Essay on Analysis of a Personality
Lev Vygotsky was one of the prominent psychologists of the first half of the 20th century, whose ideas have had a considerable impact on the development of psychology not only in Russia but also the entire world. At the same time, his personality remained quite mysterious for western researchers because for a long time, Vygotsky was ignored by the official Soviet science that prevented the scientific world from acquaintance with his major works. However, his ideas were spread by his colleagues and students and became very popular fast and gained the international approval. In such a context, the analysis of the personality of Lev Vygotsky can help to uncover factors that might have had a considerable impact on his life and work. Moreover, the analysis of his personality will help to understand better his works and his ideas, which he developed in the field of psychology.
First of all, Lev Vygotsky could not avoid the impact of his social environment and events that occurred to him in the course of his life. The major life events of Lev Vygotsky could have defined, to a significant extent his lifestyle and work as well as choices he had made in the course of his life. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that Vygotsky could even fail to start working in the field of psychology, unless tremendous changes that occurred in his life under the impact of grandiose social, economic and political changes that took place in that time in Russia.
Lev Vygotsky was born in Orsha in Western part of the Russian Empire in 1896. He was born in a provincial town but, nonetheless, he manifested great academic skills and abilities that propelled him to educational institutions in Moscow, which was the most important city in the Russian Empire but St. Petersburg, which was the capital of Russia. He entered the Moscow State University and graduated from this University successfully in 1917. He obtained his degree in the field of law. However, he did not really feel being inclined to the law and career in this field did not attract Vygotsky much.
In addition, the turbulent environment, which he lived in, encouraged him to look for his way in his life. The Revolution of 1917 had changed the country and opened larger opportunities for Vygotsky to change his career plans. Vygotsky readily drifted from law to psychology, which was the field of his particular interest. He attended the Institute of Psychology in Moscow in 1924. While attending the Institute of Psychology in Moscow, Vygotsky began his close collaboration with Leontiev and Luri, who were leading psychologists and theorists in the USSR by that time.
He launched his first big research project in 1925. The project was related to the psychology of art, which was the field of a particular interest of Vygotsky. Later he developed his psychological works on personal development, especially development of children, focusing on the development of language and its impact on the cognitive development of children. Vygotsky also paid a particular attention to the impact of the social environment and socialization of individuals and their impact on the personality. His works in the field of psychology were innovative and drew the attention of leadin psychologists not only in Russia but also abroad. His ideas were new and challenging but his studies often proved the righteousness of his hypothesis and ideas.
He died of tuberculosis in 1934. However, his works and scientific findings in the field of psychology were neglected by the Communist regime and remained repudiated till the 1980s. In this regard, the impact of the ruling regime and the political system, which Vygotsky lived in, is obvious. He was free to change his career but he could not stand the struggle against the ruling regime. As a result, the disagreement of Vygotsky’s theoretical views with the official ideology that defined the defined the development of psychology led to the repulsion of his ideas in the USSR.
Along with political influences, there were considerable cultural influences on Lev Vygotsky from the part of his social environment. The early 20th century was the time of the rapid progress of science, which was viewed as the ultimate tool with the help of which many scientists believed to uncover all the truths in the world. In this regard, Vygotsky was not an exception. He believed that the scientific study can help to understand human psychology in details and to uncover all of its mysteries.
At the same time, the impact of Luri and Leontiev was also very significant because they were the major psychologists and theorists, whom Vygotsky collaborated with and learned from. Their ideas could have had a considerable impact on Vygotsky’s views in the field of psychology, although their views did not coincide in many issues. Nonetheless, Vygotsky, as a beginning psychologist, could not ignore views of Luri and Leontiev, who had already been reputable psychologists.
The impact of the revolution was also very important because it is probably due to the revolution Vygotsky had changed his career-orientation so easily. However, Vygotsky did not regret about his choice because he was always interested in psychology. The revolution showed him the provisional nature of fundamental values and norms. In the context of the revolution, changes in Vygotsky career might seem to be absolutely insignificant for him in terms of risks and threats to his social standing or his future.
On the other hand, the revolution brought the impact of the Communist regime and ideology on Vygotsky’s works and views. The cultural historical psychology and his socio-cultural theory could have been influenced, to a significant extent by the Communist, Marxist ideology. However, eventually, the Communist regime’s ideology and Vygotsky’s views came into clashes and his works and ideas were abandoned by the ruling regime and the official science in the USSR did not pay much attention to his works.
Nevertheless, it is not only his environment that influenced his personality, views and beliefs. At this point, it is possible to refer to different personality theory perspectives to understand the personality of Lev Vygotsky. From the Freudian perspective, Lev Vygotsky was an individual, who was intrinsically motivated to understand human psychology. His ego strived for knowledge and understanding of psychology, to the extent that Vygotsky abandoned his career in the field of law and focused on psychology entirely. Hence, his internal inclinations turned out to be stronger than social bounds. He had a strong personality and ego since he had managed to change his life and to take the lead in psychology, generating new ideas and conducting in-depth researches which could have changed psychology as a science consistently. Moreover, his ego and personality was so strong that he had managed to challenge the dominating ideology and the ruling regime that was a daring act, taking into consideration numerous repressions during the Revolution and the Stalin reign. In such a way, internal inclinations of Vygotsky was very strong and drove him throughout his life.
From the standpoint of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, Vygotsky progressed under the impact of his social environment. He grew up in the turbulent environment and studied law to take a certainly strong position since he got an opportunity to make a career in the field of law. However, the revolution changed not only the society, but also the mind of Vygotsky and he abandoned law and turned to psychology. Moreover, he thought progressively and doubt in fundamental concepts, which other psychologists took for granted. As the communist ideology grew stronger, the personality of Vygotsky and his views changed too. Hence, the emergence of the communist ideology gave the rise to cultural historical psychology and his socio-cultural theory, which holds the premise of the full dependent on an individual on his/her social environment and development. In such a way, the personality of Vygotsky was shaped, to a significant extent, by his social environment and major events that occurred to him throughout his life.
On analyzing Vygotsky’s personality in the context of humanistic theories of personality, it is possible to refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As needs of Vygotsky progressed and his personality grew more and more complicated, so did his career and work as well as his personality. As a young student, Vygotsky has some basic needs in education to make a career and to earn for living to satisfy his basic needs. Steadily, esteem needs emerged, as Vygotsky found his way in psychology and was looking for the further development of his ideas and recognition of his psychological works by his colleagues and scientific community at large. Finally, he reached the stage of self-actualization, when being a reputable psychologist, he carried on his explorations and studies to understand better the development of personality, focusing on such issues and language and thought, for instance.
Thus, three theories discuss above highlight the personality of Lev Vygotstky in details. They provide the sufficient ground for the detailed analysis of his personality and help to understand not only internal, personal drivers, but also the impact of his social environment on his life, work and personality. In fact, three theoretical perspectives reveal Vygotsky as a person, who was always inclined to psychology, which was his passion. At the same time, his environment had had a considerable impact on his personality and views. Probably under the impact of revolution and the growing impact of the communist ideology, Vygotsky had managed to challenge fundamental norms and views on psychology and suggested new theories and ideas, including the socio-cultural theory, the concept of the zone of proximal development, and many others which had influenced his contemporaries and are still relevant.
