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L.S. Vygotsky’s Concept of General Psychology: Intention, Realisation, Fate (re-reading “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis”)

L.S. Vygotsky’s Concept of General Psychology: Intention, Realisation, Fate (re-reading “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis”)

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Recieved: 11/30/2025

Accepted: 05/19/2026

Published: 06/06/2026

Keywords: general psychology; concrete psychology; explanatory principle; mental functions; personality; ways of human existence; interdisciplinary approach

Pages: 8-19

DOI: 10.11621/npj.2026.0301

Available online: 06.06.2026

To cite this article:

Chesnokova, M.G. (2026). L.S. Vygotsky’s Concept of General Psychology: Intention, Realisation, Fate (re-reading “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis”). National Psychological Journal, 21(3) , 8-19. https://doi.org/10.11621/npj.2026.0301

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Issue 3, 2026

Chesnokova, M.G. Lomonosov Moscow State University

Abstract

Background. The article is written on the eve of the 100-th anniversary of L.S. Vygotsky’s monograph “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis” (HMPC), in which the issue of building a general psychology occupies a significant place. The appeal to L.S. Vygotsky’s ideas is especially relevant against the background of the loss of general psychology’s leading positions in the modern system of psychological knowledge and the transfer of the function of generalising scientific knowledge to interdisciplinary research.

Objective. The article is focused on the consideration of Vygotsky’s concept of general psychology in the context of the ideas and criticism of general psychology of his time and in connection with the current state of psychological science.

Methods
. The methods of theoretical reconstruction and comparative analysis are used.

Results. Vygotsky’s call for the construction of a general psychology was put forward in the context of the crisis of existing general psychology. As an alternative, programmes of real psychology (A.R. Luria) and concrete, or dramatic psychology (G. Politzer) were suggested. Vygotsky’s approach was focused on retaining the category of the general in psychology and finding the general principle for explaining all mental phenomena. Vygotsky’s understanding of the general changed from the “abstract-general” in the HMPC to the “concrete-general” in the cultural historical theory. There is a division of cultural psychological functions into elementary (common to most people) and higher (personality functions). This corresponds to the ideas of existentialists about two modes of human existence — anonymous and private. The question of the relationship between general psychology and personality psychology remains unresolved.

Conclusions
. Vygotsky’s concept of general psychology is one of the options to understand general psychology in the history of science. This project was not implemented either by Vygotsky himself nor by his followers. Moreover, in the works written after the HMPC, Vygotsky puts forward the idea of creating a discipline general to the group of sciences, including psychology. This allows us to consider L.S. Vygotsky as the forerunner of an interdisciplinary approach in modern psych

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To cite this article:

Chesnokova, M.G. . L.S. Vygotsky’s Concept of General Psychology: Intention, Realisation, Fate (re-reading “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis”). // National Psychological Journal 2026. 3. Pages8-19. doi: 10.11621/npj.2026.0301

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