Famous psychologists of all times. The most famous psychologists in the world

The world knew about psychology, or the science of the soul, back in ancient times. That's when it was born. Over the years, this science has been changed, developed, and supplemented.

They made a huge contribution to this psychologists who explored the inner world of man. They wrote many treatises, articles and books, on the pages of which they told the world something new, something that changed their view of many things.

In this material the site presents to your attention the names the most famous psychologists in the world, quotes from which are often found in books, magazines and newspapers. These are the people who became famous throughout the world for their discoveries and scientific views.


Sigmund Freud - the most famous psychologist in the world, who founded psychoanalysis

Many of you have probably heard about this great Austrian psychologist, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and neurologist. It was his inquisitiveness in understanding human nature and his insightful mind that prompted him to the following idea: the cause of a nervous disorder lies in a whole complex of conscious and unconscious processes that closely interact with each other.

Therefore, the most influential psychologist in the world created psychoanalysis - a specific method of treatment mental disorders, which brought Freud worldwide recognition.

The essence of Freud's psychoanalysis is as follows: the patient ceases to control his thoughts and says the first thing that comes to his mind through associations, fantasies and dreams.

Based on all this, the analyst makes a conclusion about what unconscious conflicts led to the problem. The specialist then interprets it to the patient to find ways to solve the problem.

This innovative method of treating mental disorders had a huge impact on medicine, psychology, anthropology, sociology, literature, and art of the 20th century.

Despite the fact that it was and is still criticized in scientific circles, it is widely used in our time.

Abraham Harold Maslow - author of the pyramid of human needs

Abraham Harold Maslow is also one of the most influential psychologists in the world. The American psychologist founded humanistic psychology, according to which a person, from birth, strives for self-improvement, creativity and self-sufficiency.

In other words, a person is the creator of his own life, having the freedom to choose and develop a lifestyle, unless physical or social influences interfere.

Among the scientific works of the world famous thinker, “ Maslow's pyramid" It consists of special diagrams reflecting a person’s needs, which the psychologist has distributed in increasing order.

They are presented in the following picture:

The author explains this distribution by the fact that while a person experiences physiological needs, he cannot experience needs that are at the highest level. Maslow's pyramid is widely used in economics today.

Viktor Emil Frankl - founder of logotherapy

It is no coincidence that Viktor Emil Frankl is included in the list of the most famous psychologists in the world. After all, being also a psychiatrist and also a philosopher, he created the Third Vienna School of Psychotherapy.

Among the most popular scientific works of the thinker, the work “Man in Search of Meaning” should be highlighted. It was this monograph that became the impetus for the development of logotherapy - a new method of psychotherapy.

According to it, a person’s desire to find and realize his meaning in life in the world is the primary motivating force.

The main task of logotherapy, which Frankl created, is to help a person make his past, present and future more meaningful, thus saving him from neurosis.

Frankl called the suppression of this need existential frustration. This psychological state often leads to mental and neurotic disorders.

Alois Alzheimer - psychiatrist who studied pathologies of the nervous system

The name of the German psychiatrist and neurologist is probably known to many of you. After all, it names a well-known mental disorder, accompanied by impaired memory, attention, performance and disorientation in space. Namely, Alzheimer's disease.

The neurologist devoted his entire life to the study of various pathologies of the nervous system. In his articles he covered the following topics: like schizophrenia, brain atrophy, alcoholic psychosis, epilepsy and much more.

The works of the German psychiatrist are still widely used throughout the world today. Thus, in order to diagnose Alzheimer's disease, the same diagnostic methods are used that a neurologist used back in 1906.

Dale Carnegie - the most famous psychologist in the world, guru of human relationships

American educational psychologist, Dale Carnegie wanted to become a teacher in order to stand out and achieve recognition, because in his youth he was ashamed of his appearance and poverty.

Therefore, he decided to try his hand at public speaking. Devoting himself entirely to training and practicing his speech, he achieves his goal and begins his activity by teaching performing arts and rhetoric.

He then creates his own Institute of Public Speaking and Human Relations, where he teaches everyone the communication skills that he created himself.

Dale Carnegie was not only a famous teacher, psychologist, motivational speaker and lecturer, but also a writer. His book How to Win Friends and Influence People was published in 1936 and became a worldwide bestseller. In it, the author, in clear language, based on real-life examples, explains to readers what needs to be done to gain respect, recognition and popularity.

Of course, there are many more influential world psychologists. But we did not focus on each of them. But they only singled out those individuals whose names everyone should know.

After all, their works are truly valuable, since they changed the lives of many people. They contain information that every person can use to solve a difficult situation, acquire valuable life skills, improve relationships with others, and also to fill their existence with meaning.

You may be interested in: Memory test.

Even though each of the psychological theorists presented here was likely guided by the ideas of a particular dominant school, they all made individual, invaluable contributions to the development of psychology.
The magazine was published in July 2002 "Review of General Psychology", which presented a ranking of the 99 most influential psychologists. The rankings were based on three main factors: frequency of citations in journals, frequency of citations in textbook introductions, and results from a survey of 1,725 ​​members of the American Psychological Association.

10 Influential Psychological Thinkers

The list below presents 10 psychologists who, according to the survey results, are considered the most influential. These people are the most famous psychological thinkers who played important roles in the history of psychology and through their work expanded the understanding of human behavior. This list is not an attempt to determine who was the most influential or which school of thought was the best. The list provides insight into certain theoretical perspectives that have influenced not only psychology but our culture as a whole.

1. B. F. Skinner

In a 2002 study, B. F. Skinner topped the list of the 99 most prominent psychologists of the 20th century. Skinner's staunch behaviorism made him a dominant figure in psychology, and therapies based on his theories are widely used today, including in fields such as economics.

2.

When people think about psychology, they remember the name Freud. In his work, he maintained the belief that not all mental illnesses have physiological causes. Freud also offered evidence that people's psychology and behavior are influenced by their cultural differences. The work and writings of Sigmund Freud contributed to a deeper understanding of personality, the development of clinical psychology, human potential and pathopsychology.

3. Albert Bandura

Bandura's work represents part of the cognitive revolution in psychology that began in the late 1960s. He emphasized the importance of social theory of learning through observation, imitation and modeling. “Learning would be extremely difficult, if not dangerous, if people relied solely on the results of their own actions.” In his 1977 book Social Learning Theory, the author systematically lays out the educated guess that human behavior is governed by complex interactions of external and internal factors: social processes have at least as much influence on behavior as cognitive ones.

4.

The works of Jean Piaget affect the understanding of children's intellectual development in the field of psychology. Jean Piaget's research helped develop developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, genetic epistemology, and the emergence of educational reforms. Albert Einstein once called Piaget's observations of children's intellectual development and thought processes a discovery "so simple that only a genius could have thought of it."

5. Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers emphasized the importance of human potential in psychology and education. Carl Rogers became one of the most important humanistic thinkers, known for the eponymous direction in therapy, “Rogers Therapy,” which he himself called person-centered psychotherapy. As his daughter Natalie Rogers describes, he was “a model of compassion and democratic ideals in life and in his work as an educator, writer and therapist.”

6. William James

Psychologist and philosopher William James is often called the father of American psychology. His 1,200-page book, Principles of Psychology, has become a classic. His teachings and writings helped the development of psychology as a science. In addition, James contributed to the development of functionalism, pragmatism, and served as an example for many psychology students during his 35-year teaching career.

Erik Erikson's theory of developmental development contributed to the creation of a keen interest in the study of human development. As a follower of ego psychology, Erikson expanded psychoanalytic theory by exploring the development of personality: events in early childhood, adulthood and old age.

8. Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov is a Russian physiologist, whose studies of conditioned reflexes helped the formation and development of such a direction as behaviorism in psychology. Pavlov's experimental methods helped scientists move away from self-analysis and subjective assessments and move toward objective measurement of behavior in psychology.

Lewin has been called the father of modern social psychology due to his pioneering work in which he used scientific methods and experiments to study social behavior. Lewin was a seminal theorist who, through his lasting impact on psychology, became one of the preeminent psychologists of the 20th century.

10. Readers' Choice

Eugene Garfield (in 1977) and Haggbloom (in 2002), when publishing their rating lists, left the last item on the list empty in order to allow the reader to independently choose the psychologist who, in the reader’s opinion, should be included in this list.

Ananyev Boris Gerasimovich (1907-1972)

Boris Gerasimovich Ananyev was born on August 1, 1907 in Vladikavkaz. After graduating from high school, he entered the Gorsky Pedagogical Institute. At that time, associate professor of pedology R.I. worked at the institute. Cheranovsky, who in 1925 organized a pedology office. A number of students interested in problems of psychology and pedagogy were allowed to carry out scientific work in this office. Among them was Boris Ananyin, who eventually became R.I.’s assistant. Cheranovsky. In this office, studies were conducted on the mental giftedness of children, their psychological characteristics at different ages. Ananyev's diploma work, carried out under the supervision of Cheranovsky, also addressed similar problems. It was devoted to the study of the evolution of worldview and attitude in adolescence.

In September 1927, Boris Gerasimovich Ananyev was sent for an internship at the Leningrad Brain Institute, and in 1928, after completing his studies in Vladikavkaz, he finally moved to Leningrad. The main problems that occupied him at that time were problems of classification of sciences and methods of psychology, issues of the formation of the psyche. At the same time, the young scientist advocated the acceptance and use of the theoretical conclusions of all scientific schools, and advocated for the establishment of a principled and friendly atmosphere in science. Trying to enroll in graduate school at the Brain Institute, Ananyev read at one of the conferences his report on the social usefulness of a musician (from a psychophysical point of view). The report was dedicated to music, its power over listeners and the performer's responsibility to them. Ananyev also cited a large amount of experimental data confirming the theory and compared the effects of music with hypnosis. In March 1929, he was accepted into graduate school at the Brain Institute. In the early 30s. XX century he became the head of the laboratory of educational psychology, and at the same time organized a psychological service in one of the schools in Leningrad. His laboratory conducted character studies of schoolchildren, in which many Leningrad teachers were involved. Based on these studies and the obtained empirical data, Boris Gerasimovich Ananyev wrote his first monograph - the psychology of pedagogical assessment, which was published in 1935.

In 1936, research in the field of pedology was prohibited, A.A. Talankin, head of the psychology sector at the Brain Institute, was arrested and convicted, and a year later Boris Gerasimovich Ananyev was elected to his post. In the same 1937, he became a candidate of pedagogical sciences.

Due to the ban on pedology, he had to look for a new field of activity. One of the areas of his research was the psychology of sensory reflection. He wrote several articles in this vein, the main idea of ​​which was the hypothesis about the genesis of sensitivity. In his opinion, from the very beginning of a person’s individual development, sensitivity acts as a function of the entire organism, and sensory processes play a significant role in this development. In addition, he turned to the history of Russian psychology, trying to express his own attitude to this subject. According to the scientist, it is necessary to rely on the history of science in order to move forward. He considered the experience of his predecessors necessary for the further development of his own views.

In 1939 B.G. Ananiev defended his doctoral dissertation on the history of psychology. When Leningrad found itself surrounded by siege during the war, the entire Brain Institute was evacuated. Ananiev ended up in Kazan, and then in Tbilisi, where he worked, like many psychologists of that time, in the psychopathological office of the hospital. He observed patients who had suffered severe shock and worked to restore their speech function, lost as a result of a combat wound. In 1943, Boris Gerasimovich Ananyev returned to Leningrad, where he headed the department of psychology formed at Leningrad State University. He himself selected most of the teaching staff of the department and organized the work of the psychological department of the Faculty of Philosophy. At this time, he published a large number of works that related to the study of touch and other types of sensitivity, the psychology of speech, and some problems of child psychology. Ananyev also continued to study the history of psychology and personality psychology. And in 1947 he published the monograph “Essays on the history of Russian psychology in the 18th-19th centuries.” In some articles, his idea about the connection between the formation of character and the knowledge of man by man, and about some patterns of the formation of human self-awareness was clearly visible.

At the turn of the 1940-1950s. Ananyev turns to the study of a new direction, the empirical foundations of which were laid in his work at the Brain Institute. The scientist began researching the bilaterality of the brain and its functions.

In 1957, at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the anniversary of Boris Gerasimovich Ananyev, the scientist gave a speech in which he substantiated the need for comprehensive human research, synthesizing all existing anthropological knowledge. He expressed the same idea in the articles “Man as a General Problem of Modern Science” and “On the System of Developmental Psychology,” published in the same year. However, this idea was not accepted by psychologists at that time.

The scientist’s active work was suspended by illness: in November 1959, Ananyev suffered a heart attack. In the next decade of his life, Boris Gerasimovich was engaged exclusively in scientific and journalistic activities, in 1962-1966. he wrote a series of articles. In them, he tried to realize the idea that he had earlier, summarized all the research of his predecessors, as well as his own, justifying an integrated approach to human research. He was greatly influenced by the experience of his predecessors, primarily V.M. Bekhterev.

At the same time, Boris Gerasimovich Ananyev began work on the book “Man as an Object of Knowledge.” To this end, various studies began to be carried out in his laboratory.

In 1966, the Faculty of Psychology was founded at Leningrad University, which included the departments of general psychology, pedagogy and educational psychology, ergonomics and engineering psychology. A year later, Boris Gerasimovich became the dean of this faculty.

In the early 1970s. Ananiev conceived the collective book “Man as a Subject of Education,” but he failed to fulfill his plans. He died of a heart attack on May 18, 1972.

In addition, Boris Gerasimovich did a lot for the further development of psychological science in the country and the education of psychologists. Like other great scientists, he was not fully understood by his contemporaries, but later his scientific legacy was appreciated.

Bekhterev Vladimir Mikhailovich (1857-1927)

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev, a famous Russian neurologist, neuropathologist, psychologist, psychiatrist, morphologist and physiologist of the nervous system, was born on January 20, 1857 in the village of Sorali, Elabuga district, Vyatka province, in the family of a minor civil servant.

In August 1867, he began classes at the Vyatka gymnasium, and since Bekhterev decided to devote his life to neuropathology and psychiatry in his youth, after graduating from seven classes of the gymnasium in 1873, he entered the Medical-Surgical Academy.

In 1878 he graduated from the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg and was retained for further studies at the Department of Psychiatry by I.P. Merezhsky.

In 1879, Bekhterev was accepted as a full member of the St. Petersburg Society of Psychiatrists. On April 4, 1881, Bekhterev successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in medicine on the topic “Experience in clinical research of body temperature in some forms of mental illness” and received the academic title of privat-docent.

In 1884, Bekhterev went on a business trip abroad, where he studied with such famous European psychologists as Dubois-Reymond, Wundt, Fleksig and Charcot. After returning from a business trip, Bekhterev began giving a course of lectures on the diagnosis of nervous diseases to fifth-year students at Kazan University. Having been a professor at the Kazan University in the department of mental illness since 1884, Bekhterev ensured the teaching of this subject by establishing a clinical department in the Kazan district hospital and a psychophysiological laboratory at the university; founded the Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, founded the journal “Neurological Bulletin” and published a number of his works, as well as the works of his students in various departments of neuropathology and anatomy of the nervous system.

In 1883, Bekhterev was awarded a silver medal from the Society of Russian Doctors for his article “On forced and violent movements during the destruction of certain parts of the central nervous system.” In this article, Bekhterev drew attention to the fact that nervous diseases can often be accompanied by mental disorders, and with mental illness there may also be signs of organic damage to the central nervous system.

In the same year he was elected a member of the Italian Society of Psychiatrists. His most famous article, “Stiffness of the spine with its curvature as a special form of the disease,” was published in the capital’s magazine “Doctor” in 1892.

In 1893, Bekhterev received an invitation from the head of the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy to occupy the department of mental and nervous diseases. Bekhterev arrived in St. Petersburg and began to create the first neurosurgical operating room in Russia. In the laboratories of the clinic, Bekhterev, together with his employees and students, continued numerous studies on the morphology and physiology of the nervous system. This allowed him to replenish materials on neuromorphology and begin work on the fundamental seven-volume work “Fundamentals of the Study of Brain Functions.”

In 1894, Bekhterev was appointed a member of the medical council of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in 1895 he became a member of the Military Medical Academic Council under the Minister of War and at the same time a member of the board of a nursing home for the mentally ill. In November 1900, the two-volume book “Conducting Pathways of the Spinal Cord and Brain” was nominated by the Russian Academy of Sciences for a prize named after Academician K.M. Bera.

Last update: 03/22/2015

A Review of Prominent Thinkers in Psychology

The breadth and diversity of psychology can be seen by looking at some of the most famous thinkers. While each theorist may have been part of a major school of thought, each brought unique contributions and new perspectives on the development of psychology as a science.

A study that appeared in July 2002 « » created a ranking of the 99 most influential psychologists. The ranking was based primarily on three factors: frequency of citations in journals, in textbook introductory citations, and survey results. 1,725 ​​American Association members psychologists.

10 Influential Thinkers in Psychology

The following list provides an overview of the 10 psychologists from this survey. These people are not only some of the most famous thinkers in the field of psychology, they also played important roles in the history of psychology and made important contributions to our understanding of human behavior. This list is not an attempt to determine who was the most influential or which schools of thought were the best. Instead, this list provides insight into some of the theoretical perspectives that influence not only psychology, but also the cultural environment in which we live.

In a 2002 study ranking the 99 most prominent psychologists of the 20th century, he topped the list. Skinner made an enormous contribution to the development and promotion of behaviorism. Therapy methods based on his theories are still widely used today, including behavior modification techniques.

When people think of psychology, many tend to think of Freud. His work supports the view that not all mental illnesses have physiological causes, and he also offered evidence that cultural differences influence psychology and behavior. His works and writings contributed to our understanding of personality, clinical psychology, human development, and pathopsychology.

The work is considered part of the cognitive revolution in psychology that began in the late 1960s. His social learning theory emphasized the importance of observational learning, imitation and modeling. “Learning will be extremely difficult, not to say dangerous, if people have to rely only on the results of their own actions to understand what they should do. ” Bandura explained in his book Social Learning Theory.

The work of Jean Piaget has had a profound influence on psychology, especially in our understanding of children's intellectual development. His research contributed to the growth of developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, genetic epistemology, and educational reform. Albert Einstein once described Piaget's observations regarding children's intellectual growth and thought processes as a discovery "So simple that only a genius could have thought of it."

Carl Rogers emphasized human potential, which had a profound impact on psychology and education. He became one of the most important humanistic thinkers. As his daughter Natalie Rogers writes, he was “He treated people with compassion and understanding in life, and lived out his democratic ideals in his work as a teacher, writer and therapist.”

Psychologist and philosopher William James is often called the father of American psychology. His 1,200-page text, Principles of Psychology, became a classic on the subject, and his teachings and writings helped establish psychology as a science. In addition, James contributed to functionalism, pragmatism, and influenced many psychology students during his 35-year teaching career.

Erik Erikson's psychosociological developmental stage theory helped spark interest and research in the field of human development across the lifespan. The psychologist expanded the theory by examining development across the lifespan, including events in childhood, adulthood, and old age.

He was a Russian physiologist, whose research influenced the development of such a direction in psychology as behaviorism. Pavlov's experimental methods helped move psychology away from introspection and subjective assessments towards objective measurement of behavior.

Open any newspaper or magazine and you will find terms coined by Sigmund Freud. Sublimation, projection, transference, defenses, complexes, neuroses, hysteria, stress, psychological trauma and crises, etc. - all these words have become firmly established in our lives. And the books of Freud and other outstanding psychologists were also firmly included in it. We offer you a list of the best - those that changed our reality. Save it for yourself so you don’t lose it!

Eric Berne is the author of the famous concept of scenario programming and game theory. They are based on transactional analysis, which is now being studied all over the world. Bern is confident that every person's life is programmed before the age of five, and then we all play games with each other using three roles: Adult, Parent and Child. Read more about this concept, which is popular all over the world, in the review of Berne's bestseller "", presented in the "Main Idea" Library.

Edward de Bono, a British psychologist, developed a method that teaches you to think effectively. The six hats are six different ways of thinking. De Bono suggests “trying on” each hat to learn to think in different ways depending on the situation. The red hat is emotion, the black hat is criticism, the yellow hat is optimism, the green hat is creativity, the blue hat is thought leadership, and the white hat is facts and figures. you can read “The Main Idea” in the Library.

  1. Alfred Adler. Understand human nature

Alfred Adler is one of Sigmund Freud's most famous students. He created his own concept of individual (or individual) psychology. Adler wrote that a person’s actions are influenced not only by the past (as Freud taught), but also by the future, or rather the goal that a person wants to achieve in the future. And based on this goal, he transforms his past and present. In other words, only knowing the goal can we understand why a person acted this way and not otherwise. Take, for example, the image of the theater: only towards the last act do we understand the actions of the heroes that they committed in the first act. You can read about the universal law of personality development proposed by Adler in the article: “”.

Doctor of medicine, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge devoted his research to brain plasticity. In his main work, he makes a revolutionary statement: our brain is capable of changing its own structure and work thanks to a person’s thoughts and actions. Doidge talks about the latest discoveries that show that the human brain is plastic, which means it can change itself. The book features stories of scientists, doctors and patients who were able to achieve amazing transformations. Those who had serious problems were able to cure brain diseases that were considered incurable without surgery or pills. Well, those who did not have any special problems were able to significantly improve their brain function. Read more, presented in the Library "Main Thought".

Susan Weinschenk is a famous American psychologist specializing in behavioral psychology. She is called "Lady Brain" because she studies the latest advances in neuroscience and the human brain and applies what she learns to business and everyday life. Susan talks about the basic laws of the psyche. In her bestseller, she identifies 7 main motivators of human behavior that influence our lives. Read more about this in the review of the book “,” presented in the “Main Thought” Library.

  1. Erik Erikson. Childhood and society

Erik Erikson is an outstanding psychologist who detailed and expanded Sigmund Freud's famous age periodization. The periodization of human life proposed by Erikson consists of 8 stages, each of which ends with a crisis. A person must go through this crisis correctly. If it does not pass, then it (the crisis) is added to the load in the next period. You can read about important age periods in the lives of adults in the article: “”.

The famous book by the famous American psychologist Robert Cialdini. It has become a classic in social psychology. "" is recommended by the best scientists in the world as a guide to interpersonal relationships and conflict management. A review of this book is presented in the Main Idea Library.

  1. Hans Eysenck. Dimensions of Personality

Hans Eysenck is a British scientist-psychologist, one of the leaders of the biological direction in psychology, the creator of the factor theory of personality. He is best known as the author of the popular intelligence test, IQ.

Psychologist Daniel Goleman completely changed the way we think about leadership by declaring that “emotional intelligence” (EQ) is more important than IQ for a leader. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to identify and understand emotions, both your own and others, and the ability to use this knowledge to manage your behavior and relationships with people. A leader who lacks emotional intelligence may have top-notch training, a sharp mind, and endlessly generate new ideas, but he will still lose to a leader who knows how to manage emotions. You can read why this happens in the review of Goleman’s book “,” presented in the “Main Thought” Library.

The famous sociologist Malcolm Gladwell presented a number of interesting studies on intuition. He is sure that each of us has intuition, and it is worth listening to it. Our unconscious processes huge amounts of data without our participation and, on a silver platter, gives the most correct solution, which we just have to not miss and use wisely for ourselves. However, intuition is easily frightened by a lack of time to make a decision, a state of stress, and an attempt to describe your thoughts and actions in words. A review of Gladwell's bestseller "" is in the "Main Idea" Library.

  1. Victor Frankl. The will to meaning

Viktor Frankl is a world-famous Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist, student of Alfred Adler and founder of logotherapy. Logotherapy (from the Greek “Logos” - word and “terapia” - care, care, treatment) is a direction in psychotherapy that arose on the basis of the conclusions that Frankl made as a concentration camp prisoner. This is therapy for the search for meaning, this is a method that helps a person find meaning in any circumstances of his life, including such extreme ones as suffering. And here it is very important to understand the following: to find this meaning, Frankl suggests exploring not the depth of personality(as Freud believed) and its height. This is a very serious difference in accent. Before Frankl, psychologists mainly tried to help people by exploring the depths of their subconscious, but Frankl insists on exploring the full potential of a person, on exploring his heights. Thus, he places the emphasis, figuratively speaking, on the spire of the building (height), and not on its basement (depths).

  1. Sigmund Freud. Dream interpretation
  1. Anna Freud. Psychology of the Self and Defense Mechanisms

Anna Freud is the youngest daughter of the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. She founded a new direction in psychology - ego psychology. Her main scientific achievement is considered to be the development of the theory of human defense mechanisms. Anna also made significant progress in studying the nature of aggression, but still her most significant contribution to psychology was the creation of child psychology and child psychoanalysis.

  1. Nancy McWilliams. Psychoanalytic diagnostics

This book is the Bible of modern psychoanalysis. American psychoanalyst Nancy McWilliams writes that we are all irrational to some extent, which means that two basic questions must be answered about each person: “How crazy?” and “What exactly is crazy?” The first question can be answered by three levels of mental functioning (details in the article: “”), and the second - by character types (narcissistic, schizoid, depressive, paranoid, hysterical, etc.), studied in detail by Nancy McWilliams and described in the book “ Psychoanalytic diagnostics".

  1. Carl Jung. Archetype and symbol

Carl Jung is the second famous student of Sigmund Freud (we have already talked about Alfred Adler). Jung believed that the unconscious is not only all the lowest in a person, but also the highest, for example, creativity. The unconscious thinks in symbols. Jung introduces the concept of the collective unconscious, with which a person is born, it is the same for everyone. When a person is born, he is already filled with ancient images and archetypes. They pass from generation to generation. Archetypes influence everything that happens to a person.

  1. Abraham Maslow. The far reaches of the human psyche

Martin Seligman is an outstanding American psychologist, founder of positive psychology. His studies of the phenomenon of learned helplessness, that is, passivity in the face of supposedly irreparable troubles, brought him worldwide fame. Seligman proved that pessimism lies at the heart of helplessness and its extreme manifestation - depression. The psychologist introduces us to two of his main concepts: the theory of learned helplessness and the idea of ​​explanatory style. They are closely related. The first explains why we become pessimists, and the second explains how to change our thinking style in order to turn from a pessimist to an optimist. A review of Seligman's book "" is presented in the "Main Thought" Library.

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