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ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the legacy of one of the more controversial figures of Soviet psychology, L. I. Bozhovich. The paper presents a brief historical outline of Bozhovich’s scientific life. Also discussed are the theoretical differences between Vygotsky and Leontiev. The main theoretical concepts proposed by Bozhovich are discussed, making explicit their interrelations as well as their implications for Soviet psychology. The paper also presents Bozhovich’s periodization of personality, based on the relation between social situation of development and perezhivanie as the theoretical core of that periodization.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The historical fact of the split between Vygotsky and his group has not been studied in depth until now. Taking into account the growing criticism of Vygotsky by Leontiev and his Kharkov group, as well as by others in that period (Zinchenko, Citation2012) and the definitively different theoretical paths taken by Vygotsky and Leontiev from 1931, it is pertinent to consider the hypothesis that the split expressed theoretical differences and personal contradictions between them.
2. I did not find any work published by Bozhovich on motivation in her Kharkov period. From that period, I only found her joint paper with P. Zinchenko (1979–1980), “The psychology of acquiring factual knowledge by schoolchildren.”.
3. In the former Soviet Union, the PhD degree was called “candidate of science” in an area because the title “doctor” was reserved for the degree of doctor in science, which, unlike the candidate of science, was not defended by a thesis written on the basis of one piece of research, but by a thesis related to the researcher’s own line of research on some psychological subject.