Personality Syndromes in the Light of the Historical Crisis in Psychology, a Cultural-Historical Activity Theory Position

Abstract

<p>Following the cultural-historical activity theory guidelines, this study investigates the potential consistency between scientific methodologies and personality syndromes. By minding not falling into rough simplification and misleading generalization, our methodological assumption suggests a line of historical similarity worthy of being investigated deeply in future studies. The study looks into the consistency in the historical development of the methodologies representing &lsquo;the symptoms&rsquo; of psychology as a science living through its historical crisis, on one hand, and the personality syndromes representing the &lsquo;implicit methodologies&rsquo; of individuals, on the other. Such an approach allows one to draw more on personality syndromes, their taxonomy, and their root, in addition to the potential predictions of their destiny. A crucial methodological consideration that allows such dependency is that science is a <em>special </em>form (highly abstract and generalized) of creative activity sharing a similar nature to the daily ordinary creative activity of personality. So, science might represent an early historically elaborated version of the ordinary-daily form of activity structure, which allows us to hypothesize that personality syndromes, in their own characteristics, might share the developmental tendency of the noted methodologies rooted in the subjective-objective epistemological rupture as a ground of the historical crisis.</p>