Russian and Soviet Psychology in the Changing Political Environment E-Book

Heinz-Dieter Knöll

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 81

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

This monograph describes psychology in changing political environ­ments in Tsarist Russia in the mid of 19th century, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation until the year 2000. Russia and the Soviet Union are of special interest, because of the multitude of political changes. There were not only the so-called October-Revolution in 1917, which initiated the Soviet rule, and the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1990. But there were also a multitude of changes in Soviet times. In the begin­ning of the Soviet rule there were many new developments in sciences, which also affected psychology. Since Stalin assumed power, there were many developments and ideological restrictions as well.

Leseprobe

This book is dedicated to all scientists and researchers, who are working in the search for truth and a better understanding of the world.

Heinz D. Knoellreceived his B.A., B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. at the University of Muenster, Germany. From 1980 on he worked as an IT-Consultant and from 1986 on was for nearly 30 years professor of Computer Information Systems at the University of Applied Sciences in Lueneburg, Germany (now merged with Leuphana University).

From 1978 on, he was on many business trips to several Universities in the USSR and Russia.

Since his retirement he studies Psychology and Soviet History at the University of Hamburg, Germany.

Jerwen Joureceived his B.A. at the National Chengchi University, Taiwan, his M.A. at Fujen University, Taiwan, M.S. in Psychology at East Texas State University, and his Ph.D. in Psychology at Kansas State University. Since 1990 he is with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, TX, since 2000 as professor of Psychology.

Heinz D. Knoell Jerwen Jou

Russian and Soviet Psychology in the Changing Political Environment

A Time Series Analysis Approach

© 2021 Heinz D. Knoell

Translation of Russian and German references and excerpts in books and journals into English by Heinz D. Knoell

Publisher & Print:

tredition GmbH, Halenreie 40-44, 22359 Hamburg Germany

ISBN

978-3-347-30834-3 (Paperback)

978-3-347-30835-0 (Hardcover)

978-3-347-30836-7 (e-Book)

This work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. Any exploitation without the consent of the publisher and the authors is prohibited. This applies in particular to electronic or other reproduction, translation, distribution and making available to the public.

Contents

Preface

Russian And Soviet Psychology Schools

History Of Russia And Sociopolitical Influences On Psychology

Tsarist Times

From Bolshevik October Revolution In 1917 To 1929

First Wave Of Repressions Against Psychologists In 1929

Second Wave Of Repressions Against Psychology In 1936

Pavlovization Of Psychology From 1948 To 1953

Khrushchev Era From 1953 To 1966

Brezhnev Era 1966 To 1985

Gorbachev Era From 1985 To 1991

Yeltsin Era From 1991 To 2000

Putin Era Since 2000

Research Method

Motivation Of Our Research

Time Series Analysis

Limitations And Caveats Of Our Research

How To Read The Following Graphs

Impact Of The Communist Party’s Tasks For Psychology In The Post-Stalin Era (1955–2000)

Creation Of The New Soviet Man

Improvement In Quality, Output, And Organization In Industrial And Agricultural Production

Diagnosis And Treatment Of Physical And Psychic Disorders

Other Goals Set By The Communist Party

Changes Not Based On Communist Party Decisions

Discussion

Conclusions And Further Study

References

Preface

This monograph describes psychology in changing political environments in Tsarist Russia in the mid of 19th century, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation until the year 2000. Russia and the Soviet Union are of special interest, because of the multitude of political changes. There were not only the so-called October-Revolution in 1917, which initiated the Soviet rule, and the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1990. But there were also a multitude of changes in Soviet times. In the beginning of the Soviet rule there were many new developments in sciences, which also affected psychology. Since Stalin assumed power, there were many developments and ideological restrictions as well. These are well documented in books and journal articles (e.g. Artemyeva, 2015; Bauer, 1959; Ehrsam, 1985; Graham, 1972; Kozulin, 1984; Krementsov, 1997; Kussmann, 1974; McLeish, 1975; Petrovsky, 2000; Thielen, 1984).

At first glance it may seem that after Stalin’s death there was a stable ideology, which guided the sciences and research. This was not the case, as we document in our monograph using a qualitative Time Series Analysis.

We present the decisions made by the Soviet Union’s Communist Party congresses and Central Committee meetings concerning the task goals of psychological research in different sub-fields of psychology (e.g. Human Experimental Psychology, Social Psychology, Personality Psychology). We relate the political conditions of a given period to the percentage of pages of psychological papers published in different areas of psychology in Voprosy Psichologii (“Questions of Psychology”), the only Russian psychology journal prior to 1977. The nature and types of the papers reflected the vicissitudes of Soviet and Russian psychology during the latter half of the 20th century when it emerged from pedagogy in 1955, as it became a sub-field of pedagogy by a decree of the Communist Party in 1937 (London, 1949; Petrovsky, 2000).

In the following sections, we give a short sketch of the Russian and Soviet Psychology schools of thought, a history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation and their impact on psychology. Then we explain our research method, it’s limitations and how to read the graphical representations of our results.

In the next chapter we investigate the Communist Party’s role in the development of the Soviet Union’s and Russian Federation’s psychology from 1955 to 2000. We present our findings of the party’s influence on psychology in the post-Stalin era, based on our bibliometric research using the qualitative Time Series Analysis method. Finally, we draw some conclusions and provide an outline of our future research.

This research was aided by the support of many individuals. We especially thank the following persons:

Svetlana Yu. Zhdanova, Chair of Developmental Psychology, Department of Psychology, State University, Perm, Russia, provided us with the tables of content of Russian and Soviet psychological journals, which were the data basis for our research.

Olaf Morgenroth, Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Medical School Hamburg, Germany, who is engaged in the History of Psychology, was the mentor and coach of our research.

Jonas Knöll, Researcher, Friedrich-Löffler-Institute, Celle, Germany gave us initial support in writing the R-scripts for the statistical evaluation and representation of our data.

Lydia Lange, Max-Planck-Institute for Educational Research, Berlin, Germany supported us with her expertise in bibliometric research.

Madlen Schmaltz, Institute of Information Systems, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany was our reliable office assistant.

The Team of Interlibrary Loans, Media and Information Center, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany provided us with the piles of literature we needed for the interpretation of our data.

Arlene Veldkamp and Nataliia Kumorkievich did the final proofreading. Thank you so much!

There have been much more persons, who supported our work and encouraged us to go on, who are not mentioned here. We thank them also very much.

Russian And Soviet Psychology Schools

Figure 1 displays an overview of the Russian and Soviet Schools of thought in psychology modified from Ehrsam (1985). In his paper “Zur Entwicklung einer marxistischen Persönlichkeitspsychologie in der UdSSR (On the Development of a Marxist Personality Psychology in the USSR)” he identifies three main roots of Russian and Soviet Psychology. They are based on Ivan Sechenov’s reflex theory, Wundt’s experimental psychology and Lenin’s reflection theory.

Sechenov proceeded in his theoretical and experimental investigations from the principle of materialistic monism, i.e. the inseparable connection between the psychic and the physiological, as well as from the principle of the interaction between organism and environment. On this basis, in his investigations of the reflex process going back to Descartes, he worked out the central role of information reception and discovered the inhibiting influence of the brain on reflex activity, thus referring to the possibility of active, selective behavior of the organism.

Figure 1: Russian and Soviet Schools of Thought modified from Ehrsam (1985)

Based on this, Sechenov can be considered the founder of the reflexive conception of the psychic, which had an impact far into later Soviet physiology or psychology. Sechenov published his theories in 1863 (Graham, 1972), which was banned by the Tsar’s censorship. This theory was the basis for both Bekhterev’s Reflexology and Pavlov’s Higher Nervous Activity concept.

The second root was the German Wundt school, which was represented by Chelpanov and his disciples.

The third root was the principle of Reflection Theory, formulated by Lenin (McLeish, 1975, p. 178), following Marx and Engels. In this theory the basis is the conviction, that the mind, or psyche, is a ‘reflection’ of the objective, external world. According to this view, the mental and spiritual life of man is ultimately the product of social influences. The economic structure and class relations of society constitute by far the most important part. The emotions, the will, the intellect are considered to be processes which arise, develop, and change in their manifold ways as a consequence of particular material and social environments. The subjective life of a man is not something ‘locked away’, something personal, or unique, or individual, and developing in isolation from reality, with a special history of its own, out of contact with the real changing world of physical and social relations. Soviet psychologists cannot conceive a man as a contemplative being: human qualities presuppose a world of interaction and human relations.

In the initial stage of Soviet psychology, already at the Second All-Russian Congress of Psychoneurology in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) in 1924, two main currents crystallized: the reactological direction led by Kornilov and the reflexological direction developed by Bekhterev and his strong scientific school. The Wundt school, represented by Chelpanov, played a minor role. In addition, at the beginning of the 1920s, Pavlov's theory of higher nervous activity gained increasing importance. All the currents or schools mentioned here were based to a greater or lesser extent on the reflexive conception of the psychic founded by Sechenov - a proof of the strong appeal of this theory and its usefulness for working out new theoretical foundations for psychological research.