A History of Marxist Psychology The Golden Age of Soviet Science

An illuminating and original collection of essays on 20th century Russian psychology, offering unparalleled coverage of the scholarship of Vygotsky and his peers.

Yasnitsky et al. challenge our assumptions about the history of Soviet science and the nature of Soviet Marxism and its influence on psychological thinking. He significantly broadens the discussion around Vygotsky?s life and work and its historical context, applying theories of other notable thinkers such as Alexander Luria and the much-neglected philosopher/psychologist Sergei Rubinstein, alongside key movements in history, such as the pedology and psychohygiene. A diverse range of researchers from countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Russian Federation, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the UK, give this book a truly global outlook.

This is an important and insightful text for undergraduate and postgraduate students and scholars interested in the history of psychology and science, social and cultural history of Russia and Eastern Europe, Marxism, and Soviet politics.

INTRODUCTION

A new history of psychology: Soviet, Russian, Marxist (Anton Yasnitsky)

Part I. THEORY

1. Reminiscence about future Marxist psychology: one Hundred years of solitude (Leonid Radzikhovskii)

2. Sergei Rubinstein as the founder of Soviet Marxist psychology: "Problems of psychology in the works of Karl Marx" (1934) and beyond (Anton Yasnitsky)

Part II. PRACTICE

3. Soviet psychohygiene, outpatient psychiatry and international knowledge exchanges (Grégory Dufaud)

4. Pedology as occupation in the early Soviet Union (Andy Byford)

Part III. DIALOGUES

5. The golden age of Soviet psychology in the mirror of contemporary Marxian psychology in Brazil (Gisele Toassa, Flávia da Silva Ferreira Asbahr, and Marilene Proença Rebello de Souza)

6. Alexander Luria: Marxist psychologist and transnational scientific broker: a personal account (Alexandre Métraux)

EPILOGUE

Soviet Psychology and its utopias: historical reflections for current science (Luciano Nicolás García)

Anton Yasnitsky, Ph.D. (University of Toronto), is an independent researcher who specializes in the Vygotsky–Luria Circle. He is the author of Vygotsky: An Intellectual Biography (2018). He has also edited Questioning Vygotsky’s Legacy: Scientific Psychology or Heroic Cult (2018) and Revisionist Revolution in Vygotsky Studies (2015).