Gestalt psychology in the soviet union

Abstract

The influence of the Berlin school of Gestalt psychology on Soviet psychology in the period before the ‘reactological debate’ (1931) is analyzed. A review of the channels of communication (congresses personal visits, translations, review papers) shows that Soviet psychologists were well informed about Gestalt psychology, and that the members of L.S. Vygotskij's circle were the main promotors of Gestalt ideas in the Soviet Union. Gestalt psychology was welcomed as a potential ‘ally’ in the construction of a Marxist psychology first outlined by K.N. Kornilov. The initial enthusiasm for Gestalt psychology was stimulated by the system concept as developed by Wolfgang Kohler, and A.R. Luria made an attempt to demonstrate the compatibility between Kohler's theory and some general methodological implications of dialectical materialism. Later on, the focus of interest shifted to Kohler's investigations of intelligent behavior in apes, which formed part of the empirical base of the ‘historico-cultural theory of mental development’. The impact of Gestalt ideas served an important function in the struggle against mechanistic theories of behavior which were at that time predominant in Soviet psychology.