Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev (1903-1979) - one of the founders and leader of Russian psychological science in the most difficult times for science, is by no means one of the "forgotten" authors: despite the ambiguous attitude to his theoretical heritage, which is largely due to his acceptance of Marxism as a methodological foundation of psychological science, his name and ideas live and actively work not only in the works of his direct students and students of his students, but also in the entire scientific community. Moreover, he is one of the few founders of scientific schools whose students did not confine themselves to rehearsing and concretizing the teacher's ideas, but in very many respects advanced far ahead, to new theoretical frontiers.

A. N. Leontyev - an outstanding domestic psychologist of the modern era, who once worked at the Saburova dacha - a former Saburyan who at one time created a well-known Kharkov group of psychologists and is the author of a general psychological theory of activity. Alexei Nikolaevich is widely known as the recognized leader of Soviet psychology in the 1940s – 1970s. He initiated the creation of the Society of Psychologists of the USSR. His services to national science are great and versatile.

A. N. Leont'ev developed in the 20s of the last century, together with L. S. Vygotsky and A. R. Luria, a cultural-historical theory, conducted a series of experimental studies revealing the mechanism of the formation of higher mental functions ( voluntary attention, memory) as a process of "rotation", interiorization of external forms of tool-mediated actions into internal mental processes. Experimental and theoretical works are devoted to the problems of the development of the psyche (its genesis, biological evolution and socio-historical development, the development of the child's psyche), the problems of engineering psychology, as well as the psychology of perception, thinking and other issues.

Based on the ideas of cultural-historical theory, A. N. Leont'ev put forward and developed in detail a general psychological theory of object-related activity, which is one of the most influential and new theoretical directions in Russian and world psychology. The content of this concept is closely related to the analysis of the emergence and development of the psyche in phylogenesis, the emergence of consciousness in anthropogenesis, mental development in ontogenesis, the structure of activity and consciousness, the motivational and semantic sphere of personality, the methodology and history of psychology, which reveals the mechanisms of the origin of consciousness and its role. in the regulation of human activity. Based on the scheme of the structure of activity (activity - action - operation - psychophysiological functions) proposed by A.N. Leont'ev, correlated with the structure of the motivational sphere (motive - goal - condition), a wide range of mental phenomena (perception, thinking, memory, attention and others ), among which special attention was paid to the analysis of consciousness (highlighting meaning, meaning and “sensory fabric” as its main components) and personality (interpretation of its basic structure as a hierarchy of motivational and semantic formations). The concept of Aleksey Nikolaevich's activity was developed in various branches of psychology (general, child, pedagogical, medical and social), which in turn enriched it with new data. The proposition formulated by A. N. Leontiev about the leading activity and its determining influence on the development of the child's psyche served as the basis for the concept of periodization of the mental development of children, put forward by D. B. Elkonin. Psychology was considered by A. N. Leontiev as the science of "the generation, functioning and structure of the mental reflection of reality in the processes of activity."

Alexey Nikolaevich Leontiev graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences of Moscow University (1924), Doctor of Psychology (1941), Academician of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (1950), Lenin Prize Laureate (1963). After graduating from university, he worked at the Institute of Psychology (1924-1927), the Academy of Communist Education. NK Krupskaya (1927-1931), the All-Ukrainian Psychoneurological Academy and the Kharkov Pedagogical Institute (1931-1935), the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine, the Higher Communist Institute of Education (1935-1936), the Institute of Psychology (1936-1963). In 1942-1945 he headed the scientific work of the Experimental Rehabilitation Hospital near Sverdlovsk. Since 1941 - Professor of Moscow State University (MSU), since 1950 - Head of the Department of Psychology, since 1963 - Head of the Department of Psychology of the Philosophy Faculty, and since 1966 - Dean of the Psychology Faculty of Moscow State University. Academician-secretary of the Department of Psychology (1950-1957) and Vice-President (1959-1961) of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR.

A. N. Leontiev was born in Moscow on February 5, 1903, his parents were ordinary employees. His father, Nikolai Vladimirovich, was by birth a philistine of the Pankratyevskaya Sloboda of Moscow, and by profession a financial worker specializing in the field of film distribution. His mother, Alexandra Alekseevna, came from a family of a Volga steamer, that is, a merchant. Naturally, they wanted to give Alexei a good education... Therefore, it is not surprising that the scientific activity of Alexei Leontiev dates back to his student years. In 1924 he graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences of Moscow University, where G.I. Chelpanov gave a general course in psychology.

G.I. Chelpanov in those years led the Institute of Psychology at Moscow State University, leading a group of students for research work... It was within the walls of this university that Alexei Nikolaevich wrote his first scientific works - the abstract "James's Teaching on Ideomotor Acts" and a work about G. Spencer. After graduating from the university, Aleksey Nikolaevich became a graduate student at the Institute of Psychology. It was here in 1924 that A. N. Leontyev met with L. S. Vygotsky and A. R. Luria, after which their joint work soon began, since these three people with outstanding abilities quickly found a common language, and their the union foreshadowed many useful things. But, unfortunately, this activity was interrupted after the death of L. S. Vygotsky. For such short term working together, the results of their activities were still impressive. The article "The Nature of Human Conflict" published by A. N. Leontiev and A. R. Luria was an overwhelming success, since it was in it that the technique of "conjugated motor reactions" was presented and the idea of ​​mastering affect through speech output was born. Further, Alexey Nikolaevich personally developed the idea and embodied it in an article entitled “Experience structural analysis chain associative rows ". This article, published in the Russian-German Medical Journal, is based on the fact that associative reactions are determined by semantic integrity, which lies "behind" the associative series. But it was this development that did not receive a worthy recognition.

He met his wife in 1929, when he was 26 years old. After a short acquaintance, they got married. His wife never interfered with his scientific activities, on the contrary, she helped and supported him in the most difficult moments. A. N. Leont'ev's interests lay in the most diverse areas of psychology: from the psychology of creative activity to the experimental human perception of objectivity. And Alexei Nikolaevich addressed many times to the need to search for a completely new approach to the subject and content of psychophysiological research, which is now developing from the general system of psychological knowledge.

At the end of 1925, his famous "cultural-historical concept" was born, which was based on the well-known formula of L. S. Vygotsky S – X – R, where S is a stimulus, a motive; X - means; R - the result of the activity. A. N. Leont'ev began to develop the ideas of this work, but at the Institute of Psychology, which at that time was busy with completely different issues, it was not possible to realize this undertaking. It is for this reason that A. N. Leontiev and A. R. Luria moved to the Academy of Communist Education, working also simultaneously at VGIK, at GITIS, at the clinic of G. I. Rossolimo and at the Institute of Defectology.

And one more thing that influenced the further fate of A. N. Leontiev: in the late 1920s and early 1930s, scientific and pedagogical institutions where he collaborated began to close one by one, sometimes with a political scandal. For example, in two central newspapers at once a "basement" about VGIK appeared under the threatening title "The Nest of Idealists and Trotskyists." One of the consequences of this article was forced withdrawal Alexei Nikolaevich from VGIK in 1930. The stronghold of Vygotsky's group - the Academy of Communist Education - also fell out of favor in 1930, its Faculty of Social Sciences was declared "Trotskyist", and in 1931 it was "exiled" to Leningrad and renamed an institute. In any case, A. N. Leontiev was dismissed from it on September 1, 1931. There was nothing to think about working at the Institute of Psychology, although after the departure of KN Kornilov, the ideas of LS Vygotsky and his school were used in the new scientific program of the Institute. However, according to the documents, in December 1932 Alexey Nikolaevich was still listed there “ research assistant 1st category ". Since 1931, psychology has not been taught at MSU at all. So A. N. Leontyev had nowhere to work - at one time he even served in the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR in the position of a "technical propaganda consultant" (technical propaganda).

And all three - L. S. Vygotsky, A. R. Luria and A. N. Leontiev - began to look for a place of work where they could continue the cycle of research they had begun. They were lucky: all three (as well as L.I.Bozhovich, A.V. Zaporozhets and M.S.Lebedinsky) - at the end of 1930, an invitation came from Kharkov, then the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, from the Ukrainian People's Commissar of Health S.I. Kantorovich. The People's Commissariat for Health of the Ukrainian SSR decided to create a psychology sector ("neuropsychiatric sector") at the Ukrainian Psychoneurological Institute (later, in 1932, it was transformed into the All-Ukrainian Psychoneurological Academy, which was located, as you know, at Saburova Dacha). L. S. Vygotsky, Alexei Nikolaevich recalled, took part in the negotiations. The post of head of the sector was offered to A.R. Luria, the post of head of the department of experimental psychology (later it was called the department of general and genetic psychology) - to A.N. Leontiev. Alexey Nikolaevich was officially hired on October 15, 1931. In November 1931, as head of the Department of Genetic Psychology State Institute training of the People's Commissariat of Health of the Ukrainian SSR was approved by L. S. Vygotsky. However, unlike A.R. Luria and A.N. Leontyev, he did not move to Kharkov, although he constantly visited there - made reports, read lectures, passed exams as a part-time student of the medical institute (where he entered the same 1931). However, in his family, the move to Kharkov was discussed more than once, and there was even a question of exchanging a Moscow apartment for an apartment in Kharkov. Why the move did not take place is unknown. According to E. A. Luria (in her memoirs about her father), the point was that L. S. Vygotsky and A. R. Luria did not have a good relationship with the leadership of the All-Ukrainian Psychoneurological Academy. But Alexei Nikolaevich said that Vygotsky was offered excellent conditions for the move, and the reasons for Vygotsky's refusal to accept the invitation remained incomprehensible to him.

At the end of 1931, A.R. Luria, A.N. Leontyev, L.I.Bozhovich and A.V. Zaporozhets moved to Kharkov and settled in a large apartment rented for a Moscow commune by Professor L.L. Rokhlin, where some for a time they really lived in it all together.

A. R. Luria for three years, until 1934, visited Kharkov on short visits - according to his own recollections, "shuttled" between Kharkov and Moscow (and L. S. Vygotsky - between Kharkov, Leningrad and Moscow). LI Bozhovich, who soon moved to neighboring Poltava, to the pedagogical institute, did not stay long in Kharkov, although she continued to constantly cooperate with the "Kharkovites". From time to time, L. S. Vygotsky visited her in Poltava.

A. N. Leontiev stayed in Kharkov for almost 5 years. He not only headed the department and was a full member of the All-Ukrainian Psychoneurological Academy, but - after the final departure of A.R. Luria - took over the leadership of the entire sector of psychology from him (even earlier, in 1932, he was the deputy head of the sector). Consequently, having taken all the work on himself, Aleksey Nikolaevich later became the leader of a well-known Kharkov group of psychologists. In addition, he was the head of the department of psychology of the Medical and Pedagogical Institute of the People's Commissariat of Health of Ukraine, and later the head of the department of psychology of the Kharkov Pedagogical Institute and the Research Institute of Pedagogy (even later - the All-Ukrainian Institute of Scientific Pedagogy). Among the places of work of Alexei Nikolaevich in Kharkov was a rather exotic position of professor at the Kharkov Palace of Pioneers and Octobrists. P.P. Postysheva. “In the same year, I was approved by the Central qualification commission NKZ of the Ukrainian SSR in the rank of professor, and with the introduction of the law on degrees and titles, I was formalized in the rank of a full member of the Institute by the Central Qualification Commission of the NKZ of the Ukrainian SSR and in the rank of professor by the Central Qualification Commission of the NKP of the Ukrainian SSR " A. N. Leontiev, 1999, p. 366).

In addition to A. V. Zaporozhets and T. O. Ginevskaya, Kharkiv psychologists began to group around Alexei Nikolaevich. They were P. Ya.Gal'perin, a group of postgraduate students of the Pedagogical Institute and Research Institute of Pedagogy - P.I. Zinchenko, V.I. Asnin, G.D. Lukov, then K.E. Khomenko, V.V. Mistyuk, L.I. Kotlyarova, D. M. Dubovis-Aranovskaya, E. V. Gordon, G. V. Mazurenko, O. M. Kontsevaya, A. N. Rosenblum, who died early, T. I. Titarenko, I. G. Dimanshtein, F. V. Bassin and others. This is how the Kharkiv group of psychologists was born, which has entered the history of Soviet and world psychology with dignity.

“The years of my work in Ukraine,” writes A. N. Leontiev in his autobiography, “… constituted… a period of revision of previous positions and independent work on general psychological problems, which continued to proceed along the line of predominantly experimental research. This was also favored by the special conditions and tasks that then faced me: it was necessary to organize a new team of very young employees and to qualify them in the process of expanding the work. This is how the Kharkiv group of psychologists was created ... During this period, I and under my leadership carried out a number of experimental studies, already proceeding from new theoretical positions in connection with the problem of the psychology of activity. "

And it is no coincidence that the program of specific experimental studies of the Kharkov group of psychologists has all its roots in philosophical and methodological problems. Let us present here very briefly the characteristic given by A. N. Leontiev himself the main stages of research of the Kharkov group of psychologists.

First cycle of research(1932-1933) dealt with the problem of "image-process". Here, the following were investigated: the relationship between speech and practical intelligence (L.I.Bozhovich), the discursive thinking of a preschooler and the development of meanings (A.V. Zaporozhets, L.I. Bozhovich) and mastery of a concept in the process of learning (A.N. Leontiev). The beginning of experiments of PI Zinchenko on forgetting and the development by AV Zaporozhets of the problem of "perception as action" dates back to this time. The result of this cycle was, firstly, the proposition that in the transfer, meaning and generalization are not only revealed, but also formed, and that the transfer is not only an adequate method for studying generalization (L. S. Vygotsky), but also the process of generalization itself ... Communication is a particular condition of transference. Secondly, the provision on two different types of transference (application of practical action in a situation and a discursive process) and, accordingly, different levels of generalization. The image "lags behind" the process (experiments with dilution of meaning and operations).

Second cycle of research(1934-1935) pursued the following goal: to bring the investigated processes "outside" and trace them in external activity. Here, first of all, the problem of a tool as an object arises in which a socially developed method is fixed. It differs from a means (subordinate to "natural psychology"). These include the well-known experiments of P. Ya. Halperin, described in his dissertation in 1935, the works of P. I. Zinchenko and V. I. Asnin, A. V. Zaporozhets and L. I. Bozhovich. The general result of this cycle of research was the conclusion: “to master a tool, as well as a meaning, means to master a process, an operation. Whether it happens in communication or in “invention” is indifferent ”(A. N. Leont'ev). What determines the operation itself? First, the objective properties of the object. But, secondly, how the object appears depends on the attitude of the person, on the process as a whole. "And this process is life."

Main idea third cycle of research(1935-1936) was as follows: "The key to the morphology of consciousness lies in the morphology of activity." These include the works of V.I.Asnin, T.O. Ginevskaya, V.V. Mistyuk, K.E. practical activities on the material of awareness during the game. In the study of V.I. Asnin, the idea of ​​the structure of activity as a whole arises (the dependence of the effectiveness of solving a problem on the goal, motivation, and the nature of all activity).

Fourth research cycle(1936-1940) proceeded from the premise: "all internal processes are built on the model of external activity and have the same structure." There was a lot of research here, primarily P.I. Zinchenko on involuntary memorization (memory as action), A.V. Zaporozhets on perception as action, GD Lukov on play (experimental "dilution" of meaning and meaning) and a whole series of others; It is interesting that at this time the object of study of the Kharkivites was largely the perception of art.

What was the personal role of A. N. Leontyev in the work of the Kharkov group as a whole?

It should start with the fact that he was constantly in Kharkov only until the end of 1934 - the beginning of 1935, after which he returned to Moscow and visited Kharkov only from time to time (for example, a letter to D. B. Elkonin dated June 26, 1936 was written from Kharkov ). But even after that he remained, as they say in social psychology, both the "instrumental" and "expressive" leader of the group. It is to him that the merit of the methodological and general theoretical substantiation of all the experimental activities of the Kharkovites belongs. This in no way diminishes the role of other members of the group, for example, A. V. Zaporozhets or P. I. Zinchenko; "Kharkiv" psychology was created by collective efforts, but A. N. Leontiev was always at the center of Kharkiv citizens' activities. All of them recognized this and pointed out in their (unfortunately, very few) publications.

Until now, we have not mentioned another direction of research by the Kharkov group of psychologists, primarily A. N. Leontiev himself - the study of the genesis of sensitivity and the psyche in general in the animal kingdom and the stages of its development. Obviously, this direction was closely related to others. And when in the Kharkov laboratory of A. N. Leontiev, as he told shortly before his death, "daphnia, fish and cats" began to appear, and then the young (like all members of the Kharkov group) Philip Veniaminovich Bassin began to "chase daphnia" the study of extrapolation reflexes fit well into a unified methodological concept of the development of the psyche. By the way, many years later it was the extrapolation reflexes that made the famous Belgian psychologist A. Mischotte famous; but his work went independently, and A. N. Leont'ev's works were most likely found out by A. Mishott only after their personal meeting, in the 50s of the last century).

In the Kharkov period, in 1933-1936, Aleksey Nikolaevich developed (theoretically and experimentally), first of all, a hypothesis about the fundamental genesis of sensitivity as an ability of elementary sensation. It was not published at that time and was only presented orally - in reports made in Kharkov and Moscow. The first publication on this topic appeared only in 1944 (A. N. Leontiev, 1944). In parallel, he dealt with the problem of the periodization of the phylogenetic development of the psyche in the animal world, the problem of the relationship between innate and acquired experience. And in 1936, in parallel in Kharkov (together with V. I. Asnin) and in Moscow (together with N. B. Poznanskaya), a systematic experimental study of the formation of sensitivity to an inadequate stimulus was conducted - in other words, "skin vision" ... But all this was one and, perhaps, not the most important part of the gigantic project undertaken by A. N. Leontiev in the second half of the 30s.

Developing more and more new projects, Alexey Nikolaevich published the book “Activity. Consciousness. Personality ”, where he defends his point of view that a person does not just adjust his activity to the external conditions of society, but the same conditions of society carry the motives and goals of his activity. In parallel, A. N. Leont'ev began work on the problem of the development of the psyche, namely, the study of extrapolation reflexes in animal individuals. In 1936, Alexei Nikolaevich returned to the Institute of Psychology, where he worked until leaving for the Department of Psychology at Moscow State University. At the institute, he deals with the issue of skin photosensitivity. At the same time, A. N. Leontiev teaches at VGIK and GITIS. He collaborates with S. M. Eisenstein and conducts an experimental study of the perception of motion pictures. In the pre-war years, he became the head of the Department of Psychology at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute. N.K.Krupskaya. In the second half of the 1930s, Aleksey Nikolaevich worked out the following problems: a) phylogenetic development of the psyche, and in particular the genesis of sensitivity; b) "functional development" of the psyche, that is, the problem of the formation and functioning of activity; c) the problem of consciousness.

These problems were well covered in A. N. Leontyev's doctoral dissertation "Development of the psyche", defended at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute. A.I. Herzen in 1940. The dissertation included only a part of the results of his research, but, unfortunately, this work of A. N. Leont'ev has not been preserved in full. The dissertation contained articles devoted, in particular, to memory, perception, emotions, will and volition. There is also a chapter entitled "Activity-Action-Operation", which gives the basic conceptual system of activity-based psychological theory. According to Aleksey Nikolaevich, activity is inseparable from the object of its need, and in order to master this object, it is necessary to focus on such properties of it that are vitally indifferent in themselves, but are closely related to other vital significant properties objects, that is, "signal" about the presence or absence of the latter. Thus, due to the fact that the activity of an animal acquires an objective character, a form of reflection specific to the psyche arises in its embryonic form - a reflection of an object with properties that are vital, and properties that signal them. A. N. Leont'ev defines sensitivity, respectively, as irritability in relation to such influences, which are correlated by the organism with other influences, i.e., which orient a living being in the objective content of its activity, performing a signal function. Alexey Nikolaevich undertakes research in order to test his hypothesis. First in Kharkov, and then in Moscow, with the help of the experimental technique he developed, he reproduces in artificially created conditions the process of converting imperceptible stimuli into perceptible ones (the process of a person's sensation of color by the skin of the hand). Thus, A. N. Leont'ev, for the first time in the history of world psychology, made an attempt to determine the objective criterion of the elementary psyche, taking into account the sources of its origin in the process of interaction of a living being with the environment. Summing up the data accumulated in the field of zoopsychology, and based on his own achievements, Alexey Nikolaevich developed a new concept of the mental development of animals as the development of mental reflection of reality, due to changes in the conditions of existence and the nature of the process of animal activity at different stages of phylogenesis: the stages of sensory, perceptual and intellectual psyche. This direction of A. N. Leontyev's work was directly related to the development of the issue of activity and the problem of consciousness. While working on the problem of personality, Alexey Nikolaevich adhered to two directions of his activity. He worked on problems of the psychology of art. In his opinion, there is nothing where a person could realize himself as holistically and comprehensively as in art. Unfortunately, today it is almost impossible to find his works on the psychology of art, although during his lifetime Alexei Nikolaevich worked a lot on this topic. In 1966, A. N. Leontyev finally transferred to the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University, from that time until the last day of his life, Alexei Nikolaevich was the permanent dean and head of the department general psychology this university. A. N. Leontiev left our world on January 21, 1979; it is impossible to overestimate his scientific contribution, because it was he who managed to force many to reconsider their views and to approach the subject and content of psychophysiological research from a completely different angle.

The most important works of A. N. Leontiev are: "Development of Memory" (1931); "Restoring Movement" (et al., 1945); "Sketch of the development of the psyche" (1947); "Psychological development of a child in preschool age" (1948); "Feeling, perception and attention of the younger children school age"(1950); " Mental development child "(1950); “Human Psychology and Technological Progress” (co-author, 1962); Needs, Motives and Emotions (1973); “Activity. Consciousness. Personality "(1977); "Problems of the development of the psyche" (1981); "Category of activity in modern psychology" (1979); “Selected psychological works. - In 2 volumes "(1983); "Discussion about the problems of activity" (et al., 1990) and others.

At the same time, the publication and analysis of his scientific heritage are far from complete. The huge archive of A. N. Leontiev, kept in his family, is still only partially dismantled. After the death of Alexei Nikolaevich, many of his unpublished manuscripts and transcripts were published and continue to be published; only books, wholly or partially based on archival materials, there are already four, which is comparable to the number of his (different) lifetime books! Working with other biographical sources, shedding light on the twists and turns of his life, takes even longer and is much more painstaking than working with manuscripts. Moreover, the Internet provides optimal opportunities for working with the materials of scientific archives, making it possible to make available at minimal cost archival materials that are usually interesting to a limited circle of readers.

EE Sokolova rightly emphasizes that modern young psychologists do not value the traditions left by our predecessors and, in particular, A. N. Leontiev. The participants in the historical and psychological interview, who shared their memories of Alexei Nikolaevich, spoke about the methodological carelessness of many modern works, about their pragmatic orientation instead of deep theoretical and methodological substantiation, about the absence of criticality in the perception of foreign experience and ignoring the experience of Russian psychology, about the devaluation of moral values ​​in practical psychological work, etc. According to EE Sokolova, this kind of nihilism of the younger generation of psychologists is explained not only by the significantly changed socio-cultural conditions of the work of psychologists in our country, but also by insufficient knowledge and teaching of the "living" history of psychology. Therefore, the collection of materials from the "oral history" of psychological science in our country remains a very urgent task both for historians of psychology proper and for all those who are convinced that it is necessary to "work" ahead of the curve in psychology.

A. N. Leontiev was a laureate of the Lenin Prize (1963) for the book "Problems of the Development of the Psyche" (1959; 3rd edition, 1972), Honorary Doctor of the University of Paris (1968); Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1973). He was awarded the Order of Lenin, 2 other orders, as well as medals.

Academician A. N. Leont'ev did a lot for the development of Russian psychology, for establishing a worthy place for Soviet psychology in the world psychological community. It is the merit of Aleksey Nikolaevich that in the large universities of our country, the departments of psychology at the faculties of philosophy were transformed into independent psychological faculties; that the Higher Attestation Commission singled out psychological sciences (consisting of 12 disciplines) into an independent group from the general composition of pedagogical sciences; that psychology was included in the nomenclature of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Department of Philosophy and Law of this Academy was renamed the Department of Philosophy, Psychology and Law; that the Sector of Psychology of the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was transformed into an independent Institute of Psychology; that at the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University a new journal, Vestnik Psychology, was created.

Thanks to his efforts and under his chairmanship, the XVIII International Congress of Scientific Psychology was held in Moscow in 1966, which, according to foreign psychologists, was one of the best organized congresses of the International Association.

It should be noted that from the very day of A. N. Leontyev's death to this day there have been and are people who have set themselves the life goal of discrediting the personality and activities of Alexei Nikolaevich, zealously creating a certain aura around him. For this not very respectable goal, some individual facts of his biography are artificially selected and tendentiously interpreted. And such facts as A. N. Leontyev's selfless struggle for the fate of his direct and even indirect students or his demonstrative refusal to dismiss M. K. Mamardashvili from the faculty; as the “cover” that Aleksei Nikolaevich created with his considerable weight for the quiet work of the faculty, - let us refer to the memoirs of S. G. Yakobson, which says: “With the advent of the psychology department, I got out of this unpleasant Soviet reality, with its denunciations, personal affairs and other fuss into a completely different world - the world of eternal values, striving for truth, into the world of completely different people ”; as an almost unbelievable act in Soviet times, when, on the initiative of A. N. Leontiev, the doctoral dissertation of the secretary of the faculty party bureau was failed - all these and many other facts depicting the true image of Alexei Nikolaevich as a crystal honest, deeply decent and rarely principled person and leader are simply ignored.

Pupils and associates of A. N. Leont'ev, who knew him well, will confirm that this difficult man, who knew how to be intolerant, tough and irreconcilable, but when it was necessary for the cause, flexible, tolerant and compromise, was exactly what he was about him. they say - honest, courageous, decent and principled, - and that is how he remained in our common memory of him.

His former student Fyodor Efimovich Vasilyuk says in his published memoirs about A. N. Leont'ev: "... We intuitively felt his extraordinary scale, both professional and human ... He was a man from some other world, the World of Great People ...". P. Ya. Halperin rightly emphasizes that in the history of psychology his name will be in the first row of its outstanding builders.

Thus, Academician Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev made a significant scientific contribution to the development of Russian psychology, enriching it with major achievements. His high adherence to principles as a citizen and scientist, breadth of scientific interests and originality of thinking, conscientiousness and perseverance in work are the best example for young people who decided to devote themselves to science. Without doubt, creative biography and the scientific achievements of Aleksey Nikolaevich are of great interest for domestic psychological and psychiatric science and require further careful research, especially with regard to the work of the Kharkov group of psychologists.

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12. A. N. Leontiev and modern psychology: Collection of articles in memory of A. N. Leontiev / Ed. A. V. Zaporozhets, V. P. Zinchenko, O. V. Ovchinnikova, O. K. Tikhomirova; Resp. ed. O. V. Ovchinnikova. - M .: Moscow State University, 1983 .-- 288 p.
13. Leontiev A.N. Selected psychological works: In 2 volumes / Ed. VV Davydova et al. - M .: Pedagogy, 1983. - T. 1. - 391 p .; T. 2.- 318 p.
14. A. A. Leontiev, D. A. Leontiev The myth of the break: A. N. Leontiev and L. S. Vygotsky in 1932: to the 100th anniversary of the birth of A. N. Leontiev // Psychological journal. - 2003. - T. 24, No. 1. - P. 14–22.
15. Leontiev A.N. My Path in Psychology (manuscript).
16. E. E. Sokolova A. N. Leontiev and his school: the experience of oral history [Electronic resource] // Journal practical psychologist... - 2003. - No. 1–2. - Access mode: http://www.anleontiev.smysl.ru/vospomin/jpp.htm.
17. Leontyev Alexey Nikolaevich [Electronic resource] // Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - Access mode: http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/bse/article/00042/01800.htm?text.
18. Galperin P. Ya. To the memories of A. N. Leontiev // A. N. Leontiev and modern psychology: Collection of articles in memory of A. N. Leontiev / Ed. A. V. Zaporozhets, V. P. Zinchenko, O. V. Ovchinnikova, O. K. Tikhomirova; Resp. ed. O. V. Ovchinnikova. - M .: Moscow State University, 1983. - S. 240–244.
19. A. A. Leontiev Life and creative path of A. N. Leontiev: Text of the evening lecture [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: http://www.psy.msu.ru/people/leontiev.
20. A. A. Leontiev Life path Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev // A. N. Leontiev and modern psychology: Collection of articles in memory of A. N. Leontiev / Ed. A. V. Zaporozhets, V. P. Zinchenko, O. V. Ovchinnikova, O. K. Tikhomirova; Resp. ed. O. V. Ovchinnikova. - M .: Moscow State University, 1983. - S. 6–39.

Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev (1903-1979) - an outstanding Soviet psychologist, full member of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR, doctor of pedagogical sciences, professor. Together with L. S. Vygotsky and A. R. Luria, he developed a cultural-historical theory, conducted a series of experimental studies revealing the mechanism of the formation of higher mental functions (voluntary attention, memory) as a process of "rotation", the interiorization of external forms of tool-mediated actions into internal mental processes. Experimental and theoretical work devoted to the problems of the development of the psyche, the problems of engineering psychology, as well as the psychology of perception, thinking, etc. He put forward a general psychological theory of activity - a new direction in psychological science. On the basis of the scheme of the structure of activity proposed by Leontiev, a wide range of mental functions (perception, thinking, memory, attention) were studied.

1. Biography of Leontiev A.N.

Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev was born in Moscow on February 5, 1903 in the family of an employee. After graduating from a real school, he entered the Faculty of Social Sciences of Moscow University, which, according to official version graduated in 1924. However, as A.A. Leontiev and D.A. Leontyev (the son and grandson of the scientist, also psychologists) in the comments to his biography, in fact, he did not manage to graduate from the university, he was expelled.

There are two versions of the reasons. More interesting: as a student, in 1923 he filled out some kind of questionnaire and to the question "How do you feel about Soviet power?" allegedly answered: "I consider it historically necessary." So he told his son. The second version: Leont'ev publicly asked the unloved lecturer on the history of philosophy how one should relate to the bourgeois philosopher Wallace, a biologist and an anti-Marxist in general. A not very educated lecturer, afraid that he would be caught for lack of erudition, for a long time and convincingly explained to the audience, who was still holding the spirit, the mistake of this bourgeois philosopher, invented by students on the eve of the lecture. This version also goes back to the oral memoirs of A.N. Leontyev.

At the university, Leontiev attended lectures by various scientists. Among them were the philosopher and psychologist G.G. Shpet, philologist P.S. Preobrazhensky, historians M.N. Pokrovsky and D.M. Petrushevsky, the historian of socialism V.P. Volgin. In the Communist audience of Moscow State University, then for the first time, N.I. Bukharin. Leontiev also had a chance to listen to the lectures of I.V. Stalin's national issue, about which, however, half a century later he spoke more than restrainedly.

Initially, Leont'ev was attracted by philosophy. Affected by the need to comprehend ideologically everything that was happening in the country before his eyes. He owes his appeal to psychology to G.I. Chelpanov, on whose initiative he wrote the first scientific works - "The Teachings of James on Ideomotor Acts" (it survived) and the unreserved work on Spencer.

Leontiev was lucky: he got to work at the Psychological Institute, where even after Chelpanov left, first-class scientists continued to work - N.A. Bernstein, M.A. Reisner, P.P. Blonsky, from the youth - A.R. Luria, and since 1924 - L.S. Vygotsky.

There is a textbook version: young psychologists Luria and Leontiev came to Vygotsky, and Vygotsky's school began. In fact, young psychologists Vygotsky and Leontiev came to Luria. At first, this circle was headed by Luria, a senior in the institute, already a well-known psychologist, who by that time had several published books. Then a regrouping took place, and Vygotsky became the leader.

The very first publications of Leontiev were in line with Luria's research. These works, devoted to affects, coupled motor technique, etc., were carried out under the guidance of Luria and in co-authorship with him. Only after several publications of this kind did research begin in the cultural-historical paradigm of Vygotsky (Leontyev's first publication on this topic was dated 1929).

By the end of the 1920s, an unfavorable situation began to develop in science. Leontiev lost his job, and in all the Moscow institutions with which he collaborated. At about the same time, the People's Commissariat for Health of Ukraine decided to organize a psychology sector at the Ukrainian Psychoneurological Institute, and later, in 1932, at the All-Ukrainian Psychoneurological Academy (it was located in Kharkov, which was then the capital of the republic) a sector of psychology.

The post of head of the sector was offered to Luria, the post of head of the department of child and genetic psychology to Leontiev. However, Luria soon returned to Moscow, and Leontiev did almost all the work. In Kharkov, he simultaneously headed the Department of Psychology at the Pedagogical Institute and the Department of Psychology at the Research Institute of Pedagogy. The famous Kharkov school arose, which some researchers consider an offshoot of Vygotsky's school, others - a relatively independent scientific education.

In the spring of 1934, shortly before his death, Vygotsky took several steps to gather all his students - Moscow, Kharkov and others - in one laboratory at the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine (VIEM). Vygotsky himself could no longer lead it (he died in early summer 1934), and Leontiev became the head of the laboratory, leaving Kharkov for this. But he did not last long there.

After a report at the academic council of this institute on the psychological study of speech (the text of the report was published in the first volume of his selected works, and today everyone can form an unbiased opinion about it) Leontyev was accused of all possible methodological sins (it came to the city party committee!), after which the laboratory was closed, and Leontiev was fired.

Leontiev was again unemployed. He collaborated at a small research institute at VKIP - the Higher Communist Institute of Education, studied the psychology of art perception at GITIS and at VGIK, where he constantly communicated with S.M. Eisenstein (they had known each other before, from the late 1920s, when Leontyev taught at VGIK, until the latter was declared a nest of idealists and Trotskyists with understandable consequences).

In July 1936, the famous decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) "On pedological perversions in the system of the People's Commissariat for Education" broke out. This decree meant a complete defeat of child and educational psychology and “worthily” crowned a series of decisions of the Central Committee of the early 1930s, which turned back the Soviet school, canceled all innovations and experiments and made the former democratic school authoritarian and militarized.

Especially the ideologists of the democratic school - Vygotsky and Blonsky - got it. Vygotsky, however, already posthumously. And some of those who had previously declared themselves disciples of Vygotsky began to condemn him and their mistakes with no less enthusiasm.

However, neither Luria, nor Leontyev, nor Vygotsky's other true disciples, no matter how pressured they were, said not a single bad word about Vygotsky either orally or in print, and in general they never changed their views. Oddly enough, they all survived nonetheless. But the VKIP was closed, and Leontiev again was left without work.

It was at this time that K.N. Kornilov, and he took Leontiev to work. Of course, there could be no question of any methodological questions. Leontiev dealt with very specific topics: the perception of drawing (a continuation of the studies of the Kharkov school) and the photosensitivity of the skin.

Leontyev's doctoral dissertation on the topic "The development of the psyche" was conceived by him as a grandiose project. Two voluminous volumes were written, the third, devoted to the ontogeny of the psyche, was partially prepared. But B.M. Teplov convinced Leontyev that what was available was enough for protection.

In 1940, a thesis in two volumes was defended. Its first volume was a theoretical and experimental study of the emergence of sensitivity, which practically without changes was included in all editions of the book "Problems of the Development of the Psyche". The most interesting thing is that, as can be clearly seen today, this study is parapsychological - it is devoted to learning to perceive light with your hands! Of course, Leontiev presented this research differently, inducing a materialistic veneer and talking about the degeneration of certain cells in the epidermis of the palms, but this quasi-physiological interpretation of the facts clearly proved by him of the development of the ability to perceive light signals with fingers is no more convincing than the assumption of the extrasensory nature of this phenomenon.

The second volume was devoted to the development of the psyche in the animal kingdom. The "Problems of the development of the psyche" included relatively small excerpts of this part of the dissertation, and the most interesting fragments that remained outside the framework of textbook texts were published posthumously in the collection of Leontiev's scientific heritage "Philosophy of Psychology" (1994).

Another work that belongs to about the same period (1938–1942) is his Methodological Notebooks, notes for himself, which were included in a fairly complete form in the book Philosophy of Psychology. They are devoted to a wide variety of problems.

It is characteristic that many of the things written here in theses were first made public decades later or were not published at all. For example, Leontyev's first publication on personality problems dates back to 1968. In a completed form, his views on personality, which formed the last chapter of the book "Activity. Consciousness. Personality", was published in 1974. But practically everything that was included in this chapter was spelled out and substantiated in the "Methodological notebooks" around 1940, that is, simultaneously with the publication of the first Western generalizing monographs on the problem of personality by K. Levin (1935), G. Allport (1937), G. Murray (1938).

In our country, it was impossible to consider the problem of personality in this vein (through the concept of personal meaning). The concept of "personality" is found in the works of a number of psychologists - Rubinstein, Ananyev and others - since the end of the 40s in a single meaning - as denoting the socially typical in a person ("the totality of social relations"), in contrast to the character, which expresses the individually peculiar ...

If we turn this formula a little differently, taking into account the social context, the ideological underpinning of this understanding is exposed: what is individually peculiar in a person is permissible only at the level of character, while at the level of personality, all Soviet people are obliged to be socially typical. At that time it was impossible to talk seriously about personality. Therefore, Leontyev's theory of personality was "held" for three decades.

In early July 1941, like many other Moscow scientists, Leontiev joined the ranks of the people's militia. However, in September the General Staff recalled him to carry out special defense missions. At the very end of 1941, Moscow University, including the Institute of Psychology that was part of it at that time, was evacuated first to Ashgabat, then to Sverdlovsk.

Two experimental hospitals were established near Sverdlovsk, in Kisegach and Kaurovsk. The first, as a scientific leader, was headed by Luria, the second by Leontiev. A.V. worked there. Zaporozhets, P. Ya. Galperin, S. Ya. Rubinstein and many others. It was a rehabilitation hospital, which dealt with the recovery of movement after injury. This material brilliantly demonstrated not only the practical significance of the theory of activity, but also the absolute adequacy and fruitfulness of N.A. Bernstein, who a few years later, in the late forties, was completely excommunicated from science, and it is not known what would have happened to him if Leontiev had not taken him to his staff at the department of psychology.

The practical result of the work of the experimental hospitals was that the time for returning the wounded to service was reduced several times due to the use of techniques developed on the basis of the activity approach and Bernstein's theory.

After the end of the war, already being a doctor of sciences and head of a laboratory at the Institute of Psychology, Leontyev published a small book "An Outline of the Development of the Psyche" on the basis of his dissertation. Immediately, in 1948, a devastating review of it came out, and in the fall another "discussion" was organized. Many now widely known psychologists spoke in it, accusing the author of the book of idealism. But Leontyev's associates rose to his defense, and the discussion had no consequences for him. Moreover, he was accepted into the party.

Here is what his son and grandson, the most knowledgeable biographers, write about this: "He hardly did it for reasons of career - rather it was an act of self-preservation. But the fact remains. We must not forget that Alexei Nikolaevich, like his teacher Vygotsky, was a convinced Marxist, although by no means orthodox ... Membership in the party, of course, contributed to the fact that from the beginning of the 50s Leontyev became the academician-secretary of the Psychology Department of the APN, then the academician-secretary of the entire academy, later its vice-president. .. "

In 1955, the journal "Questions of Psychology" began to appear. During these years, Leontyev published a lot, and in 1959 the first edition of "Problems of the Development of the Psyche" was published. Judging by the number of publications, the end of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s is the most productive period for him.

In 1954, the restoration of international relations of Soviet psychologists began. For the first time after a long break, a fairly representative delegation of Soviet psychologists took part in the next International Psychological Congress in Montreal. It included Leontyev, Teplov, Zaporozhets, Asratyan, Sokolov and Kostyuk. Since that time, Leontyev has devoted a lot of time and effort to international relations. The culmination of this activity was the International Psychological Congress in Moscow, organized by him in 1966, of which he was president.

At the end of his life, Leontyev turned many times to the history of Soviet (and partly world) psychological science. Perhaps this was primarily due to personal motives. On the one hand, always faithful to the memory of his teacher Vygotsky, he strove to popularize his work and at the same time to identify the most promising ideas in it, as well as to show the continuity of the ideas of Vygotsky and his school. On the other hand, it is natural to strive for reflection on one's own scientific activities... One way or another, Leontyev - partly in collaboration with Luria - owns a number of historical and psychological publications that have quite independent theoretical value.

Today, historical works are already written about him (for example, "Leontiev and modern psychology", 1983; "Traditions and prospects of the activity approach in psychology. School of AN Leontiev", 1999). His works to this day are systematically republished abroad, and sometimes even here, despite the general enthusiasm for pseudo-psychological manipulations. In a telegram sent to Leontyev's death, Jean Piaget called him "great." And, as you know, the wise Swiss did not throw words to the wind.

2.The theory of the origin of activity according to A. Leontiev

Leontiev examines the personality in the context of the generation, functioning and structure of mental reflection in the processes of activity.

Genetically, the initial is external, objective, sensory-practical activity, from which all types of internal mental activity of the individual, consciousness, are derived. Both of these forms have a socio-historical origin and a fundamentally common structure. Objectivity is the constitutive characteristic of activity. Initially, activity is determined by the object, and then it is mediated and regulated by its image as its subjective product.

Activity includes such mutually transforming units as need<=>motive<=>target<=>conditions and related activities<=>actions<=>operations. By action is meant a process, the object and the motive of which do not coincide with each other. the action loses its meaning if the motive and the object are not reflected in the subject's psyche. Action is internally linked to personal meaning. Psychological fusion of individual private actions into a single action is the transformation of the latter into operations, and the content, which previously took the place of the perceived goals of private actions, takes the place of conditions for its implementation in the structure of the action. Another type of operation is born from the simple adaptation of an action to the conditions of its performance. Operations are the quality of the action that forms the action. The genesis of the operation consists in the correlation of actions, their inclusion in one another.

Along with the birth of the action of this, the main "unit" of human activity, the basic, social in nature "unit" human psyche- meaning for a person, what his activity is aimed at. The genesis, development and functioning of consciousness are derived from one or another level of development of the forms and functions of activity. Along with the change in the structure of human activity, changes and internal structure his consciousness.

The emergence of a system of subordinate actions, that is, a complex action, signifies a transition from a conscious goal to a conscious condition of action, the emergence of levels of awareness. Division of labor, production specialization give rise to a "shift of motive to a goal" and the transformation of action into activity. There is a birth of new motives and needs, which entails a qualitative differentiation of awareness. Further, the transition to internal mental processes is assumed, internal actions appear, and later - internal activity and internal operations, which are formed according to the general law of the shift of motives. Activity, ideal in its form, is not fundamentally separated from external, practical, and both of them are meaningful and meaning-forming processes. The main processes of activity are the interiorization of its form, leading to a subjective image of reality, and the exteriorization of its internal form as the objectification of the image and its transition into an objectively ideal property of the object.

Sense is the central concept by which the situational development of motivation is explained and a psychological interpretation of the processes of meaning formation and regulation of activity is given.

Personality is an internal moment of activity, some unique unity that plays the role of the highest integrating authority that controls mental processes, an integral psychol. neoplasm that forms in life relationships the individual as a result of the transformation of his activities. Personality first appears in society. Man enters history as an individual endowed with natural properties and abilities, and he becomes a person only as a subject of societies and relations.

A relatively late product of the socio-historical and ontogenetic development of mankind is embedded in the concept of "personality". Public relations are carried out by a set of various activities. Personality is characterized by hierarchical relationships of activities, behind which are the relationships of motives. The latter is born twice: the first time - when his conscious personality arises, the second time - when the child manifests itself in explicit forms polymotivation and subordination of his actions.

The formation of personality is the formation of personal meanings. Personality psychology is crowned with the problem of self-awareness, since the main thing is self-awareness in the system of societies and relationships. Personality is what a person creates from himself, affirming his human life.

At each age stage of personality development, a certain type of activity is presented, which acquires a leading role in the formation of new mental processes and properties of the child's personality. Leontiev's fundamental contribution to child and developmental psychology was the development of the problem of leading activity. This outstanding scientist not only characterized the change in leading activities in the process of a child's development, but also laid the foundation for the study of the mechanisms of transformation of one leading activity into another.

conclusions

Leontiev A.N. made an orgromous contribution to domestic and world psychology. Developed in the 20s. together with L.S. Vygotsky and A.R. Luria cultural-historical theory, conducted a series of experimental studies revealing the mechanism of the formation of higher mental functions (voluntary attention, memory) as a process of "rotation", the interiorization of external forms of tool-mediated actions into internal mental processes. Experimental and theoretical works are devoted to the problems of the development of the psyche (its genesis, biological evolution and socio-historical development, the development of the child's psyche), the problems of engineering psychology, as well as the psychology of perception, thinking, etc.

He put forward a general psychological theory of activity - a new direction in psychological science. On the basis of the scheme of the structure of activity proposed by Leontiev, a wide range of mental functions (perception, thinking, memory, attention) were studied, and the study of consciousness and personality was carried out. The concept of L.'s activity was developed in various branches of psychology (general, children's, pedagogical, medical, social), which in turn enriched it with new data. The statement of the leading activity and its determining influence on the development of the child's psyche, formulated by Leontiev, served as the basis for the concept of the periodization of the mental development of children, put forward by D.B. Elkonin, and at the same time slowed down the study of innate psychological differences. With the active participation of Leontiev, a number of psychological discussions took place, in which he defended the point of view that the psyche is formed mainly by external factors.

Critics also point to the fact that Leontiev was one of the most consistent supporters of the ideologization of Soviet psychology. In all his works, including the program book "Activity, Consciousness, Personality" (1975), he consistently carried out the thesis: "In modern world psychology fulfills an ideological function and serves class interests; it is impossible not to reckon with it ".

Literature

1. Leontiev A. N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. - M., 1982 (1975). (The problem of activity in psychology: 73-123. Activity and consciousness: 124-158. Activity and personality: 159-189).

2. Nemov RS Psychology: Textbook. for stud. higher. ped. study. institutions: In 3 books. - 4th ed. - M .: Humanit. ed. Vlados, 2001. - Book. 1: General Foundations of Psychology. -688 s.

And a specialist in psycholinguistics, the author of numerous works that greatly influenced the development domestic science, Alexey Alekseevich Leontiev. The biography of this outstanding scientist is quite rich, like his professional activity... He passed a long scientific path from philology to psychology and pedagogy.

Having received basic philological education, A.A.Leont'ev gravitated towards an interdisciplinary space in the field of humanitarian knowledge. Over time, the central problematic of his research was the topic of communication, which he considered as a general theoretical and influencing other disciplines related to psychology.

Leontiev is one of the first Russian researchers from among those engaged in the development of the theory of "Pedagogical communication" in didactics. Despite a huge number of his own works known to science (about 900 works and 30 books), he became the first publisher of some works of such famous scientists as I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, L. S. Vygotsky, E. D. Polivanov, A. N. Leontiev and L.P. Yakubinsky.

The Leontyev family

On January 14, 1936, the Leontyevs had a son, Alexei. His family - mother Margarita Petrovna (1905-1985), father Alexei Nikolaevich (1903-1979) and his parents, Alexandra Alekseevna and Nikolai Vladimirovich, then lived in Moscow.

According to their friends, family relations were very warm. This concerned both relations with Alexei Nikolaevich's parents and the spouses among themselves. Margarita Petrovna devoted her life to her family and the support of her great husband, was for him a reliable rear and support until the last day of his life.

Father. Professional activity

Father is an outstanding Russian psychologist Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev. The biography of A. N. Leontiev is extremely rich in scientific activity. Under the leadership of Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896-1934), together with Alexander Romanovich Luria (1902-1977), whom Leontiev met at the Institute of Psychology, having come to work after graduating from Moscow State University, they developed a well-known cultural-historical theory and carried out numerous experimental research, aimed at studying the mechanisms of the formation of psychological processes.

In joint work with them, as well as with a number of other colleagues, he worked out in detail the problems of the relationship between practical activity and consciousness, understanding, communication through activity. Thus, in the 30s, he formed a general psychological concept of activity, which to this day has a great influence on the development of theoretical directions in the psychology of both domestic and foreign researchers.

Thus, A. N. Leont'ev is rightfully considered the creator of an extensive scientific psychological school and numerous works that influenced not only the development of psychology, but also pedagogy, philosophy, cultural studies, and other humanities. The famous one which was published in 1975 by senior Alexei Leontiev, “Activity. Consciousness. Personality ”is a generalizing work on the theory of activity.

Childhood

Considering that Aleksei Alekseevich's childhood fell on the pre-war years, his childhood memories are somehow connected with the war, bomb shelters and a trip to Ashgabat (at the end of 1941) and Sverdlovsk (in mid-1942), where Moscow State University was evacuated. The family was able to return to their home only in 1943.

Even before A.A.Leontyev began to study at school, he was engaged in a children's group for the study German language... The preparation was quite serious, and the tasks were difficult (for example, translation of texts). When he entered school number 110, Aleksey Alekseevich was assigned not to the first grade, but immediately to the second. Moreover, according to the results of research conducted among students, he was enrolled in the list of geeks. The result of studying at the school was a gold medal.

Institute years

According to Aleksey Alekseevich himself, back in 1953, when he graduated from school, it was absolutely clear that doing science was his true calling. Among all possible options for admission, he considered various humanities and even organic chemistry.

As A. A. Leontyev recalls, psychology was undoubtedly among those sciences that attracted him. But he did not enter this faculty. Of course, one of the main reasons was that his father headed the Department of Psychology at Moscow State University. Lomonosov. As a specialty in others educational institutions psychology was either absent or just beginning to appear. Therefore, A. A. Leontiev chose the Faculty of Philology.

Start of professional work

Alexey Alekseevich successfully graduated from the university in 1958. His graduation thesis was highly appreciated by teachers and became the basis for 2 publications. The result of this work was the offer of a teaching position at the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Psycholinguistics

In addition to outstanding philological abilities and knowledge, Alexei Alekseevich was attracted by other humanities. His work confirmed that Alexei Leontiev is a psychologist, psycholinguist and teacher. Its main theme from that period scientific work became psycholinguistics (the book was published in 1967). At the same time, the Faculty of Psychology was founded at Moscow State University, where the subject of the same name was introduced. In addition to this course, which Aleksey Alekseevich taught for the rest of his life, he also developed and read other disciplines of psychological, socio-psychological, psycholinguistic, pedagogical, forensic and other directions.

Alexey Alekseevich became a Doctor of Philosophy in 1968. It should also be noted that the release of this doctoral dissertation on psycholinguistic speech modeling was preceded by 9 monographs of various thematic areas, which do not lose their relevance in our time. The doctoral degree allowed Aleksey Alekseevich in 1969 to organize a psycholinguistic research group on the basis of the Institute of Linguistics.

The area of ​​interest of this outstanding scientist is quite large, but the problem of communication has become a unifying problem for him. A. A. Leontyev saw in it a general theoretical aspect, which manifests itself in many humanitarian sciences. The result of his numerous works and research was the advancement of a multilevel interdisciplinary theory of human communication and a book on the psychology of communication, published in 1974.

The transition from linguistics to pedagogy

Over time, for Aleksey Alekseevich, linguistics began to fade into the background, and he turned his attention to education. Confirmation was the doctoral degree in the psychology of speech communication (1975). After that, he went to work at the then established Institute of the Russian Language. A.S. Pushkin, and in 1976 he became a professor.

also in certain periods In his life he worked at the methodological center of the Russian language at Moscow State University, headed various councils. In 1986 he is a professor at Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. In 1988-1991. - Head of the Laboratory language education, in 1990 - Secretary General of the International Association for the Collective Promotion of the Study of Languages. In 1992 Leontyev was elected a full member of the Russian Academy of Education.

In 1994, he became the head of the Institute of Languages ​​and Cultures. LN Tolstoy, who himself created. Since 1995 he has become a member of the Russian Language Council. Since 1997, he led the "School 2000". In parallel with other work, in 1998 he became a professor at Moscow State University. In 2000, he began cooperation with the Center at RAO.

A worthy change

Alexei Alekseevich has a son Dmitry (born in 1960), who also became the successor of the family. Now he is a fairly well-known psychologist, doctor of sciences, professor at Moscow State University, director of the Institute for Life Creativity.

A. A. Leontyev also has a daughter, but, unfortunately, nothing is known about her, except that she also studied at Moscow State University.

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Leontiev Alexei Nikolaevich (February 5, 1903, Moscow - January 21, 1979, Moscow) - Soviet psychologist who dealt with the problems of consciousness and activity. Pupil of L. S. Vygotsky. In 1924 he graduated from Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov.

Since 1941 - Professor of Moscow State University and since 1945 - Head of the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy. In 1948 he joined the Communist Party. Since 1950 - a full member of the APN RSFSR, and since 1968 - APN USSR. He founded the Faculty of Psychology at Moscow State University in 1966 and directed it in the 1960s and 1970s. Son - A. A. Leontiev.

"Personal meaning is generated by the being of a person, life ..."

Alexey Leontiev

Scientific contribution

With the active participation of Leontiev, a number of psychological discussions took place, in which he defended the point of view that the psyche is formed mainly by external factors.

Critics note the fact that Leontiev was one of the most consistent supporters of the ideologization of Soviet psychology. In all his works, including the program book “Activity, Consciousness, Personality” (1975), he consistently carried out the thesis: “In the modern world, psychology performs an ideological function and serves class interests; it is impossible not to reckon with it ”.

In 1976 he opened a laboratory for the psychology of perception, which operates to this day.

Main publications

• List of printed works by A. N. Leontiev
• Development of memory., M., 1931
• Recovery of movement. -M., 1945 (et al.)
• On the question of the consciousness of teaching, 1947
• Psychological issues of the consciousness of idem doctrine // Izvestiya APN RSFSR.- M., 1947.- Vol. 7.
• Essay on the development of the psyche. - M., 1947
• Psychological development of a child in preschool age // Questions of child psychology preschool age... - M.-L., 1948
• Feeling, perception and attention of children of primary school age // Essays on the psychology of children (junior school age). - M., 1950
• The mental development of the child. - M., 1950
• Human psychology and technical progress. - M., 1962 (et al.)
• Needs, motives and emotions. - M., 1973
• Activity. Consciousness. Personality (idem), 1977
• Will, 1978
• Category of activity in modern psychology // Vopr. psychology, 1979, no. 3
• Problems of the development of the psyche. - M., 1981 (Preface, table of contents, comments)
• Selected psychological works (idem - Table of Contents, From the Compilers, Introduction, Abstract & Comments: vol. 1, vol. 2), 1983; In 2 volumes.Volumes 1 and 2.
• The problem of activity in the history of Soviet psychology, Questions of psychology, 1986, N 4
• Discussion about the problems of activity // Activity approach in psychology: problems and prospects. Ed. V.V.Davydova et al. - M., 1990 (co-author).
• Philosophy of Psychology, 1994
• Lectures in General Psychology, 2000
• In English: Alexei Leont'ev archive @ marxists.org.uk: Activity, Consciousness, and Personality, 1978 & Activity and Consciousness, 1977

»Activity theory

The theory of leading activity and the development of the psyche.
Alexey Nikolaevich Leontiev (1903-1979)

Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev is a Soviet psychologist, a student of Lev Vygotsky, the founder of the cultural-historical school in psychology.

His contribution to science A.N. Leontiev did in the field of general psychology and psychological research methodology. He investigated the problems of the development of the psyche, its genesis, biological evolution, social and historical development. He also studied issues of engineering psychology, psychology of perception, memory, thinking, etc. First of all, Alexey Leontiev is known for his theory of leading activity and the concept of "shifting motive to goal."

Human subjectivity, human activity and their connection were the exit point psychological research A.N. Leont'sva. He wrote: “Psychological science has never risen above the level of purely metaphysical opposition of subjective mental phenomena to the phenomena of the objective world. Therefore, she could never penetrate into their real essence, perplexedly stopping in front of the moat that separates essence and phenomenon or cause and effect. " Leont'ev defines an important position of psychological cognition: "Activity practically connects the subject with the surrounding world, influencing it and obeying its objective properties." In this regard, the idea of ​​the psyche as an entity, which has its own special existence, independent of external influences, was rejected.

Leontiev continues and develops the idea L.S. Vygotsky about interiorization, indicating that interiorization as gradual transformation external actions to internal, mental, is a process that is forcedly carried out in the ontogenetic development of a person. Leont'ev determines its necessity by the fact that the central content of a child's development is his assimilation of achievements historical development humanity, including the achievements of human thought, human knowledge.

In order for the child to be able to construct a new mental action, it must first be presented to the child as an external action, that is, it must be exteriated. In such an exteriorized form, in the form of an expanded external action, a mental action arises. Subsequently, as a result of its gradual transformations - generalization, specific reduction of links and changes in the level at which it is performed - its internalization occurs, which already occurs in the child's mind.

According to Leontiev, this process is of fundamental importance for understanding the nature of the formation of the human psyche. After all, its main feature lies precisely in the fact that it develops not in terms of the manifestation of innate abilities, not by adapting hereditary species behavior to variable elements of the environment. It is a product of the transfer and appropriation by individuals of the achievements of socio-historical development, the experience of previous generations. Creative movement of thought forward, which a person carries out independently, is possible only on the basis of mastering this experience.

To confirm his positions, Leontyev uses probable facts indicating that children who are with early age develop outside society and the phenomena created by it, remain at the level of the animal psyche. They not only do not form speech and thinking, even their movements do not in any way resemble human ones. In addition, such children do not acquire the vertical posture characteristic of people.

Leont'ev gives convincing examples of the fact that those abilities and functions that are of a social nature are not fixed in the brain of people and are not transmitted according to the laws of heredity. This idea opens the way to the theory of human self-awareness. The latter gains freedom from reflex reactivity and actively plans his behavior. Here are the beginnings of principles to help you find new theoretical basis scientific psychology, advance its general theory.

In this regard, Leont'ev rejects flat biologism, placing in the basis of human activity not elementary physiological functions of the brain, but their combinations that arise in the course of individual development. 1 “The cortex of the human brain, with its 15 billion nerve cells has become ... an organ capable of forming functional organs. " The functioning of the latter is carried out on the basis of human activity.

Leont'ev's significant contribution to psychology is that he revealed the nature and forms of this activity, showed its motivational driving force and put forward the concept of leading activity. He calls the latter the activity that causes the most important changes in the child's psyche. Leading activity is associated with mental processes that prepare the child's transition to a new, higher stage of development.

In the book "Problems of the development of the psyche" Leontiev gives a detailed description of activity in general, its structure and motivational complications. Activity consists of actions. Actions are decomposed into separate operations. There is an object and a motive in activity. According to the author, genetically separating the subject and the motive of individual activity is the result of separating individual operations from a complex and multiphase, but unified activity.

Historically, according to the method of its origin, the connection of the motive with the object of action reflects not natural, but objective-social connections and relations, that is, the division of labor leads to the separation of the object and the motive. This is explained by the fact that in the process of division of labor, a person performs only part of the general activity. Awareness of an action, of its meaning as a conscious goal, takes a person beyond the limits of only this action. On this basis, the subject for the first time reveals the connection between the object of action (its goal) and that which prompts to activity, is revealed in a directly sensible form - in the form of the activity of a human labor collective. This activity is now displayed in the human brain no longer in its subjective fusion with an object, but as an objectively practical attitude of the subject to it.

Leontiev comes to the need to include the idea of ​​"meaning" in the concept of motivation. It is necessary to find out what meaning the subject has for me, what predetermines my action in relation to it. From the psychological side, meaning is a generalized reflection of reality, which has become the property of my consciousness, a reflection that humanity has developed and fixed in the form of a concept, knowledge or even skill, as a generalized "mode of action", norms of behavior, etc. In particular, the English psychologist F. Bartlett defines meaning as "the meaning that is created by the integrity of the situation." Leont'ev formulates the proposition that "conscious meaning expresses the relationship of the motive to the goal."

The term "motive", according to Leont'ev, means that objective, in which the need for given conditions is concretized and at which the activity is directed as to what excites it. Leont'ev also distinguishes between meaning and meaning. So, understanding the meaning of a certain historical date may have different meanings, for example, for a student and for a warrior. For Leontyev, “meaning” carries a personal load. Introducing for psychological characteristics consciousness, the difference between personal meaning and actually objective meaning, Leont'ev notes that the differentiation of these concepts does not concern the entire displayed content, but only what the activity of the subject is directed to. After all, personal meaning expresses precisely the attitude towards perceived objective phenomena. The subordination of actions and goals to outgoing motives expands the scope of the conscious.

With the expansion of this sphere, Leontyev connects the concept “ shift of motive to target»: A person under the influence of a certain motive begins to perform an action, and then performs it for his own sake. In this case, the motive seems to be shifted to the goal, and the action turns into activity. The motives of activity that have such an origin are called conscious motives by Leont'ev. He characterizes them by setting the relationship between the motive of a narrow activity and the motive of activity and a broader one.

The fact that the shift of motives to the goals of action can be observed in human actions makes it psychologically clear how new needs can arise and how the type of their development changes. Since the need finds its definiteness in the object, or, in other words, is objectified in it, Leont'ev reveals in the given object the motive of the activity, that is, what exactly excites it. Thus, the emergence of new, higher motives occurs in the form of the transfer of motives to goals and their awareness.

Pointing to the differences between action and activity, Leontiev notes that in action the motive does not coincide with the object. CA happens only in activity. Since the object of the action does not cause activity, in order for the action to arise, it is necessary that its object appears before the sous of the Object in its relation to the motive of the activity into which this action enters. In this case, the object of action is perceived as a goal.

Leont'ev distinguishes motives "only perceived" from "really acting". Only under certain conditions can some motives turn into others. This transformation occurs as follows: sometimes the result of an action turns out to be more significant than the motive that actually prompts this action. The child conscientiously prepares homework, wanting to go for a walk faster. As a result, this leads to significantly more, that is, to good grades. There is a new objectification of the child's needs, which means that they change, develop, rise one step higher. Here Leontiev makes a pedagogical conclusion: the art of education consists in giving a higher value to a successful result of activity. This is how the transition to a higher type of real motives is carried out. If the child is given the task of memorizing certain words, and then the same task is given in play activity, then in the second case the task will be performed with double efficiency. The specific motive of specific activity plays a role here.

Establishing the motives of actions and the motives of activity, Leontiev shows their mutual transition. Motives of activity, obeying higher motives, they become motives of only individual actions and additionally support their implementation. Of course, the reverse process can also be observed. The subordination of motives denies purely reactive behavior, in which Leont'ev sees a lot of sense. At the same time, he pays considerable attention not only to the problems of the individual in development. He is no less interested in the winding and colorful path of the historical development of the psyche.

Developing Marxist views on the historical development of the psyche, Leont'ev subjects naturalistic and sociological theories concerning this problem to a thorough analysis. Spencer, Gazri, Skinner and others in their theories of the psyche primarily biologize man. Theories of adaptation and adaptation clearly express the "naturalism" of these researchers. If they sometimes speak of the language as specific property adaptive human actions, then the language itself does not go beyond biological definitions.

The French school in psychology develops a sociological direction. “Society is the explanatory principle of the individual,” its representatives assert. However, society itself is considered only in terms of consciousness and, in particular, "collective consciousness" Durkheim. By Piaget, the emergence of related systems of intellectual operations is considered as a product of cooperation (cooperation) transferred to the internal plan, which arises in the conditions social life... Even in the works of French psychologists of the Marxist direction (Politzer, Wallona, Myerson) the isolation of the natural from the social is noticeable.

Leontyev recalls that in the 1920s the theory of the "biosocial" prevailed in the Soviet Union. Already Vygotsky subjected her to serious criticism. His school, to which Leont'ev belongs, developed in detail the proposition that the mental is a product, a derivative of the development of material life, external material activity, which turns into internal activities, into the activity of consciousness. The central task of the study was put forward - the structure of activity and its internalization. After a discussion on scientific heritage I. Pavlova an illegal turn towards physiologization of the human psyche took place. The problem of the individual and the environment has been simplified on the basis of biological principles. Criticizing biologization in psychology, Leont'ev notes that the concept of the environment cannot be understood only as a set of external stimuli in their physical meanings. What the environment is for an organism depends on the nature of the given organism, on its specific situation, and most importantly, on its activity.

Using a large amount of experimental material, Leontyev shows that in the course of anthropogenesis, social laws were gaining strength more and more. The rate of human social development was less and less dependent on the rate of his biological development. In the end, the socio-historical progress of man is freed from this dependence. The era of the rule of exclusively social laws is coming

The accumulation and consolidation of the achievements of the socio-historical development of mankind is fundamentally different from the biological form of accumulation and fixation of phylogenetically arising properties. Leont'ev also shows the fundamental difference between the forms of transmission of the achievements of mankind by individual individuals. These achievements are not fixed in morphological features in the form of hereditarily fixed changes. They are fixed in an external, exoteric form. The world of social relations faces each person as a task that is solved through activities aimed at mastering this world.

Developing the Marxist interpretation of the psychic, Leont'ev writes: "The spiritual, psychic development of individual people is a product ... of assimilation, which does not exist in animals at all, just as the opposite process of objectifying their abilities in the objective products of their activity does not exist in them." Mental abilities and functions, which are formed in the course of assimilation, are psychological new formations, the relations of which are inherited, innate mechanisms and processes are only necessary internal (subjective) prerequisites. But they do not determine either their composition or their specific quality. Here Leontiev means speech hearing, logical thinking and others. The possibility of assimilation arises as a result of communication.

If the individual behavior of animals depends on species experience (instincts) and individual, and species behavior adapts to changing elements external environment, then in a person the assimilation of social and historical experience is carried out by "mechanisms of the formation of mechanisms." A system of actions of a gun type arises.

Leont'ev associates the historical development of the psyche with the formation of mental actions, which occurs with the help of interiorization - a gradual transformation of external actions into internal actions. After all, in external objects activity has already been objectified. For de-objectification, the child must carry out adequate activities. The same applies to spiritual products (concepts, ideas, etc.). In this regard, Leontiev criticizes the naive-associative concepts of education and insistently emphasizes the role of adults in the mental development of a child. The adult unfolds mental action in front of the child, and such processes as generalization, reduction of the links of mental action, changes in the levels of performance, occur already in the mind of the child himself. So a person from childhood assimilates social and historical experience, which gives him the opportunity to move forward creatively.

Finally, Leontiev approaches the defining psychological problem- the brain and mental activity of a person. In principle, it is solved in such a way that in historical time the brain does not undergo significant morphological changes. The achievements of historical development are fixed in the objective - material and ideal - products of human activity. A person masters them in the order of lifetime acquisitions. Leont'ev shows the groundlessness of attempts to localize higher mental functions in the spirit of naive psychomorphologism. In this regard, he criticizes the idea of ​​"imposing a psychological pattern on a physiological canvas." After all, the brain works as a whole in the case of any mental process... Leontiev consistently develops the idea of ​​"the formation of functional associations." It is about the dynamics of the processes of emergence and extinction of systems of connections between reactions to sequentially acting complexes of stimuli. These lifelong formations, being folded, function as a whole and are a kind of organs, the specific functions of which appear in the form of mental abilities or functions.

Yet Ukhtomsky noted that it is not necessary to associate something morphologically static with the concept of "organ". Organs, Leont'ev develops this idea, are formed, like the process of interiorization, with a certain reduction in effector actions. Their full reflex structure can be deployed. Congenital structures do not allow this. By the way, in pathological cases, it is not the loss of functions that occurs, but the disintegration of the functional system, one of the links of which is destroyed. Even I. Pavlov did not rigidly oppose "construction" and "dynamics". They pass directly into each other.

Summing up his reasoning about the mental substrate of the brain, Leontiev writes: "The human psyche is a function of those higher brain structures that are formed in a person ontogenetically in the process of mastering historically established forms of activity in relation to the human world around him."

The main works of Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev:

1. Leontiev A.N. Perception and activity. - M., 1976.
2. Leontiev A.N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. - Moscow: Politizdat, 1975.
3. Leontiev A.N. Problems of the development of the psyche. - M., 1992.
4. Leontiev A.N. The mental development of the child. - Moscow, 1950.

Romenets V.A., Manokha I.P. History of psychology of the XX century. - Kiev, Lybid, 2003.