Vygotsky was invited to Moscow to take up a position at the Institute and soon formed a research group (the ‘troika’) with two of Kornilov’s young assistants, Alexander Luria, at the time an advocate of psychoanalysis, and Alexei Leontyev.
-clip- For all the problems, the old society had been shattered. The Soviet Union in the 1920s was a cauldron of creativity. Physical and intellectual conditions were desperately inadequate. The entire resources of the country which had not been destroyed were mobilized in an ideological atmosphere which was highly charged. But nothing was impossible or out of bounds. History was being made everywhere. These three young men could never have met but for the Revolution, let alone find themselves charged with the task of revolutionizing the entire science of psychology. ^^^^^ CB: Of course , the entire science of psychology had only been in existence for a few years at this time ( smile). ^^^^^^^^ Vygotsky developed the idea of the ‘unit of analysis’ for a science. As Marx points out in the preface to the first edition of Capital, the commodity relation is the germ or cell of economics. All the phenomena of capitalism can be unfolded from this simplest and most primitive of relations, the exchange of commodities, just like the cell of biology and the molecule of chemistry. This idea originated with Goethe and is a key methodological principle for both Hegel and Marx. Finding that the relation between thinking and speaking was the central problem for psychology, he concluded that resolving this problem was a microcosm of the whole problem of human consciousness. He went on to conclude that word meaning was the unit of analysis for the study of intelligent speech (1987), and more generally, that the basic unit of psychology is joint, artefact-mediated action, with word meaning a special case. ^^^^^ CB: I'm trying to think what the "unit of analysis" is in ethnology (smile). Interesting that Vygotsky settles on the relation between thinking and speaking as the central problem of psychology. The issue of the relationship between thought and language is taken up by the contemporary analytical philosophy wasn't it ? ^^^^^^^ To make a beginning in their investigations, the group developed a novel approach to psychological experimentation. Vygotsky pointed out that the usual approach which emphasized ‘scientific objectivity’ and observed the behaviour of individual subjects, isolated from interaction with other people, especially the experimenter, was incapable of capturing psychological functions in the process of development, but was limited to the observation of finished process. Treating subjects like laboratory rats in this way, it was impossible to understand psychological processes, which are not innate, but originate from the collaborative use of cultural products. The team developed what they called the ‘functional method of double stimulation’ (Vygotsky 1987): the subject was given a task to perform; then they were offered some artefact which they could use to complete the task. By assisting the subject to use an artefact, such as an aide mémoire, to complete a task, the researchers could actually foster the development of a new psychological function, such as ability to memorize. The use of a ‘psychological tool’ allows the subject to modify their own psyche. The fact is that a universal characteristic of human psychology is the disposition of human beings to use cultural products to control their own behaviour. By collaborating in this, the researcher can unlock the developmental processes of the psyche ^^^^^^^^ CB: To me, this is the fundamentally important aspect of Vygotsky's and associates' approach: Giving primacy of attention to the relationship between the social/cultural and the individual in trying to understand the development of the individual. Psychology is the study of _individual_ humans, but for humans the social and cultural is especially important in the development of individuals. Thus, the name _Cultural_ Psychology indicates the "revolution" in psychology in itself. More later _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
