Invited Keynote Address: "From Chekhov to Pavlov, From Vygotsky to Luria: A Brilliant Foundation, A Promising Future – Russian Adventures in the Humanities, Medical Psychology and Psychiatry" All-Russia Inter-university Scientific Conference "Mental Health: Modern Trends & Prospects" Moscow, Russian Federation 16 December 2021 Learning Objectives 1. To review the contributions of four pioneering Russian theorists and practitioners in the humanities, behavioural psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry 2. To examine their legacies in the light of current issues in psychiatry and the medical humanities 3. To highlight the promises and challenges of a career in the branch of medicine called psychiatry at the crossroads of social sciences, the humanities, and neuroscience

1. FROM CHEKHOV TO PAVLOV,
FROM VYGOTSKY TO LURIA:
A BRILLIANT FOUNDATION,
A PROMISING FUTURE
RUSSIAN ADVENTURES IN THE HUMANITIES,
MEDICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY
Prof. Vincenzo Di Nicola
MPhil, MD, PhD, FRCPC, DFAPA, FCPA, FCAHS

2. FROM CHEKHOV TO PAVLOV,
FROM VYGOTSKY TO LURIA:
A BRILLIANT FOUNDATION,
A PROMISING FUTURE
ALL-RUSSIA INTERUNIVERSITY SCIENTIFIC
CONFERENCE "MENTAL HEALTH: MODERN
TRENDS & PROSPECTS"
Moscow, Russian Federation
16 December 2021

3. Vincenzo Di Nicola
MPhil, MD, PhD, FRCPC, DFAPA, FCPA, FCAHS
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Montreal & The George Washington University
Global Mental Health Teaching Faculty
Harvard Medical School
Honorary Chair & Professor of Social Psychiatry
Ambrosiana University

4. Conflicts of Interest
The presenter has no financial
conflicts of interest to declare
E-mail contact:
vincenzodinicola@gmail.com

5. Learning Objectives
1. To review the contributions of four pioneering
Russian theorists and practitioners in the humanities,
behavioural psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry
2. To examine their legacies in the light of current
issues in psychiatry and the medical humanities
3. To highlight the promises and challenges of a career
in the branch of medicine called psychiatry at the
crossroads of social sciences, the humanities, and
neuroscience

6. 1. Four Russian Thinkers
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)
Alexander Luria (1902-1977)

7. Anton Chekhov
Антон
Павлович
Чехов
(1860-1904)

8. Chekhov’s Work
Physician and playwright
Four classic plays, masterful short stories
Modernism in the theatre
His work as a physician ministering to all classes
of Russians and their social conditions was
reflected in his art – short story: “Peasants”
“Aristocrats? The same ugly bodies and physical
uncleanliness, the same toothless old age and
disgusting death, as with market-women.”
– Anton Chekhov

9. Chekhov’s Legacy
His plays heralded modernism in the
theatre, along with other Nordic
playwrights, Henrik Ibsen and August
Strindberg
His short stories place him among the
greatest writers in any language and
surpass the achievement of his plays
He continues to have an enormous
influence on the humanities

10. Chekhov’s Legacy
Self-assessment:
"Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is
my mistress.
“The role of an artist is to ask questions,
not to answer them.”
– Anton Chekhov

11. Ivan Pavlov
Ива́н
Петро́вич
Па́влов
(1849-1936)

12. Pavlov’s Work
Physiologist
Worked in classical conditioning
“The conditional reflex”
“Pavlov’s dogs”
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
(1904)
First Russian to win the Nobel Prize

13. Pavlov’s Legacy
Among the most cited psychologists of the
20th C
Impact on psychological theory, learning
theory, behaviourism and behaviour
therapy
Influenced JB Watson and BF Skinner in
the West
Scientific method, experimental
psychology

14. Pavlov’s Legacy
Impact on the humanities
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange
Dannie Abse’s The Dogs of Pavlov
Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow

15. Pavlov’s Legacy
Pavlovian Psychiatry based on the conditioned
reflex elaborated a theory of psychopathology
based on learning principles and its treatment
Adopted in the Soviet Union and its satellite
countries
Independently developed as behavioural theory
and therapy in the West, notably through Joseph
Wolpe’s classic, Psychotherapy by Reciprocal
Inhibition (1958)

16. Lev Vygotsky
Лев
Семёнович
Выго́тский
(1896-1934)

17. Vygotsky’s Work
Instrumental approach
How humans use objects to mediate memory
and reasoning
Developmental approach
How children acquire higher cognitive
functions
Culture-historical approach
How social and cultural patterns of interaction
shape forms of mediation and development

18. Vygotsky’s Legacy
In Eastern Europe
“Vygotsky Circle” of his students
Psychology of memory, perception,
sensation and movement
Personality, will and volition
Psychology of play and learning
Formation of mental actions, activity theory
Implications for psychotherapy

19. Vygotsky’s Legacy
In North America
Mind in Society (1978)
“Cultural-historical activity theory” (CHAT)
“Scaffolding” – used by Wood, Bruner &
Ross (1976) related to Vygotsky’s “ZPD”

20. Vygotsky’s Legacy
Self-assessment:
“This is the final thing I have done in
psychology – and I will like Moses die at
the summit, having glimpsed the promised
land but without setting foot on it. Farewell,
dear creations. The rest is silence.”
– Lev Vygotsky

21. Alexander Luria
Алекса́ндр
Рома́нович
Лу́рия
(1902-1977)

22. Luria’s Work
Neuropsychologist
Pioneer of neuropsychological assessment
Battery of neuropsychological tests
A founder of the Vygotsky Circle
Cultural-historical psychology
The Mind of a Mnemonist
The Man with a Shattered World
One of the most cited psychologists of the 20th C

23. Luria’s Legacy
The Socio-historical Determination of the Human Psyche
The Biological (Genetic) Determination of the Human
Psyche
Higher Psychological Functions Mediated by Signs-
Symbols; The Verbal System as the Main System of Signs
The Systematic Organization of Psychological Functions
and Consciousness
Cerebral Mechanisms of the Mind (Brain and Psyche);
Links between Psychology and Physiology
The Relationship between Theory and Practice

24. 2. Their Legacy Today
Chekhov reminds us that physicians also have
other talents and that a medical career offers great
opportunities for observing human nature
Pavlov established the basis of scientific method
for experimental psychology and psychopathology
Vygotsky established the importance of the
developmental approach to understand language
development and the social and cultural context of
cognition, language and memory
Luria was a pioneer in neuropsychology and a
father of today’s neuroscience

25. 3. The Future of Psychiatry
Psychiatry is a branch of medicine
Psychiatry is both in crisis and at a promising
crossroads
The crisis is due to the complexities of the
brain, mind, human relations and society as
well as psychiatry’s ambition to explain
everything
This places psychiatry at the crossroads of
the social sciences, the humanities, and
neuroscience

26. The Future of Psychiatry
Psychiatry is a branch of medicine:
An enlarged medical model for psychiatry that is
comprehensive, not reductive
The crisis of psychiatry highlights three gaps:
The lack of a consensual psychology (science of
persons)
The lack of a consensual model of psychiatry
The lack of a theory of change

27. The Future of Psychiatry
This places psychiatry at the crossroads of
social sciences, the humanities, and
neuroscience:
We need more syntheses, transdisciplinary
integration, and translational research
We need models that address four levels of
human being: brain, mind, relations, and society
We need rules for translation & coherence
across domains, not reductive models
Psychiatry must value theory & research while
maintaining its clinical relevance

28. The community stagnates without
the impulse of the individual.
The impulse dies without
the sympathy of the community.
– William James
The Will to Believe (1897)

29. Letters to a
Young Therapist
Relational Practices for
the Coming Community
New York: Atropos, 2011
Awarded the Camille-
Laurin Prize of the
Quebec Psychiatric
Association, 2012

30. NY: WW Norton, 1997
Porto Alegre: ArtMed, 1998

31. V Di Nicola, Family,
psychosocial, and
cultural determinants of
health.
In: E Sorel (ed), 21st
Century Global Mental
Health.
Burlington, MA:
Jones & Bartlett Learning
(2012, pp. 119-150)

32. Psychiatry in Crisis
At the Crossroads of Social
Sciences, the Humanities,
and Neuroscience
Cham, Switzerland:
Springer, 2021

33. I see humanity as a family
that has hardly met.
– Theodore Zeldin
An Intimate History of
Humanity (1995)

35. Questions
&
Comments