Abstract
The political and revolutionary character of Vygotsky's theory consists not only in the project of a psychology based on the principles of Marxism, but in the idea of the primary role of practice as the source of the development of theoretical research itself. In the Vygotskyan analysis of the differences between normal and pathological in psychological processes, the normative character of psychology emerges, imposing patterns of behavior and personality beyond the specific social and cultural contexts in which they were developed. After the turning point of the monograph by Van der Veer and Valsiner (Understanding Vygotsky: A quest for synthesis, Blackwell, 1991), and the new knowledge derived from the publication of the Notebooks, edited by Zavershneva and Van der Veer (Vygotsky’s notebook: A selection, Springer Nature, Berlin, 2018), recent historical studies on Vygotsky's work show that, faithful to this perspective, the Russian psychologist investigated the dialectical relationship between theory and practice particularly in the areas of pedology and defectology where the risk of a normativity, imposed from above and mediated by psychology, was very high.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Change history
27 August 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-021-09643-7
References
Aristotle, B. (1916). Politics. Clarendon Press.
Bicchieri, C. (2006). The grammar of society: The nature and dynamics of social norms. Cambridge University Press.
Bicchieri, C. (2016). Norms in the wild: How to diagnose, measure, and change social norms. Cambridge University Press.
Caroli, D., & Mecacci, L. (2020). The forbidden science: The dismantling of pedology and the listing of the works of pedologists in the Soviet Union in 1936–1938. European Yearbook of the History of Psychology, 6, 11–61.
Elhammoumi, M. (2015). Marxist psychology and dialectical method. In I. Parker (Ed.), Handbook of critical psychology (pp. 271–279). Routledge.
Freud, S. (1923). Psycho-analysis. In: The standard edition of the complete psychological works (pp. 235–254). The Hogart Press.
Holzkamp, K. (1972). Kritische Psychologie. Fischer.
Kelly, D., & Davis, T. (2018). Social norms and human normative psychology. Social Philosophy & Policy, 35, 54–76.
Kozulin, A., & Gindis, B. (2007). Sociocultural theory and education of children with special needs: From defectology to remedial pedagogy. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 332–362). Cambridge University Press.
Leonardo, Z. & Manning, L. (2017). White historical activity theory: Toward a critical understanding of white zones of proximal development. Race Ethnicity and Education, 20, 15–29.
Luriya, A. R., Ed. (1930). Rech i intellekt derevenskogo, gorodskogo i besprizornogo rebionka (Speech and intellect in rural, urban, and homeless child). Gosizdat RSFSR.
Luriya, A. R. (1974), Ob istoricheskom razvitii poznavatelnikh processov: Experimentalno-psikhologicheskoye issledovanie. Nauka (Engl. transl., Cognitive development: Its cultural and social foundations. Hemisphere, 1976).
McQueen, K. (2010). Chasing Vygotsky’s dogs: Retrieving Lev Vygotsky’s philosophy for a worker’s paradise. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 29, 53–66.
Mecacci, L. (2015). Vygotsky’s reception in the West: The Italian case between Marxism and communism. History of the Human Sciences, 28, 173–184.
Newman, F., & Holzman, L. (1993). Lev Vygotsky. Routledge.
Sève, L. (1969). Marxisme et théorie de la personnalité. Éditions sociales (Engl. transl., Man in Marxist theory and the psychology of personality. Harvester Press, 1978).
Smagorinsky, P. (2012). “Every individual has his own insanity”: Applying Vygotsky’s work on defectology to the question of mental health as an issue of inclusion. Language, Culture and Social Interaction, 1, 67–77.
Van der Veer, R., & Valsiner, J. (1991). Understanding Vygotsky: A quest for synthesis. Blackwell.
Vik, S. (2018). Defectology and inclusion. Problemy Wczesnej Edukacij/Issues in Early Education, 3(42), 94–102.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1927). Istoricheskii smysl’ psikhologicheskogo krizisa. In Sobranie sochinenii, vol. 1. Pedagogika, 1982, pp. 291–436 (Engl. transl., The historical meaning of the crisis in psychology. In The collected works, vol. 3. Plenum Press, 1987, pp. 233–343).
Vygotsky, L. S. (1929). Osnovnye problemy sovremennoy defektologii. In Trydy 2-go MGU (pp. 6–33). MGU (Engl. transl., Fundamental problems of defectology. In The collected works, vol. 2. Plenum Press, 1993, pp. 29–51).
Vygotsky, L.S., & Luriya, A.R. (1930). Etudy po istorii povedeniya (obeziana, primitiv, rebionok) (Engl. transl., Studies on the history of behavior: Ape, primitive, and the child). Routledge, 1993.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1930). Socialisticheskaya peredelka cheloveka. VARNITSO, 3, 36–44 (Engl. transl., The socialist alteration of man. In R. van der Veer & J. Valsiner, Eds., The Vygotsky reader. Blackwell, 1994, pp. 175–184).
Vygotsky, L. S. (1931). Istoriya razvitiya vysshikh psikhicheskikh funktcii. In Sobranie sochinenii, vol. 3. Pedagogika, 1983, pp. 5–328 (Engl. transl., The history of the development of higher mental functions. In The collected works, vol. 4. Plenum Press, 1997, pp. 233–343).
Vygotsky, L. S. (1934). Mishlenie i rech: Psikhologicheskye issledovaniya. Gos. Sotsekgiz (Engl. transl., Thinking and speech. In The collected works, vol. 1. Plenum Press, 1997, pp. 37–285).
Vygotsky [Vygotskij], L.S. (2018). La science du development de l’enfant: Textes pédologiques, eds. I. Leopoldoff Martin & B. Schneuwly. Peter Lang.
Vygotsky, L.S. (2020). Pedology of the schoolchild, ed. R. van der Veer. Information Age Publishing.
Vygotsky, L. S. (2019). Pedological works. In D. Kellogg & N. Veresov (Eds.), Foundations of pedology. Springer.
Zavershneva, E., & Van der Veer, R. (2018). Vygotsky’s notebook: A selection. Springer.
Funding
The author did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of Interest
The author has no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
McQueen (2006) has to be corrected into McQueen (2010) and Leonardo & Manning (2017) has to be put in alphabetical order.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mecacci, L. Vygotsky and Psychology as Normative Science. Integr. psych. behav. 55, 728–734 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-021-09638-4
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-021-09638-4