Vygotsky’s Sociohistorical Psychology and its Contemporary Applications

"The social character of psychological phenomena has never been easy to comprehend. Despite the fact that an intricate set of social relations forms our most intimate thoughts, feelings, and actions, we believe that psychology originates inside our body, in genes, hormones, the brain, and free will. Perhaps this asocial view stems from the alienated nature of most societies which makes individual activity appear to be estranged from social relations. One might have thought that the emergence of scientific psychology would have disclosed the social character of activity had overlooked. Unfortunately, a century and a which naive experience half of psychological science has failed to comprehend the elusive social character of psychological phenomena. Psychological science has eviƯ dently been subjugated by the mystifying ideology of society. This book aims to comprehend the social character of psychological functioning. I argue that psychological functions are quintessentially soƯ cial in nature and that this social character must be comprehended if psychological knowledge and practice are to advance. The social nature of psychological phenomena consists in the fact that they are constructed by individuals in the process of social interaction, they depend upon properties of social interaction, one of their primary purposes is faciliƯ tating social interaction, and they embody the specific character of hisƯ torically bound social relations. This viewpoint is known as sociohistorical psychology. It was articƯ ulated most profoundly and comprehensively by the Russian psycholoƯ gists Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria during, the 1920s and 1930s"--Font no determinada Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-10 Human Psychology’s General Features....Pages 11-67 Psychology’s Concrete Social Character....Pages 69-111 Psychological Universals, True and False....Pages 113-146 The Development of Psychology in the Individual....Pages 147-198 Psychology’s Functional Autonomy from Biology....Pages 199-242 Madness....Pages 243-312 Conclusion: Political Aspects of Psychological Doctrines....Pages 313-320 Back Matter....Pages 321-368 Ratner, of Humboldt State U., breathes new life into a very important but generally neglected viewpoint that psychological functions are quintessentially social in nature and that this social character must be comprehended if psychological knowledge and practice are to advance. This viewpoint, known as sociohistorical psychology, was articulated mo