20 Rubinshtein with l Fundamentals of General Psychology. Sergei Rubinshtein - Fundamentals of General Psychology

S.L. Rubinshtein

BASES OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY

St. Petersburg: Publishing house "Peter", 2000

annotation
From the compilers

Preface to the first edition

PART ONE
Chapter I
SUBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY

The nature of the mental
Mind and consciousness
Mind and activity
Psychophysical problem
The subject and tasks of psychology as a science
Chapter II
METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Methodology and methodology
Methods of psychology
Observation

Introspection

Objective observation
experimental method
Chapter III
HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

History of the development of Western psychology

Psychology in the XVII-XVIII centuries. and the first half of the 19th century.

Formation of psychology as an experimental science

The crisis of the methodological foundations of psychology
History of the development of psychology in the USSR

History of Russian scientific psychology

Soviet psychology

PART TWO
Chapter IV
THE PROBLEM OF DEVELOPMENT IN PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction
Development of the psyche and behavior
The main stages in the development of behavior and psyche; the problem of instinct, skill and intellect

instincts

Individually variable forms of behavior

Intelligence
General conclusions
Chapter V
DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR AND PSYCHE

Behavior of lower organisms
Development of the nervous system in animals
Lifestyle and psyche
Chapter VI
HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

The historical development of consciousness in man

The problem of anthropogenesis

Consciousness and the brain

Development of consciousness
The development of consciousness in a child

Development and training

The development of the child's consciousness

PART THREE
Introduction
Chapter VII
FEELING AND PERCEPTION

Feeling

Receptors

Elements of psychophysics

Classification of sensations

organic sensations

Static sensations

kinesthetic sensations

Skin sensitivity

Touch

Olfactory sensations

Taste sensations

Hearing sensations*

Sound localization

hearing theory

Perception of speech and music

visual sensations

Sensation of color

color mixing

Psychophysiological patterns

Theory of color vision

The psychophysical effect of flowers

Color perception
Perception

The nature of perception

Constancy of perception

Meaningfulness of perception

Historicity of perception

Perception and orientation of personality

Perception of space

Perception of magnitude

Form perception

Movement perception

Perception of time
Chapter VIII
MEMORY

memory and perception
Organic Foundations of Memory
Representation
View associations
memory theory
The role of attitudes in memorization
memorization
Recognition
Playback
Reconstruction in playback
Memory
Saving and forgetting
Reminiscence in conservation
Types of memory
Memory levels
Memory types
Chapter IX
IMAGINATION

The Nature of the Imagination
Types of imagination
Imagination and creativity
"Technique" of imagination
Imagination and personality
Chapter X
THINKING

The nature of thinking
Psychology and logic
Psychological theories of thinking
The psychological nature of the thought process
The main phases of the thought process
Basic operations as aspects of mental activity
Concept and representation
inference
Basic types of thinking
On the genetically early stages of thinking
Development of the child's thinking

The first manifestations of the intellectual activity of the child

Baby's first generalizations

"Situational" thinking of the child

The beginning of the active mental activity of the child

Generalizations in a preschooler and his understanding of relationships

The child's reasoning and understanding of causality

Distinctive features of early forms of children's thinking

Development of the child's thinking in the process of systematic learning

Concept Mastery

Judgments and inferences

The development of theoretical thinking in the process of mastering the knowledge system

Theory of the development of the child's thinking
Chapter XI
SPEECH

Speech and communication. Speech functions
Different types of speech
Speech and thinking
Development of speech in children

The emergence and first stages of the development of a child's speech

Speech structure

Development of coherent speech

The problem of egocentric speech

The development of written language in a child

Development of expressive speech
Chapter XII
ATTENTION

Introduction
Attention theory
Physiological basis of attention
Main types of attention
Basic properties of attention
Development of attention

PART FOUR
Introduction
Chapter XIII
ACTION

Introduction
Various kinds of action
Action and movement
Action and skill
Chapter XIV
ACTIVITY

Tasks and motives of activity
Work

Psychological characteristics of labor

Inventor's work

The work of a scientist

Artist's work
A game

The nature of the game

game theory

The development of the child's games
Doctrine

The nature of learning and work

Teaching and knowledge

Education and development

Teaching motives

Mastering the knowledge system

PART FIVE
Introduction
Chapter XV
PERSONALITY ORIENTATION

Attitudes and trends
Needs
Interests
ideals
Chapter XVI
CAPABILITIES

Introduction
General giftedness and special abilities
Giftedness and ability level
Theories of giftedness
Development of abilities in children
Chapter XVII
EMOTIONS

Emotions and needs
Emotions and lifestyle
Emotions and activities
Expressive movements
Emotions and experiences of the individual
"Associative" experiment
Types of emotional experiences
Emotional personality traits
Chapter XVIII
WILL

The nature of will
Volitional process
Pathology and psychology of will
Volitional personality traits
Chapter XIX
TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTER

The doctrine of temperament
Teaching about character
Chapter XX
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF A PERSON AND ITS LIFE WAY

Self-awareness of the individual
Personal life path
Afterword
Historical context and contemporary sound
fundamental work of S.L. Rubinshtein

annotation

The classic work of Sergei Leonidovich Rubinstein "Fundamentals of General Psychology" is one of the most significant achievements of Russian psychological science. The breadth of theoretical generalizations, combined with the encyclopedic coverage of historical and experimental material, the impeccable clarity of methodological principles, made "Fundamentals ..." a reference book for several generations of psychologists, teachers, and philosophers. Despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since its first publication, it remains one of the best textbooks in general psychology and fully retains its scientific relevance.
From the compilers

The edition of S. L. Rubinshtein's Fundamentals of General Psychology, which is offered to the reader's attention, is the fourth in a row. It was prepared by the students of S.L. Rubinshtein based on the publication of this book in 1946 and the works of S.L. Rubinshtein in the 1950s, i.e. works of the last decade of his life.

The first edition of Fundamentals of General Psychology (1940) was awarded the State Prize and received high marks in reviews by B. G. Ananiev, B. M. Teplov, L. M. Ukhtomsky, V. I. Vernadsky and others. The second edition (1946) was repeatedly discussed by Soviet psychologists, who gave both positive and critical assessments, but the latter never touched on the principles of S.L. Rubinshtein's concept. The heated nature of the discussions of this book, especially at the end of the 1940s, was a reflection of the general negative situation in science in those years, which is discussed in detail in the "Afterword" to this edition.

The enduring value of S. L. Rubinshtein's book is not so much its encyclopedic nature (after all, the summary of basic psychological knowledge sooner or later becomes outdated and begins to be of purely historical interest), but the system of psychological science proposed in it at a certain stage of its development. This book presents an integral system of the new psychology, including both the basic methodological principles and a special way of building this science. In addition, the book takes into account the achievements of world psychology and reflects a significant period in the development of Soviet science, when the leading psychologists of our country, such as S. L. Rubinstein himself, B. M. Teplov, A. N. Leontiev and others, worked together on key problems of psychological knowledge, for example, on the problems of activity. The book also summarized experimental studies built on the principle of the unity of consciousness and activity.

Thus, the need for a new edition of the book is determined primarily by its scientific relevance, but the fact that it has long become a bibliographic rarity and is invariably in high demand among readers also prompted its reprint.

In preparing this edition, its compilers proceeded from the following principles: 1) to focus the reader's attention on the conceptual constructions of S.L. Rubinshtein, 2) to trace the development of his theoretical positions in works written after 1946. In this regard, the ontogenetic material - sections on the development of certain psychological functions, processes in a child (although in Soviet psychology, research in the field of child psychology was significant at that time, in this edition this area of \u200b\u200bresearch is less fully presented than in the previous one). In addition, sections on the history of the psychology of the ancient world, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, on the pathology of memory, as well as factual data cited by the author for completeness of the presentation of the topic, were excluded, since previous editions of this book were published as a textbook. The sections on cognitive processes (Part Three) were significantly shortened, and the chapters on emotions and will were moved from Part Three to Part Five.

At the same time, sections on the subject of psychology, consciousness, thinking, abilities, personality, etc. were supplemented with fragments from the later works of S.L. Rubinstein. Such an addition to the text will allow the reader to see the internal unity and continuity in the development of the basic methodological principles of the concept of S.L. Rubinstein , to restore those relationships that sometimes seemed broken due to the improvement and refinement by S.L. Rubinshtein of the provisions of his concept at the subsequent stages of its development. The compilers also sought to ensure that the editorial revisions made did not affect the authenticity of the author's ideas and style. All cuts made are marked<...>, the introduction of additional materials is specified by the relevant headings.

We hope that the republished monograph by S. L. Rubinshtein will serve the cause of the further development of Russian psychological science, the formation of which was largely determined by the work of this prominent scientist.

K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya,
A.V. Brushlinsky
Preface to the second edition

In the second edition of this book, I have made minor corrections and additions, aimed only at the clearest and most consistent implementation of its original installations.

Preparation for printing of this edition took place during the Great Patriotic War. All forces and thoughts were then concentrated on the war, on the outcome of which the fate of mankind depended. In this war, our Red Army defended the best ideals of all progressive mankind from barbarism, the most disgusting thing the world has ever seen. Majdanek, Buchenwald, Auschwitz and other "death camps" that now appeared before the eyes of mankind will forever remain in memory not only as places of inhuman suffering of people tortured by fascist executioners, but also as monuments of such a fall, such degradation of a person that could not even be imagined even the most perverted imagination.

This book is published in the unforgettable days of the victorious end of the Great Patriotic War, the war of all freedom-loving peoples against fascism. Our right cause has won. And now, in the light of everything that has happened and experienced, with new significance, as if in a new relief, the big, basic worldview problems of philosophical and psychological thought appear before us. With new acuteness and significance, the question arises about a person, about the motives of his behavior and the tasks of his activity, about his consciousness - not only theoretical, but also practical, moral - in its unity with activity, during which a person not only cognizes, but also transforms world. With new forces and new perspectives, we must tackle their resolution. It is required of a person - now more obvious than ever - that he not only be able to find all sorts of, the most inventive means for any tasks and goals, but also be able, first of all, to properly determine the goals and objectives of truly human life and activity. .

Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR,
S. Rubinshtein
20/V 1945, Moscow
Preface to the first edition

This book grew out of the work on the proposed second edition of my Fundamentals of Psychology, published in 1935. But in essence - both in subject matter and in a number of its main trends - this is a new book. Between her and her predecessor lies a long distance traveled over the years by Soviet psychology in general and by me in particular.

My "Principles of Psychology" of 1935 was - I am the first to emphasize this - permeated with contemplative intellectualism and was held captive by traditional abstract functionalism. In this book, I have begun a decisive break with a number of outdated norms of psychology, and above all those that dominated my own work.

Three problems seem to me particularly relevant to psychology at this stage, and their correct formulation, if not solution, is especially essential for advanced psychological thought:

the development of the psyche and, in particular, overcoming the fatalistic view of the development of personality and consciousness, the problem of development and learning;

effectiveness and consciousness: overcoming the passive contemplation that dominates in traditional psychology of consciousness and, in connection with this,

overcoming abstract functionalism and the transition to the study of the psyche, consciousness in concrete activity, in which they are not only manifested, but also formed.

This decisive shift from the study of only abstract functions to the study of the psyche and consciousness in concrete activity brings psychology organically closer to questions of practice, in particular the psychology of the child to questions of upbringing and education.

It is precisely along the lines of these problems that the demarcation between everything that is alive and advanced in Soviet psychology and everything that has become obsolete and dying is going on first of all. Ultimately, the question comes down to one thing: to turn psychology into a concrete, real science that studies the consciousness of a person in the conditions of his activity and, thus, in its most initial positions, is connected with the questions posed by practice - such is the task. In this book, this problem is perhaps more posed than resolved. But in order to ever resolve it, it must be put.

This book is essentially (good or bad - let others judge) a research work that poses a number of basic problems in a new way. For example, I will point to a new interpretation of the history of psychology, to the formulation of the problem of development and the psychophysical problem, to the interpretation of consciousness, experience and knowledge, to a new understanding of functions and - from more particular problems - to the solution of the question of the stages of observation, to the interpretation of the psychology of memory (in the ratio with the problem of reconstruction and reminiscence), on the concept of the development of coherent ("contextual") speech and its place in the general theory of speech, etc. At the forefront of this book are not didactic, but scientific tasks.

At the same time, I especially emphasize one thing: this book bears my name and contains the work of my thought; but at the same time it is still a collective work in the true sense of the word. It was not compiled by a dozen or two dozen authors. The pen was held by one hand, and it was guided by a single thought, but still this is a collective work: a number of its main ideas crystallized as the common property of advanced psychological thought, and all the factual material on which this book is based is already a direct product of collective labor - labor more a narrow team of my closest collaborators and a team of a number of old and young psychologists from the Soviet Union. In this book, almost every chapter is based on material from Soviet psychological research, including unpublished ones. For the first time, perhaps, the work of Soviet psychologists is widely represented.

Contrary to the tendencies that have been very common in recent times, I have not attempted to circumvent any of the acute problems in this book. Some of them at the present stage of the development of science cannot yet be fully adequately resolved, and in the very setting of them, some errors can easily and even almost inevitably creep in. But setting them up is still necessary. Without solving these problems it is impossible to advance scientific thought. If it turns out that in posing some of the problems I made certain mistakes, criticism will soon open up and correct them. The very staging of them and the discussion that it will cause will nevertheless benefit science, and this is the main thing for me.

I appreciate the value of businesslike, positive criticism. Therefore, I willingly submit my work to the judgment of criticism, even the sharpest, as long as it is principled, as long as it advances science.

S. Rubinshtein,
2/VII 1940, Moscow

PART ONE
Chapter I
SUBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY
The nature of the mental

Characteristics of mental phenomena. The specific range of phenomena that psychology studies stand out distinctly and clearly - these are our perceptions, thoughts, feelings, our aspirations, intentions, desires, etc. - everything that makes up the inner content of our life and that, as an experience, seems to be directly given to us. Indeed, belonging to the individual, experiencing them, to the subject is the first characteristic feature of the entire psyche. Psychic phenomena therefore appear as processes and as properties of concrete individuals; they usually bear the stamp of something especially close to the subject experiencing them.

There is no doubt that just as something is given to us in direct experience, it cannot be given to us in any other way. From no description, no matter how vivid it may be, the blind will not know the brilliance of the world, and the deaf - the musicality of its sounds as if he directly perceived them; no psychological treatise can replace a person who himself has not experienced love, passion for struggle and the joy of creativity, what he would experience if he himself experienced them. My experiences are given to me differently, as if from a different perspective than they are given to another. Experiences, thoughts, feelings of the subject - these are his thoughts, his feelings, these are his experiences - a piece of his own life, in his flesh and blood.

If belonging to an individual, to a subject is the first essential sign of the mental, then its relation to an object independent of the psyche, of consciousness, is another no less essential feature of the mental. Every mental phenomenon is differentiated from others and defined as such-and-such an experience due to the fact that it is an experience of something; its inner nature is revealed through its relation to the outer. The psyche, consciousness reflects the objective reality that exists outside and independently of it; consciousness is conscious being.

But it would be meaningless to speak of reflection if that which should reflect reality did not itself exist in reality. Every psychic fact is both a piece of real reality and a reflection of reality - not one or the other, but both; It is precisely in this that the originality of the mental lies, that it is both the real side of being and its reflection - the unity of the real and the ideal.

The double correlation of the mental, inherent in the individual and reflecting the object, is associated with the complex, dual, contradictory internal structure of the mental fact, the presence in it of two aspects: any mental phenomenon is, on the one hand, a product and a dependent component of the organic life of the individual and, on the other hand, , a reflection of the outside world around him. These two aspects, presented in one form or another even in quite elementary mental formations, are more and more clearly differentiated and take specific forms at higher stages of development - in a person, as with the development of social practice, he becomes a subject in the true sense of the word, consciously separating oneself from the surrounding and correlating with it.

These two aspects, always represented in the human mind in unity and interpenetration, act here as experience and knowledge. The moment of knowledge in consciousness especially emphasizes the attitude to the external world, which is reflected in the psyche. This experience is primary, first of all - a psychic fact as a piece of the individual's own life in his flesh and blood, a specific manifestation of his individual life. It becomes an experience in the narrower, specific sense of the word as the individual becomes a person and his experience acquires a personal character.

Psychic education is an experience because it is determined by the context of an individual's life. In the mind of the experiencing individual, this context acts as a connection between goals and motives. They define the meaning of the experience as something that happened to me. What comes to the fore in experiencing is not the objective content in itself of what is reflected in it, cognized, but its significance in the course of my life - that I knew it, that it became clear to me that this resolved the tasks that confronted me, and overcome the difficulties I encountered. Experience is determined by the personal context, as knowledge (see below) is determined by the subject; more precisely, it is experience insofar as it is determined by the former, and knowledge insofar as it is determined by the latter. An experience becomes for a person what turns out to be personally significant for him.

This is connected with the positive content of the term experience, which is usually put into it when they say that a person has experienced something, that this or that event has become an experience for him. When we say that some psychic phenomenon was or became an experience of a person, this means that it, in its own, therefore unique, individuality, entered as a defining moment in the individual history of this person and played some role in it. Experience is thus not something purely subjective, since, firstly, it is usually the experience of something, and since, secondly, its specific personal aspect does not mean its dropping out of the objective plane, but its inclusion in a certain objective plan, correlated with the personality as a real subject.

Two mental phenomena can be a reflection of the same external phenomenon or fact. As a reflection of the same thing, they are equivalent, equivalent. They are the knowledge or awareness of a given fact. But one of them - for example, the one in which this fact was first recognized in all its significance - could, for one reason or another, play a certain role in the individual life of a given person. The special place it has occupied in the history of the development of a given individual distinguishes him, gives him a uniqueness that makes him an experience in a specific, emphasized sense of the word. If we call an event such a phenomenon that has taken a certain place in some historical series and, because of this, has acquired a certain specificity, as it were, uniqueness and significance, then as an experience in a specific, emphasized sense of the word, it will be possible to designate a mental phenomenon that has become an event of inner life. personality.

Descartes to the end of his days remembered the special feeling that gripped him that morning, when, lying in bed, he first imagined the main outlines of the concept he subsequently developed. It was a significant experience in his life. Every person who lives any significant inner life, looking back at his life path, always finds memories of such moments of a particularly intense inner life, illuminated by a particularly bright light, which, in their unique individuality, deeply entering his life, became experiences for him. Artists, depicting the psychology of their hero, are not without reason inclined to especially illuminate his experiences, i.e. especially significant moments of his inner life, characterizing the individual path of his development, as it were, his turning points. A person's experiences are the subjective side of his real life, the subjective aspect of a person's life path.

Thus the concept of experience expresses a special, specific aspect of consciousness; it may be more or less expressed in it, but it is always present in every real, concrete psychic phenomenon; it is always given in interpenetration and unity with another moment - knowledge, especially essential for consciousness.

At the same time, we single out experience as a special specific formation. But even in this last case, experience is experience of something and, therefore, knowledge of something. It appears as an experience, not because the other aspect - knowledge - is completely absent in it, but because the vital or personal aspect is dominant in it. Thus, every experience includes, as something subordinate, the aspect of knowledge. At the same time, knowledge - even the most abstract - can become the deepest personal experience.

In its primary rudimentary form, the moment of knowledge in consciousness lies in every mental phenomenon, since every mental process is a reflection of objective reality, but knowledge in the true, specific sense of the word - knowledge, ever deeper active cognitive penetration into reality, it becomes only in a person as how, in his social practice, he begins to change and, by changing, to get to know reality more and more deeply. Knowledge is an essential quality of consciousness; not without reason in a number of languages the concept of knowledge is included as the main component in the very term of consciousness (con-science). However, consciousness and knowledge are not only the same, but also different.

This difference is expressed in two ways: 1) in the mind of an individual, knowledge is usually presented in some specific limitation, 2) in the mind of an individual it is framed and permeated with a number of additional motivational components, from which knowledge, as it is presented in the system of science, is usually abstracted.

In the mind of an individual, inasmuch as he remains within the framework of his individual limitations, knowledge of objective reality often appears in specifically limited, more or less subjective forms, due to their dependence not only on the object, but also on the cognizing subject. The knowledge represented in the mind of the individual is the unity of the objective and the subjective.2

It reaches the highest levels of objectivity, which raises knowledge to the level of scientific knowledge, only as social knowledge, as a system of scientific knowledge developing on the basis of social practice. The development of scientific knowledge is a product of socio-historical development. Only to the extent that the individual is included in the course of the socio-historical development of scientific knowledge, he can, relying on it, and by his own cognitive scientific activity advance scientific knowledge to a further, higher level. Thus, individual knowledge, as it takes place in the consciousness of the individual, always takes place as a movement starting from the social development of knowledge and returning again to it; it springs from social knowledge and flows back into it. But the process of development of the cognition of the world by the individual, taking place within the social development of cognition, nevertheless differs from it; Thoughts to which an individual arrives, even those that, while advancing social knowledge to a higher level, pass into the system or history of science itself, in individual consciousness and in the system of scientific knowledge can sometimes be given in different contexts and therefore partly in different content.

The thoughts of a scientist, thinker, writer have, on the one hand, one or another objective meaning, since they more or less adequately, fully and completely reflect objective reality, and on the other hand, this or that psychological meaning that they acquire for their author depending on on the conditions of their occurrence in the course of his individual history. In some cases, the limited horizons of the author's personal consciousness, due to the individual course of his development and the historical conditions in which it took place, is such that the fullness of the objective content of the thoughts that are captured in his books, works, works, are revealed only in the further historical development of scientific research. knowledge. Therefore, the author can sometimes be understood better than he understood himself. For those who then consider the thoughts of some author in connection with the social situation in which they arose, with the objective context of the historical development of scientific knowledge into which they entered, they are revealed in these new connections and in a new content. In the system of knowledge, in the historical context of social cognition, their significance for the cognition of reality is revealed and their objective content is singled out; in individual consciousness, depending on the specific path of development of a given individual, his attitudes, plans, intentions, they are filled with a different specific content and acquire a different specific meaning: the same provisions, formulas, etc. have in one and the other case the same and not the same meaning, or, while retaining the same objective objective meaning, they acquire different meanings for different subjects, depending on their motives and goals.

The consciousness of a concrete real individual is the unity of experience and knowledge.

In the consciousness of an individual, knowledge is usually not represented in "pure", i.e. abstract, form, but only as a moment, as a side of the diverse effective, motivational, personal moments reflected in the experience.

The consciousness of a particular living person - consciousness in the psychological, and not in the ideological sense of the word - is always, as it were, immersed in a dynamic, not fully conscious experience, which forms a more or less dimly illuminated, changeable, indefinite in its contours background, from which consciousness emerges, never , however, without breaking away from it. Each act of consciousness is accompanied by a more or less resonant resonance that it evokes in less conscious experiences, just as often a more vague but very intense life of not quite conscious experiences resonates in consciousness.

Every experience is differentiated from others and defined as such-and-such an experience due to the fact that it is an experience of so-and-so. Its inner nature is revealed in its relation to the outer. Awareness of an experience is always a clarification of its objective relationship to the causes that cause it, to the objects to which it is directed, to the actions by which it can be realized. Awareness of experience, therefore, is always and inevitable - not locking it in the inner world, but correlating it with the external, objective world.

In order to be aware of my attraction, I must be aware of the object to which it is directed. A person may experience a vague feeling of unpleasant restlessness, the true nature of which he himself is not aware of. He detects nervousness; follows the work with less than usual attention, from time to time, as if not expecting anything on purpose, glances at his watch. But now the work is done. He is called to dinner; he sits down at the table and begins to eat with uncharacteristic haste. An indefinite feeling, of which it is initially difficult to say what it really is, is first defined from this objective context as a sensation of hunger. The statement that I feel hungry or thirsty is an expression of my experience. No description or indirect characterization of the experience can compare with the experience itself. But the definition of this experience as an experience of hunger or thirst includes a statement about the state of my body and about those actions by which this state can be eliminated. Out of relation to these facts, which lie outside the inner sphere of consciousness, experience cannot be defined; apart from these facts, it is impossible to determine what we experience. The establishment of the "immediate data" of my consciousness presupposes data established by the sciences of the external, objective world, and is mediated by them. One's own experience is known and realized by a person only through his relationship to the external world, to the object. The consciousness of the subject is irreducible to bare subjectivity, from the outside opposed to everything objective. Consciousness is the unity of the subjective and the objective. From here, the true relationship between the conscious and the unconscious becomes clear, resolving the paradox of the unconscious psyche.

It is unlikely that a person can have any mental phenomenon completely outside of consciousness. However, an unconscious, "unconscious" experience is possible. It is certainly not an experience that we do not experience or that we do not know we are experiencing; it is an experience in which the object that causes it is not conscious. What is actually unconscious is not the experience itself, but its connection with what it refers to, or, more precisely, the experience is unconscious because it is not conscious to what it refers; until it is realized which experience is what I am experiencing, I do not know what I am experiencing. A psychic phenomenon can be realized by the subject himself only through the medium of that of which it is an experience.

The unconscious is often a young, just emerging feeling, especially in a young, inexperienced being. The unconsciousness of a feeling is explained by the fact that to realize one's feeling means not only to experience it as an experience, but also to correlate it with the object or person that causes it and to which it is directed. The feeling is based on the relationship of the individual to the world that goes beyond the limits of consciousness, which can be realized with a different measure of completeness and adequacy. Therefore, one can experience a feeling very strongly and not be aware of it - perhaps an unconscious or, rather, an unconscious feeling. An unconscious or unconscious feeling is, of course, not a feeling that has not been experienced or experienced (which would be contradictory and meaningless), but a feeling in which the experience is not related or inadequately related to the objective world. Likewise, mood is often created outside of conscious control—unconsciously; but this does not mean, of course, that a person is not aware of what and how he is aware; it only means that a person is often not aware of precisely this dependence, and the unconsciousness of his experience lies precisely in the fact that it just does not fall into the field of his consciousness. In the same way, when it is said that a person acts unconsciously or that he is unconscious, this means that a person is not conscious not of his action, but of the consequences that his action should entail, or, more precisely, he is not conscious of his action, because he is not conscious of consequences arising from it; he does not realize what he has done until he has realized what his act means in the real situation in which he performs it. Thus, here, too, the “mechanism” or process of awareness in all these cases is basically the same: awareness is accomplished through the inclusion of the experience of an act or event performed by the subject in objective objective relations that determine it3. But it is quite obvious that the number of these connections is fundamentally infinite; therefore there is no unlimited, exhaustive awareness. Not a single experience appears outside of all connections, and not a single one appears in consciousness at once in all its objective connections, in relation to all aspects of being with which it is objectively connected. Therefore, the consciousness, the real consciousness of a particular individual, is never "pure", i.e. abstract, consciousness; it is always a unity of the conscious and the unconscious, the conscious and the unconscious, intertwined and interconnected by a multitude of mutual transitions. Since, however, man, as a thinking being, singles out essential connections, the leader in this unity is his consciousness. The measure of this consciousness is, however, different. At the same time, the conscious and the unconscious differ not in that one lies entirely in the "sphere" of consciousness, and the other is completely outside it, and not only in a quantitative measure of the degree of intensity or clarity of awareness. The conscious or unconscious, conscious or unconscious character of any act is essentially determined by what exactly is realized in it. Thus, I may be completely unaware of the automated way in which I carried out this or that action, that is, of the very process of its implementation, and yet no one will call such an action unconscious because of this, if the purpose of this action is realized. But an action will be called unconscious if the essential consequence or result of this action was not realized, which under the given circumstances follows naturally from it and which could be foreseen. When we demand the conscious assimilation of knowledge, we do not assume that the knowledge acquired, however unconsciously, is outside the consciousness of the individual who has mastered it in one way or another. The meaning that we put into the concept of consciousness is different: this or that position is learned consciously, if it is realized in the system of those connections that make it justified; not consciously, mechanically assimilated knowledge is, first of all, knowledge fixed in consciousness outside of these connections; it is not the position that we know in itself that is not realized, but the connections substantiating it, or, more precisely: this or that position of knowledge is not realized, or is learned unconsciously, if the objective connections that make it justified are not realized. His awareness is accomplished through the awareness of the subject context to which he objectively relates. In order to realize, or consciously assimilate, this or that position, it is necessary to realize those connections that substantiate it. This is the first. And secondly, when we talk about the conscious assimilation of knowledge, we mean such an assimilation of knowledge, in which it is the result of assimilation that is the conscious goal of the individual, in contrast to those cases when the assimilation of knowledge occurs as a result of activity emanating from extraneous motives, such as then: receiving some kind of reward, etc., so that the assimilation of knowledge, being the result of an individual's activity, is not recognized by him as its goal. Since this personal-motivational plan does not directly affect the subject-semantic content of knowledge, one can perhaps say that the decisive factor here is how something is realized, although in this case, ultimately, it is still about what exactly turns out to be realized. .

It is not without reason that a person who is able to realize the objective, social significance of his goals and motives and be guided by it is called conscious in a specific sense of the word.

We have thus outlined the "mechanism" of awareness. Unconscious attraction becomes conscious when the object to which it is directed is realized. Awareness of attraction occurs, therefore, indirectly through a connection with the object of attraction. In the same way, to become aware of one's feeling means not just to experience the excitement associated with it, it is not known what caused it and what it means, but to correlate it properly with the object or person to which it is directed. Thus, our own experiences are known and realized indirectly through their relation to the object. This also explains why the data of introception (see below) usually remain "subconscious". But awareness of one and unawareness of another content usually has some motive behind it, and is not explained only by inexperience, ignorance, etc. negative grounds. Unconsciousness (or inadequate awareness) of a particular attraction, feeling, act, etc. usually due to the fact that its awareness is counteracted by dynamic tendencies, forces emanating from what turns out to be significant for the individual, including the norms of ideology and social assessments that guide the individual. The tendencies contained in experiences, depending on what turns out to be significant for the individual, thus control, to one degree or another, the selective process of their awareness.
Mind and consciousness

The psychic has a twofold form of existence. The first, objective, form of existence of the mental is expressed in life and activity: this is the primary form of its existence. The second, subjective, form of the existence of the mental is reflection, introspection, self-consciousness, the reflection of the mental in itself: this is a secondary, genetically later form that appears in humans. Representatives of introspective psychology, defining the mental as a phenomenon of consciousness, believing that the existence of the mental is exhausted by its givenness to consciousness or representation in it, mistakenly took this secondary form of existence or manifestation of the mental for the primary or, rather, the only form of its existence: consciousness was reduced to self-consciousness or derived out of him.

Meanwhile, sensations, perceptions, representations, which form, as it were, the composition of the psyche, and the corresponding mental processes are not what is primarily recognized, but by means of which something - an object - is realized. Consciousness does not primarily mean looking inwards at sensations, perceptions, etc., but looking at the world, through them, at its objective existence, which gives rise to these sensations and perceptions. Specific to consciousness as such, in contrast to the psyche as a whole, is the objective meaning, semantic, semantic content, the bearer of which are mental formations. The semantic content of consciousness was formed in a person in the process of generating his language, speech; it took shape in the process of socio-historical development; the semantic content of consciousness is a social formation. Thus, the consciousness of the individual opens up not only in relation to the objective world, but at the same time in relation to social consciousness. The very connection of consciousness with the objective world, realized by its semantic content, is mediated by its social essence.

Since the mental, the internal is determined by its relation to the external, it is not "pure", i.e. abstract, immediacy, as it is usually represented, but the unity of the immediate and the mediated. Meanwhile, for the idealistic introspective psychology of consciousness, every mental process is what it directly appears to the consciousness of the subject experiencing it; the being of the psychic is exhaustively determined by its direct givenness to consciousness; therefore, it turns into a purely personal property: each subject is given only the phenomena of his consciousness, and the phenomena of his consciousness are given only to him; they are fundamentally inaccessible to an outside observer; they are closed in the inner world, available only for self-observation, or introspection4; psychology must therefore study psychic phenomena within the limits of that individual consciousness to which they are directly given; essence and phenomenon seem to coincide in the field of psychology, i.e. in fact, in it, the essence seems to be directly reduced to the phenomenon: everything mental is only phenomenal, only a phenomenon of consciousness. Meanwhile, in reality, the existence of the psychic is by no means exhausted by its givenness to the consciousness of the subject, reflecting on his experiences. Mental facts are, first of all, the real properties of the individual and the real processes that appear in his activity. The real biological meaning of the emergence and development of the psyche in the process of evolution lies precisely in the fact that the development of the psyche of animals, due to a change in their relationship with the environment, in turn led to a change in these relationships and their behavior. The development of human consciousness in the process of development of labor activity was both a consequence and a prerequisite for the development of higher specifically human forms of activity. The psyche is not an inactive accompanying phenomenon of real processes; she is a real product of evolution; its development introduces real and increasingly significant changes in real behavior.

If we analyze the traditional psychological concept, then the principle of the direct givenness of the mental is hidden in the basis as the position that determines it. This is essentially a radical idealistic thesis: everything material, physical, external is given indirectly through the psyche, while the mental experience of the subject is the only, primary, immediate given. The psychic as a phenomenon of consciousness is closed in the inner world, it is exhaustively determined by the relation to itself, regardless of any mediating relations to anything external.

Proceeding precisely from this premise, the extreme and in essence the only consistent representatives of introspective psychology5 asserted that the indications of consciousness, the data of introspection, are absolutely reliable. This means that there is no instance capable of refuting them, which is just as true as the fact that there is no instance capable of confirming them, since they are not correlated with anything objective, outside of them. If the psychic is pure immediacy, not determined in its own content by objective mediations, then there is no objective instance at all that could verify the indications of consciousness; the possibility of verification, which distinguishes knowledge from belief, disappears in psychology; it is just as impossible for the subject himself as it is for an outside observer, thereby making psychology impossible as objective knowledge, as a science. Nevertheless, this concept of the mental, which essentially excludes the possibility of objective psychological knowledge, has determined all psychological systems, including those sharply hostile to introspective psychology. In their struggle against consciousness, representatives of behavior - American and Russian - have always proceeded from the understanding of it that was established by introspectionists. Instead of overcoming the introspectionist conception of consciousness in order to realize objectivism in psychology, behaviorism discarded consciousness because it accepted the concept of consciousness that it found ready-made from its opponents as something immutable, as something that can either be accepted or rejected. but not change.

The traditional idealistic conception that has dominated psychology for centuries can be summarized in a few basic propositions:

The psychic is determined solely by its belonging to the subject. Descartes' "cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am") says that even thinking refers only to the thinking subject, regardless of the object that he knows. This position remains unchanged for all traditional psychology. Mental for her is primarily a manifestation of the subject. This first position is inextricably linked with the second.

The entire objective material world is given indirectly through the psyche in the phenomena of consciousness. But the psychic is an immediate given; his being is exhausted by his being given to consciousness. Immediate experience is the subject of psychology for both Descartes and Locke, despite their otherwise different philosophical views; both for Wundt and for contemporary Gestalt psychologists.

As a result, consciousness turns into a more or less closed inner world of experience or inner experience, which is revealed only in self-observation, or introspection.

To these propositions of the traditional idealistic conception of consciousness we oppose others in which our conception can be summarized.

Consciousness is a specific form of reflection of objective reality that exists outside and independently of it; therefore, a psychic fact is not uniquely determined by the relationship to the subject of which it is an experience. It presupposes a relation to the object that is reflected in it. Being an expression of the subject and a reflection of the object, consciousness is the unity of experience and knowledge.

Mental experience is a direct given, but it is known and realized indirectly through its relation to the object. The psychic fact is the unity of the immediate and the mediated.

The psychic is irreducible to a mere "phenomenon of consciousness", to its reflection in itself. Human consciousness is not a closed inner world. In its own internal content, it is determined by its relation to the objective world. The consciousness of the subject is irreducible to pure, i.e. abstract, subjectivity, from the outside opposed to everything objective. Consciousness is a conscious being, the unity of the subjective and the objective.

In radical contradiction with all idealistic psychology, which proceeded from Descartes, which recognized the phenomena of consciousness as an immediate given, the central position in psychology should be recognized as the position that the mental is included in connections that go beyond the inner world of consciousness, is mediated by relations to the external, objective world and only on basis of these relationships can be determined. Consciousness is always conscious being. The consciousness of an object is determined through its relation to the object of consciousness. It is formed in the process of social practice. The mediation of consciousness by an object is the real dialectic of the historical development of man. Consciousness is not only manifested in the products of human activity, essentially social activity, it is formed through them.

forever chained to a certain profession and in accordance with how
this profession is socially regarded, to occupy one or another place in the public
hierarchy of society. This is evil. It must be overcome. overcoming
direct psychomorphological correlations in the doctrine of abilities and
datkah - this is the first prerequisite for constructing a truly scientific theory about
abilities.
Abilities are formed in the process of interaction of a person with
certain natural qualities, with the world. The results of human action
values, generalizing and consolidating, are included as “construction materials of post-
swarming his abilities. These latter form an alloy of the original natural qualities.
person and the results of their activities. The true achievements of man are postponed-
are found not only outside it, in certain objects generated by it, but also in itself.
A person's abilities are equipment that is not forged without his participation.
A person's abilities are determined by the range of those opportunities for mastering new
knowledge, their application to creative development, which opens up the development of these
knowledge. The development of any ability takes place in a spiral: the realization of the
which the ability of this level represents opens up new possibilities
ability to develop abilities of a higher level. The ability is the most
affects the ability to use knowledge as methods, the results of previous
the growing work of thought - as a means of its active development.
The starting point for the development of the diverse abilities of a person is
functional specificity of various modalities of sensitivity. Yes, based
general auditory sensitivity in the process of human communication with other people,
carried out through language, a person develops a speech, phonetic
cue hearing, determined by the phonemic structure of the native language. More significant-
shim "mechanism" of the formation of speech (phonemic) hearing - as a
individual ability, and not just this or that auditory perception
as a process - is a generalized system of op-
certain phonetic ratios. Generalization of the relevant relationships,
always wider than the generalization of its members, determines
the ability to separate general sensitivity properties from specific data
perceptions and fixing these properties of sensitivity (in this case, auditory)
in the individual as his ability. The direction of generalization and, accordingly,
but, the differentiation of those, and not other sounds (phonemes), characteristic of a particular
language, defines the specific content or profile of that ability.
An essential role in the formation of abilities for language acquisition is played by
only generalization (and differentiation) of phonetic relations. Nothing less
the generalization of grammatical relations matters; essential compo-
The main component of the ability to acquire languages is the ability to generalize
relations underlying word formation and inflection. Way-
The one who learns a language easily and quickly, on the basis of a small
the number of samples, a generalization of the relations underlying the word-formation takes place.
inflections, and as a result - the transfer of these relations to other cases.
The generalization of certain relations, of course, implies an appropriate
analysis.
The subtlety of analysis and breadth of generalization inherent in this individual, easy
bone and the speed with which these processes take place in him form the starting point
path, the initial prerequisite for the formation of his abilities - linguistic, mathematical
iCal, etc.
Ability as a property of a person should be expressed in actions that allow
which transfer from one condition to another, from one material to another. Therefore, in
the basis of abilities should be generalization. Speaking of generalization, we, not
limiting ourselves to a generalization of the material, we consider it necessary to especially substantiate
underline the generalization (or generalization) of relations, since it is generalization
relations gives a particularly wide transfer. (Hence the path to reversibility of operations.)
Generalization or generalization of certain relations is necessary
component of all abilities, but in each ability there is a generalization
other relationships, other material.

Fundamentals of General Psychology

Series "Masters of Psychology"

A. V. Brushlinsky, K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya

Chief editor V. Usmanov

editorial manager M. Churakov

Artistic editor S. Lebedev

Artist V. Chugunov

Correctors N. Viktorova N. Solntseva

The original layout was prepared , M. Shakhtarina

BBK 88 UDC 159.9 Rubinstein S. L.

Fundamentals of General Psychology

ISBN 5-314-00016-4

St. Petersburg: Peter Kom, 1999.

720p.: (Series "Masters of Psychology")

The classic work of S. L. Rubinshtein "Fundamentals of General Psychology" is one of the most significant achievements of domestic psychological science. The breadth of theoretical generalizations, combined with the encyclopedic coverage of historical and experimental material, the impeccable clarity of methodological principles, have made "Fundamentals ..." a reference book for several generations of psychologists, educators, and philosophers. Despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since the first publication, it remains one of the best textbooks in general psychology and fully retains its scientific relevance.

FROM THE COMPILERS

The edition of S. L. Rubinshtein's Fundamentals of General Psychology, which is offered to the reader's attention, is the fourth in a row. It was prepared by the students of S. L. Rubinshtein based on the publication of this book in 1946 and the works of S. L. Rubinshtein in the 1950s, i.e., the works of the last decade of his life.

The first edition of Fundamentals of General Psychology (1940) was awarded the State Prize and received high marks in reviews by B. G. Ananiev, B. M. Teplov, L. M. Ukhtomsky, V. I. Vernadsky and others. The second edition (1946) was repeatedly discussed by Soviet psychologists, who gave both positive and critical assessments, but the latter never touched on the principles of S. L. Rubinshtein's concept. The heated nature of the discussions of this book, especially at the end of the 1940s, was a reflection of the general negative situation in science in those years, which is discussed in detail in the "Afterword" to this edition.

The enduring value of S. L. Rubinshtein’s book is not so much its encyclopedic nature (after all, the summary of basic psychological knowledge sooner or later becomes outdated and begins to be of purely historical interest), but the system of psychological science proposed in it at a certain stage of its development. This book presents an integral system of the new psychology, including both the basic methodological principles and a special way of building this science. In addition, the book takes into account the achievements of world psychology and reflects a significant period in the development of Soviet science, when the leading psychologists of our country, such as S. L. Rubinshtein himself, B. M. Teplov, A. N. Leontiev and others, worked together on key problems of psychological knowledge, for example, on the problems of activity. The book also summarized experimental studies built on the principle of the unity of consciousness and activity.

In preparing this edition, its compilers proceeded from the following principles: 1) to focus the reader's attention on the conceptual constructions of S. L. Rubinshtein, 2) to trace the development of his theoretical positions in works written after 1946. In this regard, almost throughout the book, ontogenetic material - sections on the development of certain psychological functions, processes in a child (although in Soviet psychology research in the field of child psychology was significant at that time, this area of \u200b\u200bresearch is less fully presented in this edition compared to the previous one). In addition, sections on the history of the psychology of the ancient world, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, on the pathology of memory, as well as factual data cited by the author for completeness of the presentation of the topic, were excluded, since previous editions of this book were published as a textbook. The sections on cognitive processes (Part Three) were significantly shortened, and the chapters on emotions and will were moved from Part Three to Part Five.

At the same time, sections on the subject of psychology, consciousness, thinking, abilities, and personality were supplemented with fragments from the later works of S. L. Rubinshtein. l etc. Such an addition to the text will allow the reader to see the internal unity and continuity in the development of the basic methodological principles of the concept of S. L. Rubinshtein, to restore those relationships that sometimes seemed broken due to the improvement and refinement by S. L. Rubinshtein of the provisions of his concept at the subsequent stages of its development . The compilers also sought to ensure that the editorial revisions made did not affect the authenticity of the author's ideas and style. All cuts made are marked<...>, the introduction of additional materials is specified by the relevant headings.

K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya,

A. V. Brushlinsky

Series "Masters of Psychology"

A. V. Brushlinsky, K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya

Editor-in-chief of the publishing house V. Usmanov

Head humanities edition M. Churakov

Head psychological edition A. Zaitsev

Proofreaders N. Viktorova,

N. Nesterova,

M. Odinokova, M. Roshal

Cover artist V. Chugunov

The original layout was prepared by M. Shakhtarina

Rubinstein S. L.

Fundamentals of General Psychology - St. Petersburg: Piter Publishing House, 2000 - 712 p.: ill. -

(Series "Masters of Psychology")

ISBN 5-314-00016-4

The classic work of S.L. Rubinshtein "Fundamentals of General Psychology" is one of the most significant achievements of domestic psychological science. The breadth of theoretical generalizations, combined with the encyclopedic coverage of historical and experimental material, the impeccable clarity of methodological principles, made "Foundations ..." a reference book for several generations of psychologists, educators, and philosophers. Despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since its first publication, it remains one of the best textbooks on general psychology and fully retains its scientific relevance.

FROM THE COMPILERS

The edition of S. L. Rubinshtein's Fundamentals of General Psychology, which is offered to the reader's attention, is the fourth in a row. It was prepared by the students of S. L. Rubinshtein based on the publication of this book in 1946 and the works of S. L. Rubinshtein in the 1950s, i.e., the works of the last decade of his life.

The first edition of Fundamentals of General Psychology (1940) was awarded the State Prize and received high marks in reviews by B. G. Ananiev, B. M. Teplov, L. M. Ukhtomsky, V. I. Vernadsky and others. The second edition (1946) was repeatedly discussed by Soviet psychologists, who gave both positive and critical assessments, but the latter never touched on the principles of S. L. Rubinshtein's concept. The heated nature of the discussions of this book, especially at the end of the 1940s, was a reflection of the general negative situation in science in those years, which is discussed in detail in the "Afterword" to this edition.

The enduring value of S. L. Rubinshtein's book is not so much its encyclopedic nature (after all, the summary of basic psychological knowledge sooner or later becomes outdated and begins to be of purely historical interest), but the system of psychological science proposed in it at a certain stage of its development. This book presents an integral system of the new psychology, including both the basic methodological principles and a special way of building this science. In addition, the book takes into account the achievements of world psychology and reflects a significant period in the development of Soviet science, when the leading psychologists of our country, such as S. L. Rubinshtein himself, B. M. Teplov, A. N. Leontiev and others, worked together on key problems of psychological knowledge, for example, on the problems of activity. The book also summarized experimental studies built on the principle of the unity of consciousness and activity.

In preparing this edition, its compilers proceeded from the following principles: 1) to focus the reader's attention on the conceptual constructions of S.L. Rubinstein, 2) to trace the development of his theoretical positions in works written after 1946. In this regard, ontogenetic material was reduced almost throughout the book - sections on the development of certain psychological functions, processes in a child (although in Soviet psychology research in the field child psychology were significant in that period, in this edition, compared to the previous one, this area of research is presented less fully). In addition, sections on the history of the psychology of the ancient world, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, on the pathology of memory, as well as factual data cited by the author for completeness of the presentation of the topic, were excluded, since previous editions of this book were published as a textbook. The sections on cognitive processes (Part Three) were significantly shortened, and the chapters on emotions and will were moved from Part Three to Part Five.

At the same time, they were supplemented with fragments from the later works of S.L. Rubinshtein sections on the subject of psychology, consciousness, thinking, abilities, personality, etc. Such an addition to the text will allow the reader to see the internal unity and continuity in the development of the basic methodological principles of S.L. Rubinshtein, to restore those relationships that sometimes seemed broken due to the improvement and clarification of S.L. Rubinstein of the provisions of his concept at the subsequent stages of its development. The compilers also sought to ensure that the editorial revisions made did not affect the authenticity of the author's ideas and style. All cuts made are marked<...>, the introduction of additional materials is specified by the relevant headings.

We hope that the republished monograph by S.L. Rubinshtein will serve the cause of the further development of Russian psychological science, the formation of which was largely determined by the work of this prominent scientist.

K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya,

A. V. Brushlinsky

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

In the second edition of this book, I have made minor corrections and additions, aimed only at the clearest and most consistent implementation of its original installations.

Preparation for printing of this edition took place during the Great Patriotic War. All forces and thoughts were then concentrated on the war, on the outcome of which the fate of mankind depended. In this war, our Red Army defended the best ideals of all progressive mankind from barbarism, the most disgusting thing the world has ever seen. Majdanek, Buchenwald, Auschwitz and other "death camps" that now appeared before the eyes of mankind will forever remain in memory not only as places of inhuman suffering of people tortured by fascist executioners, but also as monuments of such a fall, such degradation of man, which could not even be imagined even the most perverted imagination.

This book is published in the unforgettable days of the victorious end of the Great Patriotic War, the war of all freedom-loving peoples against fascism. Our right cause has won. And now, in the light of everything that has happened and experienced, with new significance, as if in a new relief, the big, basic worldview problems of philosophical and psychological thought appear before us. With new acuteness and significance, the question arises about a person, about the motives of his behavior and the tasks of his activity, about his consciousness - not only theoretical, but also practical, moral - in its unity with activity, during which a person not only cognizes, but also transforms world. With new forces and new perspectives, we must tackle their resolution. It is required of a person - now it is more obvious than ever - that he not only be able to find all sorts of, the most inventive means for any tasks and goals, but also be able, first of all, to properly determine the goals and objectives of truly human life and activity. .

Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR,

S. Rubinstein

20/V 1945, Moscow

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

My 1935 Fundamentals of Psychology was - I am the first to emphasize this - permeated with contemplative intellectualism and held captive by traditional abstract functionalism. In this book, I have begun a decisive break with a number of outdated norms of psychology, and above all those that dominated my own work.

Three problems seem to me particularly relevant to psychology at this stage, and their correct formulation, if not solution, is especially essential for advanced psychological thought:

1) the development of the psyche and, in particular, overcoming the fatalistic view of the development of personality and consciousness, the problem of development and learning;

2) effectiveness and consciousness: overcoming the passive contemplation that dominates in traditional psychology of consciousness and, in connection with this,

3) overcoming abstract functionalism and the transition to the study of the psyche, consciousness in concrete activity, in which they are not only manifested, but also formed.

It is precisely along the lines of these problems that the demarcation between everything that is alive and advanced in Soviet psychology and everything that has become obsolete and dying is going on first of all. Ultimately, the question boils down to one thing: to turn psychology into a concrete, real science that studies the consciousness of a person in the conditions of his activity and, thus, in its most initial positions, is connected with the questions that practice poses - such is the task. In this book, this problem is perhaps more posed than resolved. But in order to ever resolve it, it must be put.

This book is essentially (good or bad - let others judge) a research work that poses a number of basic problems in a new way. For example, I will point to a new interpretation of the history of psychology, to the formulation of the problem of development and the psychophysical problem, to the interpretation of consciousness, experience and knowledge, to a new understanding of functions and - from more particular problems - to the solution of the question of the stages of observation, to the interpretation of the psychology of memory (in the ratio with the problem of reconstruction and reminiscence), the concept of the development of coherent (“contextual”) speech and its place in the general theory of speech, etc. This book focuses not on didactic, but on scientific tasks.

S. Rubinstein,

2/VII 1940, Moscow

FROM THE COMPILERS 1

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 2

FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION 3

PART ONE 4

CHAPTER I. SUBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY 4

The nature of mental 4

Mind and consciousness 9

Mind and activity 13

Psychophysical problem 15

The subject and tasks of psychology as a science 18

CHAPTER II. PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS 26

Methodology and methodology 26

Methods of psychology 27

Surveillance 30

Self-observation 30

Objective observation 33

Experimental method 35

CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY 39

History of the Development of Western Psychology 39

Psychology in the XVII-XVIII centuries. and the first half of the 19th century. 39

Formation of psychology as an experimental science 44

The crisis of the methodological foundations of psychology 46

History of the development of psychology in the USSR 57

History of Russian Scientific Psychology 57

Soviet psychology 62

PART TWO 67

CHAPTER IV. THE PROBLEM OF DEVELOPMENT IN PSYCHOLOGY 67

Development of the psyche and behavior 74

The main stages in the development of behavior and the psyche the problem of instinct, skill and intelligence 77

instincts 78

Individually variable forms of behavior 82

Intelligence 87

General conclusions 90

CHAPTER V. DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR AND PSYCHE 95

Behavior of lower organisms 95

Development of the nervous system in animals 97

Lifestyle and psyche 98

CHAPTER VI. HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS 103

Historical development of consciousness in man 103

The problem of anthropogenesis 103

Consciousness and brain 105

Development of consciousness 111

The development of consciousness in a child 117

Development and training 117

The development of the child's consciousness 127

PART THREE 129

INTRODUCTION 129

CHAPTER VII. FEELING AND PERCEPTION 140

Feeling 140

Receptors 141

Elements of psychophysics 143

Psychophysiological regularities 145

Classification of sensations 146

Organic sensations 149

Static Feelings 153

Kinesthetic sensations 153

Skin sensitivity 154

2 and 3. Temperature sensations 155

4. Touch, pressure 157

Touch 157

Olfactory sensations 159

Taste sensations 160

Auditory sensations* 161

Sound localization 166

Hearing Theory 167

Perception of speech and music 170

Visual sensations 172

Feeling Color 173

Color mixing 174

Psychophysiological regularities 175

Theory of color perception 179

Psychophysical effect of flowers 180

Color perception 181

Perception 182

The nature of perception 182

Constancy of perception 189

Meaningfulness of perception 190

Historicity of perception 193

Perception and orientation of personality 193

Perception of space 194

Perception of magnitude 198

Form Perception 199

Motion Perception 200

Perception of time 202

Chapter VIII. MEMORY 207

Memory and perception 207

Organic Foundations of Memory 210

View associations 214

Memory Theory 214

The role of attitudes in memorization 219

Memorization 221

Recognition 225

Playback 226

Reconstruction in playback 227

Memory 228

Preservation and forgetting 230

Reminiscence in conservation 233

Memory types 236

Memory levels 236

Memory types 237

CHAPTER IX. IMAGINATION 239

The Nature of Imagination 239

Types of Imagination 242

Imagination and creativity 243

"Technique" of imagination 246

Imagination and personality 248

CHAPTER X. THINKING 249

Nature of thought 249

Psychology and logic 251

Psychological theories of thinking 252

The psychological nature of the thought process 256

The main phases of the thought process 259

Basic operations as aspects of mental activity 261

Concept and representation 264

Inference 267

Basic types of thinking 269

About genetically early stages of thinking 273

Development of the child's thinking 276

The first manifestations of the child's intellectual activity 276

The first generalizations of the child 279

"Situational" thinking of the child 280

The beginning of active mental activity of the child 281

Generalizations in a preschooler and his understanding of relationships 284

The child's reasoning and understanding of causality 285

Distinctive features of the early forms of children's thinking 288

Development of the child's thinking in the process of systematic education 292

Mastery of concepts 293

Judgments and inferences 296

The development of theoretical thinking in the process of mastering the system of knowledge 297

Theory of the development of the child's thinking 299

CHAPTER XI. SPEECH 307

Speech and communication. Speech functions 308

Various types of speech 314

Speech and thinking 318

Development of speech in children 319

The emergence and first stages of the development of a child's speech 319

Speech structure 323

Development of coherent speech 325

The problem of egocentric speech 329

The development of written speech in a child 331

Development of expressive speech 333

CHAPTER XII. ATTENTION 335

Theory of attention 336

Physiological basis of attention 339

Basic types of attention 340

Basic properties of attention 341

Development of attention 346

PART FOUR 348

INTRODUCTION 348

CHAPTER XIII. ACTION 354

Various types of action 356

Action and movement 358

Action and Skill 363

CHAPTER XIV. ACTIVITIES 371

Tasks and motives of activity 371

Psychological characteristics of labor 377

Inventor's work 378

Work of a scientist 381

Artist's work 383

Game nature 386

Game theory 390

Development of the child's games 392

Teaching 394

The nature of learning and labor 394

Teaching and knowledge 395

Training and development 396

Teaching motives 397

Mastering the knowledge system 400

PART FIVE 406

INTRODUCTION 406

CHAPTER XV. PERSONAL ORIENTATION 411

Attitudes and trends 411

Needs 414

Interests 417

Ideals 421

CHAPTER XVI. ABILITIES 424

General Giftedness and Special Abilities 428

Giftedness and Ability Level 430

Theories of giftedness 431

Development of abilities in children 435

CHAPTER XVII. EMOTIONS 436

Emotions and needs 436

Emotions and lifestyle 438

Emotions and activities 442

Expressive movements 448

Emotions and experiences of personality 452

"Associative" experiment 453

Types of emotional experiences 454

Emotional personality traits 461

CHAPTER XVIII. WILL 463

The nature of will 463

Volitional process 469

Pathology and psychology of will 475

Volitional qualities of personality 478

CHAPTER XIX. TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTER 483

The doctrine of temperament 483

Teaching about character 488

CHAPTER XX. SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE PERSON AND ITS LIFE WAY 499

Self-consciousness of the individual 499

Personal life path* 504

AFTERWORD 507

HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND MODERN SOUND OF S. L. RUBINSTEIN'S FUNDAMENTAL WORK 507

LIST OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF S. L. RUBINSTEIN 529

LIST OF WORKS ON S. L. RUBINSTEIN 532

INDEX 537

At the same time, sections on the subject of psychology, consciousness, thinking, abilities, personality, etc. were supplemented with fragments from the later works of S.L. Rubinstein. Such an addition to the text will allow the reader to see the internal unity and continuity in the development of the basic methodological principles of the concept of S.L. Rubinstein , to restore those relationships that sometimes seemed broken due to the improvement and refinement by S.L. Rubinshtein of the provisions of his concept at the subsequent stages of its development. The compilers also sought to ensure that the editorial revisions made did not affect the authenticity of the author's ideas and style. All cuts made are marked<…>, the introduction of additional materials is specified by the relevant headings.

K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya,

A.V. Brushlinsky

Preface to the second edition

In the second edition of this book, I have made minor corrections and additions, aimed only at the clearest and most consistent implementation of its original installations.

Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR,

S. Rubinshtein,

20/V 1945, Moscow

Preface to the first edition

Three problems seem to me particularly relevant to psychology at this stage, and their correct formulation, if not solution, is especially essential for advanced psychological thought:

1. the development of the psyche and, in particular, overcoming the fatalistic view of the development of personality and consciousness, the problem of development and learning;

2. effectiveness and consciousness: overcoming the passive contemplation that dominates in traditional psychology of consciousness and in connection with this;

3. overcoming abstract functionalism and transition to the study of the psyche, consciousness in concrete activity, in which they are not only manifested, but also formed.

Portal for the student. Self-training

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