The “Revisionist Revolution” and Future Prospects of Vygotskian Studies

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Abstract

This article provides critical analysis of A. Yasnitsky’s project of “Cultural-Historical Gestalt Psychology.” He uses this term to describe Vygotsky’s biggest discovery and the future of Vygotsky studies. Yasnitsky discards the activity approach to studying the human mind and reduces the social nature of personality to an “aspect” that did not receive serious elaboration in Vygotsky’s works. In the present article, it is argued that the prospect of the development of cultural-historical theory consists in elaborating on Vygotsky’s project of “height / acmeist psychology.” Its subject matter is “the reverse movement from consciousness to life,” as Vygotsky put it. The purpose of height psychology is to help humans master their affects by means of concepts. This science realizes “the motion toward freedom — toward a life guided by reason.”

General Information

Keywords: cultural-historical gestalt psychology, structure, perception, activity, consciousness, parallelism, height psychology, affect, concept

Journal rubric: Problems of Cultural-Historical and Activity Psychology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2021170202

Funding. The study is funded by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), project number 20-18-00028.

For citation: Maidansky A.D. The “Revisionist Revolution” and Future Prospects of Vygotskian Studies. Kul'turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2021. Vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 23–28. DOI: 10.17759/chp.2021170202.

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Information About the Authors

Andrey D. Maidansky, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Professor, Chair of Philosophy, Belgorod National Research University, Associated Researcher, Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Belgorod, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2061-3878, e-mail: maidansky@gmail.com

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