L. Rubinstein’s contribution to personality psychology during the Leningrad period of his life and work

Abstract

This article highlights the fundamental importance of S. L. Rubinstein’s work for the development of Russian psychology of personality and the life path, as well as the evolution of his views on personality in different periods of his life and work. Rubinstein’s emphasis on personality’s subjective foundations, activity, and life path as a whole allowed him to develop a deep and holistic understanding of the phenomenon. The scholar presented a personality structure, identified orientation (napravlennost) as its system-forming principle, and introduced the personality principle into psychology. Gradually, personality evolved into a methodological principle with ontological status. Personality was simultaneously considered as the initial psychological category, a subject of psychological research, and a methodological principle. Examining the evolution of Rubinstein’s views, the study notes that his first concept of personality was detailed during his Leningrad period and was based on the principles of activity; it was developed, drawing on Hegelian philosophy, within the framework of the activity approach introduced into Russian psychology by Rubinstein himself. His second concept of personality, part of a more complex model of personality, was presented during the scholar’s Moscow period. However, this second concept began to take shape during the preceding period and was logically derived from it. Having once proposed the concept of personality, Rubinstein later realized that he had ‘outgrown’ it; this shift was undoubtedly influenced by many events in his own life, as well as the growth and ‘maturation’ of his own personality. Thanks to Rubinstein, personality became associated with the entire life path, rather than with activity alone. His innovative ideas regarding personality and the life path as an integrative entity have had a profound impact on psychology.