Vygotsky vs. Freud: on the Rethinking of Psychoanalysis in Terms of Cultural-Historical Psychology

Abstract

The paper traces the dynamics of L.S. Vygotsky’s attitude towards Freud’s theory on the material of Vygotsky’s published works and personal notes. It provides an overall picture of Vygotsky’s critical views on psychoanalysis, including his accounts of both weak and progressive assumptions of Freud’s theory. It has been shown that Vygotsky's polemic with Freud was obviously shaped by the development of cultural- historical psychology and reached the point of a potential rivalry between their research programs in late 1932. The paper focuses on the perspectives of rethinking classical psychoanalysis in the context of the ideas of Vygotsky’s last period of life and work (1932—1934), namely, the idea of consciousness as a dynamic system of meaning, the concept of the field of meaning, the relationship between normal and abnormal development, and the idea of freedom as the main feature of human existence. It is stated that Vygotsky did not seek to eliminate any competing theories (in particular, psychoanalysis), but rather remained in dialogue with them and contributed to making their foundations more clear.