The changing face of Soviet psychology

Abstract

For better comprehension of the current situation in Soviet psychology one may want ta take a quick look at its historical past. A study of human behavior was traditionally carried out within Russia in two different settings: in somewhat more philosophically oriented depart ments and institutes of psychology, and in the psycho-physiological laboratories affiliated with departments of biology or medicine. The historically significant embodiment of the former tradition is the Moscow Institute of Psychology which was founded in 1912 by Wundt's student Georgy Chelpanov. The second trend has its origin in the laboratories of the famous Russian reflexologists, Ivan Sechenov and Ivan Pavlov and continues to flourish in the Department of Higher Nervous Activity of Moscow University and at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity of the Academy of Sciences. After the brief period of hectic activity in the 1920's, when psychol ogists worked on the creation of a "new Soviet man", psychological studies suffered a major setback under Stalin and got relatively low priority in the Soviet academic hierarchy. Graduate training was avail able only in Moscow, Leningrad and Tbilisi; the psychology faculty was integrated into either departments of philosophy or schools of educa tion; existent research facilities were used almost exclusively for studies focusing on child welfare and educational psychology. Psychology as a mental health profession was non-existent for all practical purposes. Finally, an aggressive attack of some Pavlovian reflexologists on "men talistic" psychologists launched in the late 1940's further weakened psychology's position. The true revival came only in the mid-1960's. Independent depart ments of psychology were established at the Universities of Moscow and Leningrad. In 1971 a new research-oriented Institute of Psychology of the prestigious Academy of Sciences was opened in Moscow. The importance of psychology started to be recognized not only in such traditional areas as education and child welfare, but also by the air