DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2019-1-106-115

Psychology theorist Leo Vekker^*

Natalia A. Loginova
Doctor of Psychology, Professor,
Professor of the Department of Developmental Psychology
and Differential Psychology

Saint Petersburg State University,
7–9, Universitetskaya emb., Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russia;
e-mail: n.loginova@spbu.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3460-3497

The article presents a brief biography of the outstanding scientist L.M. Vekker, the characteristics of his theoretical heritage. Vekker hold materialist views. He sought to encompass all mental processes in a single conceptual system and explain them as a special case of general laws of nature. There is a hierarchy of carriers of the psychic, so the link to the original carrier — physical, neural substrate — is unrecognized. As at the highest levels of that hierarchy this connection is far from its material foundation, it gives the subject an illusion of their absolute autonomy. Therefore, the psyche has often been treated as the soul — an autonomous substance. Vekker never agreed with this theoretical position. He acknowledged the existence of the soul but interpreted it as the highest integration of mental phenomena in the material system «human».

In his theory, he proves that mental phenomena are of the information nature, similar to technical and physiological signals. However, they are very specific and have properties of the projection, inaccessibility to direct sensory perception, inexpressibility in the language of nervous processes, immanent activity. The article discusses not only the theory but also the personality of L.M. Vekker, his place in the Soviet and Russian psychological science. In the article, his anniversary speech is published for the first time.

Keywords: L.M. Vekker, theory, mental processes, general laws of nature, signals, distinction of the psychic, hierarchy of carriers of the psychic, Vekker and modern science, scientific archive.

References

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Kholodnaya, M.A. and Osorina, M.V. (eds.) (2008). Teoreticheskoe nasledie L.M. Vekkera: na puti k edinoy teorii psikhicheskikh protsessov [The theoretical heritage of L.M. Vekker: on the course to the total theory of mental processes]. Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg University Publ., 261 p.

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Osorina, M.V. (2008). Nauchnoe tvorchestvo i sudba L’va Markovicha Vekkera [The scientific work and life of Leo Markovich Vekker]. Metodologiya i istoriya psikhologii [Methodology and History of Psychology]. Vol. 3, iss. 4, pp. 85–100.

Vekker, L.M. (1952). Postroenie osyazatelnogo obraza: dis. … kand psikh. nauk [The construction of a tactile image: dissertation]. Leningrad: Leningrad State University Publ.

Vekker, L.M. (1976). Psikhicheskie protsessy [The mental processes]. Leningrad: Leningrad State University Publ., vol. 2, 340 p.

Vekker, L.M. (1998). Psikhika i realnost’: Na puti k edinoy teorii psikhicheskikh protsessov [Psyche and reality: On the way to a unified theory of mental processes]. Moscow: Smysl Publ., 685 p.

Vekker, L.M. (1964). Rol’ dvizheniya v processe osyazatelnogo obraza:diplomnaya rabota [The role of movements in the process of tactile image: thesis]. Leningrad.

Zhdan, A.N. (2012). Istoriya psykhologii: ot Antichnosti do nashikh dney [The history of psychology: from the Antiquity until our days]. Moscow: Academicheskii proekt Publ.; Triksta Publ., 587 p.

Received 31.10.2018

For citation:

Loginova N.A. Psychology theorist Leo Vekker // Perm University Herald. Series «Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology». 2019. Iss. 1. P. 106–115. DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2019-1-106-115

 

* Публикация подготовлена при финансовой поддержки Российского фонда фундаментальных следований (РФФИ). Проект № 17-06-00484 «История Петербургской психологической школы (1941-1991): архивные разыскания и изучение источников».