Mecacci on Soviet Psychology in afterwar Italy

[nemo-nostrum.livejournal.com]

Пока у нас нет самого настоящего ответа от проф. Мекаччи на предмет версий Мышления и речи Выготского, удовольствуемся его рассказом о судьбе "советской психологии"TM в Италии в послевоенный период. Оказывается, есть жизнь и за пределами МКАДа, кто б мог подумать! Итак, читаем:

Let me assure you, sooner or later we'll have a response from Dr. Mecacci re our query about the versions of Vygotsky's Thinking and Speech--or, as some prefer to call it, Thought and Language :). In the meantime, feel free to enjoy his story about the life of "Soviet Psychology" (whatever this means) in after-war Italy (hey, there seems to be some psychology outside North America--surprise, surprise :)--) that came out in 2006 in Toronto Slavic Quarterly:

якобы па-руску                                             in italiano                                  in somewhat comprehensible English

Comments

[achilles-brazil.livejournal.com]

I like Mecacci...

But what do you think about Mario Golder, Guillermo Blank and Marta Shuare (worked with Luria - wrote a book about the history of soviet psychology - with many interviews), for instance, Argentines outside North America? Fernando Luiz Gonzalez Rey (Chudnovsky's student), Cuban psychologist, international proeminent Bozhovich's follower?... That crazy people, who learned your language, crossed the Ocean, to study a "soviet psychology" that to you don't means so much, nowadays... Something very complex question, because I remenber that Vygotsky in a Letter to Luria, spokes that they was not read in their own country, for instance:

"Who reads us here? Chelpanov,17 in order to count up the mistakes and then roars with delight; Frankfurt,18 in order to evaluate reliability and set a rate on that basis. I myself also have the hope of forcing my daughter to read my articles (starting at the age of five!), but you do not have any children!"

To A.R. Luria
Zakhar’ino Sanatorium,14 March 5, [19]26

Well, this was in 1926, I don´t know well, if turns much better after, before turns very, very worse... Then I wonder, all we today can ask if was really *some* psychology "inside" USSR... in North America, I don't see something so wonderful too, spite brave tentatives... I wondered, until now that international dialog, scientific cooperation, was some kind of motrice force to sustain peoples' interest in Vygotsky's works even today, for instance, everywere, including in Russia. Well, you see that 15 volumes of his works don't published until now, soon we will can count 10 years from the death of soviet union, if socialism was the major problem, what happens? I wondered, that dialog an cooperation was interesting, because all we are not speaking only to ourselves and to our Countries, but to humankind - this is my nave, non-psychological interpretation of something about Vygotsky's Legacy... So romantic, from my part, ok, I must recognize... But I don't understand your post very well. Not yet. Of course here in our Brazilian jungles there is no psychology, nothing against this statement - is realy correct, so much eclecticism, so much relativistic approachs, so many IQ tests, etc.,... But if you states *nowhere* but North America, and "some" outside as a great surprise, I must to disagree... Nothing personal, of course, all you here really help me much more that majority of Brazilian psychologits that I know, and I'm so thankful about this singular opportunity, but its just a "semicheskii" question... an important one.

Thank you.
Achilles.

[achilles-brazil.livejournal.com]

* Errata: almost 20 years... 1991-2011 - 20 years of the USSR fall...

Interviews of Russian/Soviet psychologist - at perestroika's age

[achilles-brazil.livejournal.com]

Marta O. Shuare wrote a book titled: “Soviet Psychology has I see it” – I had no notice about a Russian version, If you have, please disconsider all the rest. But it was published by Progress (Soviet State official publisher?) in Spanish – see a copy (not good conditions) here = http://www.scribd.com/doc/24741610/Marta-Shuare-La-psicologi¬a-sovietica-tal-como-la-veo-copia-com-marcas

Perhaps nothing really much interesting to you. But useful to Spanish/Latin readers, wanting know something introductory about that socio-historical contexts, etc. But it’s noteworthy the Chapter VIII - with some interviews; I have no means to say were can be the original recordings of this interviews in Russian – because she spokes Russian, if though that the interview was in Russian too. But there is the Spanish translation the she herself had, this is at that book. People interviewed was:

V. P. Zinchenko (at Moscow, in September, 05, 1988)
A. V. Petrovski (at Moscow, in September, 24, 1988)
N. P. Bekhterva (at *Leningrad*, in October, 10, 1988)
Sh. A. Amonashvili (at Tbilisi, in October, 1988)
V. V. Davidov (at Moscow, in December, 03, 1988)
B. F. Lomov (at Moscow, in Novemver, 30, 1988)
G. M. Andreeva (at Moscow, in December, 02, 1988)
And
V. I Slobódchikov (at Moscow, in December, 03, 1988)

There was a round table too.
(At Moscow, in October, 29, 1988)
With:
A. G. Asmolov
B. S. Bratus
D. A. Leontiev
A. A. Puzirei and
L. A. Radzikhovski

All this material is now transcribed from the page 187 to 298 – around 111 pages.

Mario Golder made interviews too, with Piotr Anokhin, Bluma Zeigarnik and Piotr Galperin. We have a copy here to: http://www.4shared.com/file/163889461/b3661ea3/Golder_-_Reportagens__psicolog.html

And Blank made a good work in the Spanish Edition of the “Pedagoguítcheskaia Psikhologuiia” by Vygotksy – with around 310 explanatory notes, with a lot of data trying to give historical contextualization to the reader

Of course these samples are only related to history of psychology more than to the own conceptual development, but they have their own works too – not so easy in South America, through successive dictatorial regimes and fragile democratic practices, even today, but they had their work. Meccaci was not so different.

Thanks.

Re: Interviews of Russian/Soviet psychologist - at perestroika's age

[achilles-brazil.livejournal.com]

ERRATA:

Sh. A. Amonashvili (at Tbilisi, in October, 14, 1988). I was forgot the day.

Re: Interviews of Russian/Soviet psychologist - at perestroika's age

[nemo-nostrum.livejournal.com]

Achilles,

RE Blank made a good work in the Spanish Edition of the “Pedagoguítcheskaia Psikhologuiia” --

please see a comment below (http://community.livejournal.com/psyhistorik/53497.html?thread=359673#t359673).

Blanck

[lucmeca.livejournal.com]

I knew very well Guillermo Blanck. In the Vygotsky biography by Gita L. Vygodskaya and T. M. Lifanova (p. 355) there is a photograph of the symposium on Vygotsky (International Congress of Psychology, Acapulco, 1984) where Guillermo, I and other participants are listening to the lecture by Vera John-Steiner. On December 9, 1988 Guillermo sent me a photo of the cover of the book "Grafika" by A. Bykhovskiy, with the preface of L. S. Vygotsky (1926). It was a very rare book (printed in only 500 copies) belonging to Gita and he wished to publish it in Western languages. Unfortunately this project was not fulfilled. By the way I was very lucky to find and to buy recently a copy of this wonderful avantgarde book. And of course I was given as a present, with personal autograph, his book "Vigotski. Memoria y vigencia" (1984). Guillermo was a very nice person and competent scholar.

Re: Blanck

[achilles-brazil.livejournal.com]

Yes. Thank you.

I has this book from 1984, a colleague bring to us from Argentine, around 1993, there are very interesting material collect in it... Including a Spanish version of Toulmin's "The Mozart of Psychology"... The own chapter wrote by Blank, had many interesting biographic data, even before Wertsch publish almost the same informations, in his book 'Vygotsky and the social formation of Mind' from 1985. If you note at the Preface of Valsiner and Van der Veer's book "Understanding Vygotsky", you will find that they thanks to many scholars, and G. Blanck is there, among outstanding scholars as Arievich, Asmolov, Davydov, Elrod, Lifanova, Mecacci, Radzikhovsky, Stetsenko, Tulviste, Vasil'eva and Vidal... About the job with Psicología Pedagógica... I counted 325 explanotory notes from him to all the 19 chapters, all that very interesting and detailled, historically contextualizing the names, the people, and some main social conditions of production of the concepts, for the reader... He shows to be very a very dedicated scholar, passionated and completely respectful to Russian culture and history, above all.

I really am not certain about if he is still alive...

Thank you, for your note.

Best wishes.
Achilles.