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The Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of

Genetic Psychology
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Professor L. S. Vygotsky (18961934)

a
A. R. Luria
a
Moscow University , Moscova , U. S. S. R.
Published online: 31 Aug 2012.

To cite this article: A. R. Luria (1935) Professor L. S. Vygotsky (18961934), The Pedagogical Seminary
and Journal of Genetic Psychology, 46:1, 224-226, DOI: 10.1080/08856559.1935.10533153

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 224 SHORT ARTICLES AND NOTES

PROFESSOR L. S. VYGOTSKY (1896-1934)

A. R. LURIA

The scientific world of the Soviet Union has lately lost one of its brilliant
men. Professor L. S. Vygotsky, the most prominent soviet psychologist, died
of tubercular complications on June 11, 1934, at the age of 38.
Professor Vygotsky held a very high place among soviet psychologists.
Working in the field of psychology, paedology, defectology, and in the
clinics, he gained a leading position in all those fields, having shown him-
self as an innovator and having created a new school with a large number
of followers all over the country. In his early years in Gomel (his native
town) and afterwards in Moscow Vygotsky devoted himself to the study of
psychology. He realised that the present state of psychology allowed no
satisfactory scientific explanation of human personality and those complex
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regularities of the life of the human brain which are specific human qual-
ities. The subject of his work, therefore, was the creation of the psychology
01 man, the science of the complex laws of the human psyche. In his early
works Vygotsky laid stress upon the fact that psychology was in a critical
state, having been divided into two isolated branches. One of those branches
approached human psychology from the naturalistic point of view and,
having applied physiological methods, was in a position to explain only the
most simple phenomena, leaving the more complex features of human con-
sciousness without any scientific explanation. On the other hand, idealistic
psychology, studying those complex forms of human consciousness considered
them to be the product of the spirit and, refraining from any explanations,
excluded psychology from the field of natural sciences.
Professor Vygotsky aimed at explaining historically the developing 01
consciousness and the origin of the most complex elements of the human
psyche, thus turning psychology into a science which would be able to
explain the highest human functions. In order to explain scientifically the
origin and functions of the complex forms of human consciousness, Vygotsky
began to study its development, and modern science is indebted to him
for his work on the genesis of the psychological functions of the child. He
established that the determining factor in the psychological development of
the child and in the creation of the complex mechanisms of the psyche is
the social development of th:e child. His experiments led him to the con-
clusion that the child during his educational period and in a real contact
with the world of adults acquires not only new habits, but that nes mech-
anisms are formed which are social by their nature and are the forms of
relation between the child and the adult 'Which become, durinq the time'
of the development of the child, its oson forms of behavior, mechanisms of
the organization of the psychological process. In a number of papers on
 SHOR.T ARTICLES AND NOTES 225
his experiments, which have now become classical in Russian psychology,
he described some of those mechanisms, social by nature and indirect by
their structure. He showed that the development of the psychological func-
tions of the child is bound up with a deep change in the mind, with the
development of new and intricate relations between the psychical functions,
and with the genesis of nes functional systems. In the light of that theory
Vygotsky analysed the origin of such complex psychological functions as
logical memory, active attention, will, speech, thought, and character, being
the first psychologist to introduce the historical method in the experimental
study of these important problems of human activity.
Professor Vygotsky's attention was drawn by the fact that speech plays
the most important role in the development of complex behavior j it is speech
that allows the creation of new functions, connected by their meanings.
His further work was devoted to the study of the development of the mean-
ing of speech. He proved that the meaning of a 'Word does not remain
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constant with the child and that, in connection with the development of the
meaning of speech, the correlation of the physical processes are developed
and new psychical functions are formed, which are the specific features of
the mind of man. Having begun with the development of the mental func-
tions, Vygotsky worked out his theory about the meaningful construction of
human consciousness, taken as the product of the historical development of
the mental functions. The work of Professor Vygotsky was not confined
only to purely theoretical problems. His researches exercised considerable
influence upon the practical application of psychology. The weakness of
classical psychology lies in the fact that it did not influence the practical
sphere of life. The outstanding problems of pedagogics and medicine re-
ceived little help from either physiological psychology or idealistic (geists-
'Wissenschaftliche) psychology. Vygotsky was able to approach scientifical1y
the burning problems of every-day life. He carried out a number of re-
searches which are of great pedagogical importance. His associates showed
ho'W the children understand the ideas they get at school, how the develop-
ment of the child affects its training and is stimulated by the training. His
laboratory work allowed him to predict the development of the child and
to define its scope. The work which he carried out in the Institute of Ex-
perimental Defectology in Moscow showed how the study of the development
of the mental process could be laid as a foundation for the organization of
the diagnostic and educational work with the child.
His contributions to the psychiatric and nervous clinics have been very
original. He has shown that the study of the disintegration of the com-
plex psychical functions could play an important role in the understanding
of the mechanisms of nervous and mental diseases. In his work on the
psychology of schizophrenia and aphasia which he carried out in the In-
 226 SHORT ARTICLES AND NOTES

stitute of Experimental Medicine he gave brilliant examples of the psycho-

logical solution of clinical problems. His posthumous paper to the
Psychoneurological Congress deals with the problem of localisation of the
mental functions in the cortex.
We have lost a scholar who has defined the path for the development of
IOTiet psychology, paedology, and defectology. His pupils are now working
in different laboratories of Moscow, Leningrad, and Kharkov. He has left
a considerable number of books among which Paedology of school age,
Paedology of the youth and Thought and speech are the most important.
His important philosophical work The theory of affects by Spinor.a-
Prolegomena to the psychology of man, which sums up his activity in the
field of psychology, is yet to be published.
We have lost a man who has been closely connected with soviet public
life and whose manifold activities have defined to a considerable extent
the ways by which scientific work will be carried on at schools and subsid-
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ary institutions.
We have lost a man whose great intellect and personal charm will be
ever remembered by those who happened to come in contact with him.

IMPORTANT WORKS OF VYGOTSKY

1. Pedagogical psychology. (Russian) Moscow, 1926.

2. Paedology of school age. (Russian) Moscow, 1928.
3. Paedeilogy of the juvenile (Russian) Moscow, 1931.
4. The principles of paedology. (Lectures in Russian) Moscow, 1934.
S. Thought and speech. (Russian) Moscow, 1934.
6. The meaning of the present psychological crisis. (In print).
7. Spinosa and his theory of affection-Prolegomena to the psychology
of man. (In print).
8. The problem of the cultural development of the child. J. Genet.
Psychol., 1930.
9. Thought in schizophrenia. Arch. Neur, ~ Psychiat., 1934.
Moscow Uni'Uersity
Moscow, U. S. S. R.

SOCIAL STATUS AND VOCABULARY-

NOEL B. CUFF

I. INTRODUCTION

There are numerous indications in the relevant literature that a marked

relationship exists between the social status of the family and the child'.
vocabulary development. Degerando, for example, as early al 1847, con-

-Read at the twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Academy of

Science, Berea, Kentucky, 1934.