Psychological Science In The Ussr

The study of psychology for the uses of the state, for industrial/labor purposes, for dealing with individual and ethnic tensions has a long history in Russia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian psychologists and scholars of the discipline from outside Russia have had the opportunity to reexamine the directions the discipline took as well as the directions likely to result from the new academic and political environments. This volume brings together many of the leading figures in contemporary Russian psychology, who show how the discipline got to where it is and examine what may result in the future. The volume begins with essays examining historical background; next the writers look at the period from 1985-1994 and its impact on research opportunities. This discussion is followed by a review of the major theoretical viewpoints and issues in contemporary Russian psychology. By bringing together many of the leading figures in Russian psychology, readers and researchers in psychology have a unique insight into the state of the discipline and its likely future directions.

Originally published in 1975, this title sets out to show us the differences between Soviet and other ways of thinking about nature, man, and society. The basic factor distinguishing Soviet psychology is that it views phenomena from the perspective of a highly articulated body of theoretical assumptions, and rejects the inductive ‘eclecticism’ of Western psychology. The theoretical framework within which Soviet psychology functions is the product of a distinctive socio-political and cultural development in Russia profoundly shaped by the institutions of autocracy and Orthodox religion, and the economic system of serfdom, and the radical revolt which grew up in opposition to this and advocated materialism, secularism, and atheism. This radical philosophic tradition in Russia, best represented by the writings of Chernishevski, fused with the doctrines of Marxism and the new science of behaviour developed by Sechenov and Pavlov to create the theoretical framework of Soviet psychology. The book also analyses the discussions, controversies, and decrees which are at the root of the contemporary science of behaviour in the Soviet Union, and points to the impressive body of empirical knowledge which has arisen. Soviet Psychology is unique in presenting Soviet psychology from an ‘inside’ point of view, and in making us appreciate the strongly theoretical stance of Soviet psychology which Professor McLeish claims is unlikely to be much influenced by the new atmosphere of détente.

This book is aimed at a professional audience of psychiatrists, psychologists, and educators, as well as Slavic studies scholars and teachers and intelligent lay readers. It would be presumptious to attempt to cover the entire field of Soviet psychiatry and psychology in one modest volume. During the past several decades there has been a remarkable flourishing and diversification of research in psychology and psychiatry in the USSR. What we have attempted to do in this symposium is to present a constructive critical overview of certain limited areas by arranging an interchange of observations and ideas between several American scientists knowledgeable in these fields and a psychologist and psychiatrist who obtained their education and working experience in the USSR. We hope to be able to expand such symposia in the future, so as to cover other important areas of these disciplines. This monograph presents an eyewitness account of Pavlov by W. Horsley Gantt, one of three surviving students of Pavlov, and, to the best of my knowledge, the only American who actually studied and worked with Pavlov. It is a measure of Dr. Gantt's devotion to the development of scientific psychiatry that he went to the USSR to spend six years in Pavlov's laboratory at a time of extreme economic hardship and political turmoil in that country and in the face of having to master a difficult language. In his presentation, Dr.