II, Conditioned Reflexes and Psychiatry. <\/em>New York, NY: International Publishers, 1941.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">In this lecture series, Ivan Pavlov, another prominent psychologist in the Soviet Union, discusses cortical\u00a0funtion and his famous conditioning theory.\u00a0 In one of the lectures, he also\u00a0proposes his theory of higher nervous functioning, which supposedly takes aim\u00a0at diminishing Western ideas of\u00a0physiology.\u00a0\u00a0Because this book was published before the Cold War, it probably had\u00a0some influence on the divide between the US and USSR.\u00a0 Pavlov also\u00a0includes details about his famous experiments on conditioning (Pavlov&#8217;s dogs, etc.).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" id=\"il_fi\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freeinfosociety.com\/media\/images\/2460.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"204\" height=\"210\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div><strong>Wertsch, James V.\u00a0(ed.). \u00a0<em>The Concept of Activity in Soviet Psychology. <\/em>Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1981.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Due it its publication towards the end of the Soviet Union, the editor gathered a vast collection of primary papers covering a large time period.\u00a0 He includes writings from the notable Vgotsky among others like A. N.\u00a0Leont&#8217;ev, R. E. Levina, and P.I. Zinchenko.\u00a0 This book is a great resource for primary sources, but it does include commentary about Soviet\u00a0psychologists&#8217; work.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div><strong>Slobin, Dan I.\u00a0(ed.). \u00a0<em>Handbook of Soviet Psychology. <\/em>Moscow: International Arts and Sciences Press, Spring-Summer 1966.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This book is actually an issue of <em>Soviet Psychology and Psychiatry<\/em> prepared for the XVIII International Congress of Psychology in Moscow but has since been translated into English.\u00a0 One of the best parts of this book is its &#8220;Glossary of Terms Frequently Encountered in Soviet Psychology.&#8221;\u00a0 Many papers from lesser-known psychologists are present.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #800080\">4. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Related Research Guides &amp; Other Electronic Sources<\/strong><\/span>:<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\">Schmolze, Nate. \u00a0<em>Psychology and Marxism <\/em>(2000).\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/subject\/psychology\/index.htm\">http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/subject\/psychology\/index.htm<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This is a good website for further studies\u00a0in Soviet psychology.\u00a0 It contain Marxist works, reference works, and commentary about Soviet psychology.\u00a0 It also has links for further reading.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #800080\">5. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Libraries &amp; Archives<\/strong><\/span>:<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\">Blundern, Andy.\u00a0<em>Lev Vygotsky Archive<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/vygotsky\/\">http:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/vygotsky\/<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This is a great online archive for everything related to Lev Vygotsky.\u00a0 It contains many of Vygotsky&#8217;s works and suggestions for further reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psychology and the Soviet By Katie Kelly Introduction: The twentieth century was a time for great developments in the field of psychology.\u00a0 Sometimes movements\u00a0in schools of psychology\u00a0were present across many countries and\u00a0others were\u00a0limited\u00a0to\u00a0a singular state.\u00a0 The Cold War began in the later half of the 1900s and competition between US and USSR was fierce, even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1144,"featured_media":0,"parent":2,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions\/50"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}