Alexander Meshcheryakov on the Formation of the Human Psyche. Alexander Meshcheryakov on the Formation of the Human Psyche

The transcript of the report by Alexander Ivanovich Meshcheryakov “The formation of the psyche in the deaf-blind” is published. Report was made at the meeting of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in July 27, 1969. The report summarizes the theoretical results of the Zagorsk experiment, which continued Professor I.A. Sokolyansky’s long-term work on education of deaf-blind children. This work is interpreted from the point of view of the cultural-historical theory of forming human psyche and speech on the basis of “divided objective activities” of the educator and the child. A.I. Meshcheryakov experimentally demonstrates the technology of child’s interiorization of human activity forms through cultural objects, which, in his expression, are concentrated “wisdom of mankind” – social and historical experience of man’s transforming the world and his own self. The report pays particular attention to the development of cultural means of communication: from signal touching and gesture language to oral and written speech.