Letters to Vygotsky: Thinking about the Cultural-Historical Psychology in the Contemporary Clinic

Abstract

This article aims to make a tribute to Lev Semenovich Vygotsky and his contributions to Cultural-Historical Psychology in the contemporary psychological clinic. In order to build these reflections, we chose the letter format, considering that Vygotsky, a lover of literature, shared his theory with his students, collaborators and co-workers through letters as well. We understand that psychological clinic has always been one of Vygotsky’s interests, which has been expressed, for example, in the construction of the pedology and the defectology. Although Lev Vygotsky was not a psychotherapist in the models we know today, we identified that his concepts such as mediation, learning, and zone of proximal development among others can contribute significantly to the work in the psychotherapy field. With affection, we realize that Cultural-Historical Psychology is a current theory and presents itself as a great power in the field of psychotherapy. We suggest that clinical investigations should be done in this promising field.