Psychology of solving personal problems

13 Dec 2016

Psychologist Dr. Doping tells about the concept of "problem", solving ability and professional assistance. The personal issue is different from the vital task? Does the ability to solve such problems of education and the level of intelligence? What are the stages of the process involves solving personal problems?

Psychology solution of personal problems - this is an area which is located at the junction of the two other areas in psychology. This is the psychology of thinking, which is directly involved in problem solving, and the psychology of the person, or specifically the section which deals with the psychology of the individual life path, various difficult life situations, crises, and so on.

Isolation of any industry in psychology suggests that it has its own object of study - for the industry is, in fact, personal problems. And before you answer the burning question for all "And how to solve them?", You need to understand what it is at all. What, in fact, we decide. And at the household level, this phrase is often used if you do not just people, but in any case, psychologists practitioners, particularly counselors, therapists - is quite a widespread phrase. If you want to find the definition of this phrase, then in any dictionary and none Wiktionary on the Internet you will not find this definition, which is quite surprising because it is, in my opinion, the most favorite pastime of scientists - to give definition.

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There is a tacit agreement among experts that there is such a thing, we all think about one and the same. But scientists such a situation, of course, are not happy, they want to understand always clear what is the essence of the phenomenon, and for that first bred the notion of "the problem" and "challenge."

There is the concept of "life-task", which stands in front of a man, and he did somehow solve or not solve. And there is the concept of "problem". And I must say that the concept of "challenge" and "problem" exists not only for the individual but also in the psychology of thinking: people who are exploring the ability to solve tasks and problems - also has the distinction tasks and problems.

As these characteristics are very important issues highlighted its complexity, inconsistency, the opacity of the conditions - a person can not know all the circumstances of the problem, and they can only be revealed in the course of the solution. It is dynamic, that is a problem in itself can develop, especially if it is very complex and involves many external circumstances of life.

All these characteristics are also inherent and personal problems as one of the types of problems. Especially such a characterization as "complexity", "complexity", comes to the fore. Because the problem - any particularly personal - like a very complex mechanism, in which a lot of levers, wheels a lot. And very often the person who is not a specialist in this field, can not accurately predict what will twist the wheels if it will pull some rope or tweak some lever. The reaction may be as a chain, with the result that a person can get quite the result, which he thinks to get.

This history we often see clients who come to the therapist and ask them to do something to make life as it seems to have become better. But an experienced specialist knows that, to save people from the same problem, you can easily bring it to another. For example, the client thinks that if he becomes more confident, then his life will change for the better and everything will be fine.

But in the course of the work it turns out that for such restraint in behavior, or lack of confidence often hides a high level of aggression.

Once a person gains confidence in himself, his relationships with people are beginning to deteriorate sharply, because it lets out emotions that were previously held back and hid behind a mask of uncertainty.

This is one of the simplest examples and problems are much more complex. Therefore the question of solving the problem is not as simple as the question of solutions to some vital goals. And if we talk about the definition of personal problems - what is it, exactly? There is a notion difficult is the concept of a difficult situation. There are so many like similar events, which can also be referred to personal problems. Psychologists have a concept of "personal meaning". It is very closely connected with the motives, needs, values, human. In fact, the answer to the question: what means to me something? That means to me this item? That means to me is that man? For me, personally. Not for someone out there. This personal sense of some part of reality.

Personal problems - one of the options for its understanding - is understood as a situation in which a person experiences a very great difficulty, or not even in a position to realize their personal meaning, find it or somehow change to its internal sense of harmony and comfort there or back.

Empirical studies in psychology solve personal problems in Russia, unfortunately, not been carried out. We do not, there is no empirical research on our material. But overseas, these studies have already been more than 30 years of luggage, although the concepts of everything is as bad as we do. Nevertheless, it was revealed some interesting facts about people who show good and not so good ability to solve personal problems. In particular, it was found that people with a good ability to solve personal problems are more independent in decision-making, they have the best performance on the physical health, they feel more confident and have a more positive self-image.

Also interesting is the fact that the solution of the complex, including a complex personality problems depends little on the level of intelligence. Although it would seem, is a direct link. At the household level, it seems that the smarter a man is, the better it solves some problems, including personality. It turned out that this was not the case and, most likely, the ability of a well to solve the complex problems associated with resistance to the uncertainty, ie unpredictable conditions, to the uncertainty of the future.

There are people with a fairly well-developed intellect, which disorganized in a situation where a person does not know what awaits him. And its intelligent circuit, habitual ways of solutions are ineffective. At the same time the person with not so well developed intelligence, but it is quite effective and successful to cope with greater resistance to the very uncertainties.

Another interesting hypothesis, which was tested during the research was that, probably, people with a technical background would be better to solve personal problems, than the humanities, because they have good analytical skills. These differences also have been identified, on the direction of education does not depend on this ability. As for the process of decision and the result of solving personal problems, it is clear that each person is somehow intuitive solver: we all face these challenges and to somehow try to solve them effectively or not.

But there are professionals in this field. They are, of course, to the therapists, psychologists, consultants to coaches. The subject of their activities is included to solve, and there are certain technology solutions to the problems that can and should be taught. Not all areas of psychotherapy and counseling is really problem-oriented. There is a very large number of process-oriented schools that do not have direct challenge to solve customer problems, with the client or with the client. They set a goal, rather, to conduct customer along the way.

Nevertheless, a very good result of psychotherapy, many experts believe it is solved the problem, if a person came to that.

Solving the problem requires several steps. They are not specific to personal problems - they are exactly the same as for any other problem: it is setting goals, determining the conditions Planning - hypotheses and planning solutions, is its implementation and verification of the results. But personal problems often characterized by the fact that all these steps are confused. They do not go in sequence, and the person can jump, skip some steps back. This often occurs due to the fact that the person is emotionally included in this problem. And the problem is distinguished, which can not be defined from the outside, as the problem: such conditions - come to this result, find the unknown. The problem basically arises only when one is aware of it as such. The specialist who helps the person to solve the problem, just inside this scheme has its head and helps a person to pass from the beginning to the end, or at least until the awareness problem that too often it is necessary for the solutions and to change the sense of human.

Evaluating the effectiveness of psychotherapy

13 Dec 2016

Psychologist Dr.Doping tells about research and the role of psychotherapeutic methods in the treatment of the individual patient and therapist.

What are the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of psychotherapy? What problems arise when evaluating different directions? As far as the effect of the therapy depends on the personal characteristics of the patient?

It is no secret that all medicines are very long-term tests, first on animals and then on humans before they launch into action. It was only when really proved their effectiveness and people are convinced that there is any particular side effects, contraindications terrible, then say that you can use them. With regard to psychotherapeutic treatment, it is not so simple here. Psychotherapy - This is not a pill that can give a person, and then see what will happen to him in the near and distant future. Today, it is estimated that there are about 400 of psychotherapy for adults and 200 for children and adolescents.

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Starting with 50-70 years of XX century, and many large-scale meta-analyzes have been conducted to date, and it has been shown that psychotherapy is more effective than a placebo effect, more effective than spontaneous remission. Indeed, this is something that allows a person to improve his life. But then the question arises: if so, what method of psychotherapy is better? Which is more effective? We have already said that this is not a pill, not some isolated tool - you can not take a separate method of psychotherapy or psychotherapeutic technique, apply it to the man and see what happens. Psychotherapy - this is usually a very complex process, it is teamwork, which largely depends on the personality of the therapist and the client on personal characteristics. And so to conduct a study, which is conducted in medicine - what is called a randomized controlled trial, when the two groups stand out: the control and experimental - they are generated randomly, and in one, and in the other group there are clients of different ages, sex, etc. that is, the experiment really meets all the criteria of a good experiment - in psychotherapy is often impossible. And it is impossible to speak about a double-blind study, when participants do not know that watching them.

A very important favorable conditions, the therapeutic relationship, especially supporting the receiving environment, which is created in the process of psychotherapy between client and therapist. If it is, it has a positive effect on the psychological state of a person. Second - it is the client's personal characteristics. That is, there are people who are more likely to get good effect of psychotherapy. These people are more mature, with a good capacity for introspection and quite stable nervous system. Of course, there are also the personal qualities of the therapist, which have a good effect, they too have been identified: the ability to empathy, that is, empathy, acceptance of the person, is the ability for reflection, that is, understanding what he says.

How induction differs from the deduction?

13 Dec 2016

Philosopher Dr. Doping tells about strengths and weaknesses of arguments, logical correctness and validity of the criteria.

In life, we constantly take a variety of solutions. Thinking about them, we often do not understand that logic models use different reasoning. The ability to recognize in our judgment or that type of argument will help to assess the quality of decisions and may see the error. In order to understand the nature of logical reasoning, consider the difference between deductive and inductive arguments on the example of a few simple situations.

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Imagine you stayed at school or work until late at night. Having finished his business at nine in the evening, you feel that hungry. Now you are discussing with a colleague, wherever you dine. It is known that far away from you have a dining room and sushi bar. It is known that the dining room is open until eight in the evening, and a sushi bar - until midnight. Where are you going to go? The answer seems obvious: you can only dine at the sushi bar. In this case, you took advantage of the deduction. Deductive reasoning - a reasoning to which we can apply the criterion of validity (from the English validity -. 'Reasonableness'), or logical correctness. The valid argument - this argument from true premises which may be followed only correct conclusion. In our example, there was only one correct version of the action, so the arguments are not merely deductive, but also logically correct. After all, if the dining room is open until eight, and you come back in ten, then there is no chance that you will be able to dine there.

Of course, you need not only logical reasoning correctly. Parcels on which we base the reasoning must be true or, as the logic true. In our case, it is important that the dining room and sushi bar really worked on a schedule. Valid deductive argument if its premises are true, called the wealthy. Thus, if you are not mistaken with respect to time of the cafes near your university or office, you will not go hungry in the evening, and the reasoning that led you to the cafe, will be characterized by logical consistency. We can imagine the negative scenario, when your thinking would be invalid or logically incorrect deductive argument. Imagine wanting to dine at one of these establishments, you do not know which of them are open until eight in the evening, and some until midnight. In this case, you can not make a rational choice, and the most that it is hoped - it's for good luck.

How do inductive arguments? Imagine dining area, and a sushi bar open until midnight. Your friend offers to go to a sushi bar, and the following arguments: a sushi bar has a good ranking on a certain site, so if we want to eat, you have to go exactly there. Should you need to take a position with another? Not at all - rather, you will weigh the likelihood that this is where you will enjoy dinner more. The probability of output is the main characteristic of inductive arguments. Unlike the situation with non-valid deductive reasoning, where the conclusion is not defined, we can speak of a greater or lesser probability of withdrawal in relation to inductive arguments. Based on the degree of probability, all inductive arguments will be divided into the strengths and weaknesses. The degree to which the argument is strong or weak, depending on the relevance and reliability of output chips.

Before you know whether you are willing to accept the arguments of your friend, you need to understand how they are suited to the task, that is, as far as they are relevant to the conclusion. Whatever good sushi bar if you're really strapped for cash, then you choose the dining room, if it offers lower prices. We assume that means you have enough, in fact, you're a foodie. To draw a conclusion about the quality of food in the land bar on his reputation on a dedicated website, we have to see how many people put high scores and try to understand how qualified is their opinion. If a lot of high marks, users have detailed the positive reviews, then you will find this argument credible.

Once you ascertain the relevance and reliability of the argument of your friend, time to go to a sushi bar, and satisfy your hunger. In this case, confidence in the correctness of the decision is based on projecting the experience of previous asylum your future experience. Generalization - one of the main logical operations typical of inductive arguments. However, certain conclusions even the strongest inductive arguments are not protected. In particular, no amount of complimentary reviews of culinary critics can not guarantee that at the time of your visit to the sushi bar is not replaced by a cook in the kitchen or not will be delivered spoiled food.

It is often said that the deduction is the conclusion from the general to the particular, and the induction - from private to general. This definition is correct, however, in modern editions logically prefer to use the criterion of validity for distinguishing between deductive and inductive arguments. To summarize our argument, we can say that deductive arguments can be classified into two bases: quality and logical relation to the real state of affairs. The logical relationship between the premises and the conclusion makes a valid argument when the need of the premises with the conclusion or non-valid, when we can not draw any conclusions from the premises. In relation to the reality of a deductive argument is called-off, when the parcel or parcels argument right describe the real situation, and its argument is valid. In this case, the conclusion of this argument is always right. The conclusion from the premises of an inductive argument is always probabilistic. Depending on how good and relevant will be sending, acceptance of the argument depends on strong or weak.

Mechanisms of self-assertion of the individual

13 Dec 2016

Psychologist Dr. Doping tells about three strategies of self-assertion, personality types and the ability to say "no". Why self-assertion of the individual in the ordinary consciousness has a negative connotation? What aspects of the self-assertion of the individual considered in the fundamental psychology?

In psychology, there is a fundamental scientific problem - the mechanisms of self-assertion of the individual. In fact, you can cut and say "self-assertion of personality", because historically it is the self-affirmation of the person investigated. A more modern aspect of the problem concerns the identification of psychological mechanisms.

The history of this question is very long and, strictly speaking, it is the history of psychology. Once the psychology applied to the problem of personality, almost immediately the question arose about how, actually, personality functioning and what are the processes that allow it not only to stabilize, to understand the essence of ourselves, but also to develop. Because of personality paradox lies in the fact that, on the one hand, the formation of stable, but on the other hand, it provided resistance development. Generally in psychology there are many paradoxes. With regard to the psychology of the individual, it is one of those paradoxes.

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This problem involved in virtually all areas of classical psychology: psychoanalysis and Gestalt psychology and behavioral psychology. The origins of this problem a lot. But each of these areas was taking any one of the aspects. Therefore, the modern time, scientists have come to the question: how can an integrative, holistic provide it?

The most problematic aspect of the stretching of the history of psychology, is that it is more interested in the behavioral aspect. Moreover, the behavioral aspect in everyday psychology, and everyday consciousness was mainly presented with negative staining, because the self-affirmation in ordinary consciousness - if it is not anti-social, the behavior that you want to discuss, monitor, prevent, and so on.

There are different techniques of self-assertion of the individual, they mainly relate to just behavioral psychology. And these techniques are related to the fact that there are timid, shy, insecure people who need to develop some skills, some effective strategies to enable it to consolidate the feeling, the feeling of "I", be able to communicate, be able to communicate. This applies mostly to the practical part.

With regard to fundamental psychology, its truncated this aspect - that is, self-affirmation, negative behavioral strategy when people say, allegedly at the expense of another - of course, he is not satisfied. Therefore, the fundamental science interested in is that in addition to this external objective communicative fact we can learn.

Modern psychology has come to what is necessary to examine not only the strategy of self-affirmation of the negative aspect - the statement itself at the expense of another person, the neglect of another person, the suppression of it, and it is necessary to examine the entire palette of these strategies. In simple terms, what is going on inside the person, that is what causes this external behavior.
It turns out that any person, regardless of what her strategy is expressed in the resource, in our experience has strategy options.

There are many, but in modern psychology, we limit ourselves to three, and this, in principle, sufficient to understand how they are represented in humans to determine its type and thus strengthen basic science.

What is the strategy? In addition to that in ordinary psychology considered the leading, practically the only one that is in addition to the suppression of another person, neglect them, the approval by its shortcomings, the search of these shortcomings, the ability to stress them in order to increase the value of the "I" (in fact, I already I call key problem - the value of the "I"), there are strategies.

One is called constructive strategy, when a person is able to preserve and develop the value of their "I", in the words of Alfred Adler, who is one of the founders of this idea, by maintaining social interest, that is of interest to others, the ability to build communication skills to maintain the value of his "self" development itself.

The third strategy is called denial or self-negation, when a man, if we say nothing of the severity of this strategy feels the weakness of his own "I" and to still reinforce this desire to be someone, joined to another man. That is, in fact, he lives the life of another person, copy it, identified with him, that is trying to live someone else's life, to show the features that are peculiar to the person with whom he is identified, and choose his strategy. What we often see in adolescents when they choose some famous person - a leading actor, pop singer, actress, and so on - and try to imitate him, to copy.

In modern psychology, we see the process, when all three strategies are studied, studied universal mechanisms of self-assertion of the individual. And we can, through these policies, to enter the issue of classification or typology of personalities and explore already own individual psychological characteristics that relate to a person with a strong strategy of denial, constructive strategy and suppression of the other person.

This problem is not only the fundamental nature, but has a pronounced practical significance. Its importance is such that many people who have expressed any one of the three strategies, feel, feel some personal problems, but they can not understand what they are associated. Very often the problem is - and this is quite understandable and obvious lies on the surface - With regard to the inability to build relationships with other people. Hence, naturally, as a consequence of the problem of family relations, and the problem of professional success, and the problem of personal growth, and even more specific issues, for example, the problem is to ask the question: if it is necessary, for example, the address to find some place, people with severe strategy of denial can not do that. It is very important that just in practical terms, we can not only consider the self-affirmation through these three strategies, but also to understand, through which more specific mechanisms of self-affirmation occurs. I will not enumerate all, but one of the most pronounced is the ability to say "no."

So we can find affirmation through some specific mechanisms of its manifestations because we observe the behavior of the person and look for a number of parameters of this behavior. One of them - is the ability to say "no." He contributes most to self-assertion, and people with different strategies - with self-negation, with constructive self-assertion, with the suppression of another person - in different ways say is "no." One can guess that people with severe suppression strategy, says an unconditional "no" - without comment, without interpretation, without any explanation, often he even says it's out of place, that is, as a kind of forbidden mechanism that prevents the free expression of the will of another person. Man with constructive self-affirmation says "no" reasonable, and thus he always explains to another, why this is so. A person with self-negation does not know how to say "no" very often said "yes" and at the same time continue to experience a variety of pangs of conscience, and so forth, that he has to do what it is inconvenient that time out of place, and that does not correspond to his wishes .

In addition to the ability to say "no", we can find a whole series of manifestations: the ability to express positive feelings toward another person, negative feelings and the ability to initiate communication.

The ability to say "no" makes the most significant contribution to the assessment of self-affirmation.

This is what is done at the moment, that is, at the time of the development of modern psychology in the last 10 years. Of course, this problem is fundamental and, like any fundamental problem when dealing with it, has its own perspective. Catching it, we can each time to discover new knowledge, to formulate a hypothesis and explore further.

What is important, interesting, and that once again we practice, which is often ask these questions, and it allows us to move on? One of the important new tasks - to explore the history of human life, that is the history of people with different types of self-affirmation. Because they do not suddenly appear - rather, it is a kind of a family tradition or some psychological trauma, which leads to the fact that one becomes uncertain, the other with severe aggressive, dominant position, the desire to take a leading role, and there is a person who tends to it for a constructive dialogue. And, most likely, it is, of course, the history of life, pictures of life - in fact, it is promising. To cope with stress- use Phenibut, Phenazepam and Selank.

The history of self-assertion of the individual studies are very rich, and, apparently, it is unlikely we will find some other psychological phenomenon that is studied by almost all schools of psychology.

Leading experts in the field of psychoanalysis is Alfred Adler - is one of the followers of Sigmund Freud, is not very consistent, rather obstinate. In this sense, we can say that this problem was chosen by him in accordance with his own personality. He identified two types of personality - a person who has a personal and superior design. Actually, it is remarkable by the fact that this problem set and set a positive self-affirmation problem.

In the field of Gestalt psychology Kurt Lewin, who mostly still engaged in diagnostic problems, practical, and we go out on the issue of self-affirmation, thanks to Kurt Lewin, through the construct of the level of claims introduced by them.

In the field of behavioral psychology is training skills is the ability to have an impact on the skills of others, and, in fact, there did not need to study some underlying mechanisms. These three areas are very holistically and each in its own way deeply investigate this problem.

Interference in Psychology

13 Dec 2016

Psychologist Dr. Doping tells about associative theory, the mechanisms of remembering and switching between tasks. Why is the phenomenon of interference is important for all areas of psychology theories? How is memorization of words and skills? As the effect of proactive interference effect on the results of psychological research?

The interference generally means inter-suppression opponent processes, optionally in psychology, and in general in the language. Everyone knows about the interference in physics, interference wave processes, but it turned out that something similar is in psychology, the behavior of humans and animals. The essence of the phenomenon lies in the fact that if the skills or memorize words with short intervals after each other, as if they interfere with each other, that is less then the playback or both, either one of them.

The interference phenomenon was first shown in 1894, Muller and Schumann. But more famous work of 1900, in which Muller and Piltseker introduced the concept of consolidation, and they entered it because of the phenomenon of interference. They varied the interval between jobs, and it turned out that the first list of words forgotten, if the time interval between the lists of words a little, and do not forget, if the interval between the lists of words big.

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I would like to tell you about the interference, as a phenomenon, which is used in almost any theory in any psychological concept. The appearance of interference in psychology has been done within the framework of the associative psychology, and further, after these studies, there was a two-factor theory, which suggests that, in addition to gain some links towards other, there is the weakening of ties, but it is not us it is very important. I want to show that every time there is some kind of an idea, such as cognitive psychology, the phenomenon of interference it always will be, it will be applied to new approaches.

Also as part of the associative psychology appeared idea of reciprocal inhibition by Charles Osgood, and it is assumed that when a person learns a word, this strengthening of association suppresses the opposite in the sense of an association, that is, there is a real drag. And, by the way, interference then called retroactive inhibition. Retroactive means "acting ago", that is, when I learn something new, I forget something previous.

After this, there is evidence, contrary to the theory of associative, and they concluded that the elements that have a strong associative links, such as the still remembered - it was a contradiction. And in the framework of cognitive science we have already used the notion that, apparently, forgotten or remembered words and whole sets of selection of these sets is carried out by some additional process - control, the executive, in short, the highest in relation to the associative.

And then Mueller and Piltseker suggested the existence of a certain reverberation mechanism, which suggests that when we start something to remember this information as it is spinning in our heads, so repeated and gradually memorized. If this process is interrupted by a new instruction, then the first memory is disturbed. But this assumption was forgotten almost 40 years due to the fact that I won another theory, the theory of the responses of competition - it purely associative. Then she began to develop in the two-factor theory, then there was the theory of reciprocal inhibition by Charles Osgood. This way interference within the association was productive of psychology, but at some point it became clear that certain data do not stick together, they do not correspond to each other.

The first contradiction noticed Benton Underwood, who has shown that the more a person spends on the experiments, the worse its results by the end of the experiment.

Thus, it showed the presence of proactive interference. It looks like exhaustion, that is, the farther away, the less memory. But it is not only this, but the fact is that the more prior information we have memorized, the worse we remember the follow. This effect is called the effect of proactive interference, that is, acting as if the future ahead. It was thus discovered later. And in this regard, by the way, we introduced a requirement naive subjects in psychology. That is the person at the time when the experiment is conducted, should anything about this experiment is not to know and not to do anything similar to this experiment. Because if we perform the same series of twenty, we can not consider the results of the twentieth as well as the first.

At some point, the associative theory has ceased to work in relation to the results of these studies, because it turned out that the elements which are associatively had to have a weak effect, still be played, one remembers them. And they make assumptions about what the elements are stored not one, that is, the association is not a single element, and the elements are stored some sets. And the choice of these sets is carried out by means of special mechanisms selector, or executive, as it was later called in cognitive psychology. This idea that the elements are stored not one, but a set can be considered the beginning of the era of cognitive as it is called by Michael Anderson. And in it, and in other studies this theme began to develop, and to material interference also began to study the control or executive processes that cognitive psychology assumed.

In this regard, other effects were found out which were identified contextual interference and interference output, or output interference. This interconnected effects, they are, in fact, describe: the way we reproduce the information, depending on what it was before, and what kind of problems we were doing before. Also, the output of interference effect is that the more we reproduce elements, remember, the less likely play an item, that is, as if we are being depleted with time.

These experiments have grown in popularity in the 2010s and subsequent years the theme of forgetting associated with recovery from memory. The phenomenon is that if a person is remembered for a word, the less likely that it will reproduce the words of the same category. For example, if you remembered the orange fruit, the less likely you are to remember the following job kiwi, pineapple and some more fruit. It turns out that once again the interference as a phenomenon appeared in the new field of research that can examine this categorization or any other things.

In 40-ies of experiments on memory consolidation started already neurophysiological, and this theory is also remembered in connection with studies and the concept of Donald Hebb. And at the moment, an interference phenomenon is widely used in studies of memory consolidation.

On the other hand, the phenomenon of interference is also involved in the switching studies. Switch - a change of activity, and noted that if we dramatically change one activity to another, the previous activity as it has a certain inertia, it prevents us from first to perform new actions. Switching Research in Russia held a group of Anna Leonova, and is known from the literature and experiments, is switching from one case to another may deprive us of 18% of the time compared to the way we do this alone business without having to switch to on one another. Therefore, this issue is very important, and including in practice. And it is also assumed that this involved switching processes related to interference, that is, they interfere with each other due to the fact that these activities are close to each other.

It turns out that, no matter what the concept of creating a memory cell or some other psychological structures, it is always possible to use the interference effect.

Because of their interaction and their impact on each other, perhaps because of their similarity or proximity in time always. And I think that at the present time, that is, in the 2010s, and in the future, actual use for research, including interference phenomenon, first, ideas developed in the theory of activity, and secondly, the ideas developed in the framework of theory of functional systems and system-evolutionary approach.

That is, in order to analyze what kind of connection or interaction between memory elements, or any other psychological structures, it is important to investigate their formation in development in some real activity using several tasks that a person or animal is trained. And so it will be possible to use the phenomenology of interference in order to operate with such categories as action, such as the theory of activity, or to consider the interaction of different systemogenesis, as postulated in the system-evolutionary approach. In my opinion, this is the most promising.

5 Books About the Philosophy of Psychiatry

13 Dec 2016

What to read about the philosophical approach to psychiatry

1.Rutkiewicz “From Freud to Heidegger”

The first Russian book on the philosophy of psychiatry, and still remains the last. The main character - a psychiatrist L. Binswanger, leans first to the Freudian theory, then it has found a way to combine it with a much more profound teachings of Heidegger. The book is written in Soviet times, so there are references to Marx and Lenin, but they are easy to ignore. Apart from them the rest of the case and there are very interesting and intelligible.

2. Foucault “History of Madness in the Classical period”

The classic book that should be read to anyone who is interested in the philosophy of psychiatry. Foucault shows how notions of the norm depends on the culture, how it develops, how it is connected with the development of language policies and other non-medical factors. The book is written in a very easy and fun.

3.Laing “Phenomenology of experiences.”

"Politics experiences" (in some publishing houses come out as the "Phenomenology of experiences") - one of the most memorable books against traditional repressive psychiatry. The author exposes the devastating critique of notions of 'normality' consumer society '50s, where any distinctive manifestation of personality was regarded as a mental illness.

4.Korolenko, Dmitrieva “Sociodynamic Psychiatry”

The book is written large domestic psychiatrist and reflects on how should look the perfect mental health care (of course, in the real world). By trying not to break the disease, a person, living conditions, education and the whole living world. To improve mental function – use Piracetam, Picamilon, Noopept, to cope with stress – Phenibut, Phenazepam buy.

5.Binswanger “Being-in-the-world”

On the Russian actually went out and book the hero AM Rutkevich, Binswanger. However, it is, first, a collection of articles, and the most famous (though it is exciting to read). Second, half of the text takes the thesis of American Needleman, which in itself is not bad, but not explicitly dedicated to the topic that the main text of Binswanger.

Anti-psychiatry: the triumph of irrationality and human rights movement in psychiatry?

13 Dec 2016

A new direction in the study of the nature of mental disorders, their causes, and identify the "norm". On the perception of mental illness in the classical psychiatry and change it to the anti-psychiatry movement under the influence of the philosophy of existentialism speaks Dr. Doping, describing the evolution of ideas about the difference between insanity and health.

From "Handbook of neuropsychiatry" to "Wrestling with insanity" Paul de Kruif

What is mental illness? Severe illness of neurosis? Is it true that any mental illness - a disease of the brain, and it follows that it is necessary to treat the brain? There was a time when all psychiatrists answered these questions positively. For the treatment of brain applied not only to tablets but even surgery! And it is not about some distant Middle Ages. "All mental illnesses are diseases of the brain," said the German psychiatrist Griesinger in the XIX century. But his words were the guiding light even in the 50-ies of XX century. Thus, the operation on the brain, the so-called lobotomy, is shown in the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" some exaggerated, but it is generally true. Neurology (diseases of the nervous system, including the brain) and psychiatry (mental illness) in the XIX century and early XX century were together. However, today our central magazine called: "Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry. SS Korsakov ".

Understanding mental illness and deviations vary significantly. By the beginning of XX century the most advanced psychiatrists and philosophers have understood one feature of psychiatry. This feature is still many deny, but it does not disappear. Psychiatry is twofold. Sometimes this is reflected in terms such as "big psychiatry" / "small psychiatry", "traditional psychiatry" / "psychotherapy", "physiological / psychological" Psychiatry and the like. Sometimes adherents of one of the areas of the right to deny the existence of the other. But, apparently, the most reasonable - is to accept this as a fact of duality. There are two aspects of mental illness: in terms of mind and brain of the patient point of view. And these two aspects are not reducible to each other. To improve cognitive function – buy Noopept, Picamilon, Piracetam and Cogitum.

The dispute between the areas of psychiatry, by the way, has a direct correlation to the philosophy, the dispute between the philosophy of mind. There, too, there are attempts to reduce all states of consciousness to the brain states, and another opinion, according to which to reduce consciousness to the brain is impossible.

How mental illness looks with these two different sides? From the point of view of physiology - already today, is not the time Griesinger - mental illness, such as schizophrenia, is the inadequate functioning of the dopamine system (a chemical in the brain, a neurotransmitter). A morbid anxiety panic attacks - in the serotonin system failure (also the mediator). It is worth noting that today physiologists generally dominated neurotransmitter view of the nature of mental illness.

From the point of view of psychology, or, in other words, understanding, mental illness - it is an experience, an emotion or idea, is that in the usual form is at all, but sometimes suddenly changed beyond recognition. Then schizophrenia appears as a so-called "ontological insecurity". And anxiety panic attacks - it's awful amplified analog of an ordinary human fear. To cope with stress – use Phenibut, Afobazol, Phenazepam.

Psychiatry History reminds swing: the first, the second approach is knocked forward. In the XIX century there were only two notable swings, but in the XX century, we can observe as much as 5 swing. At the beginning of the century continues (smear more in the second half of the XIX century) domination of the physiological approach. One of the most prominent psychiatrists of that time, Karl Jaspers (aka the famous philosopher) says in his autobiography that when he worked in a large and very modern at the time psychiatric Heidelberg Hospital, chief physician there was F. Nissl - expert in histology of nervous tissue that is, simply put, a brain researcher. It is understood that the brain to explore could then only on cadavers. Well, apparently, the hospital supplied him enough corpses to work. Now the fact - histologist headed psychiatric hospitals - already tells us a lot.

The activities of the Jaspers (and with it should be called Freud and Bleuler) contributed to the fact that the 30th years of XX century, the pendulum has swung the other way. So we can talk about understanding the mentally ill, that illness has its own meaning and its psychological causes.

However, in the 50s of XX century physiological approach took the biggest rematch. The reason is simple: there were chemical medicines, Cropped (stops) psychotic symptoms. Even before that, about the middle of the 40s, widespread shock therapy and lobotomy. In short, the physiological psychiatry has learned to treat mental illness. It would seem, what kind of "psychological understanding" reasons after that can we talk?

But until the moment when the pendulum ran in the opposite direction, it was not much.

In 1957 he published an interesting book by American writer Paul de Kruif "Fighting madness» ( «A Man against Insanity»). Its main advantage, of course, fun. She's really smart and understanding written by the author. According to the ideology of the book is a purely positivist (physiological) look at mental illness as abnormalities in brain biochemistry. It is still worth reading, so it is great to be written. However, we find in the text of de Kruif more than positivism than physiology. Talking about his character - a psychiatrist and researcher, the author emphasizes the importance of understanding the painful experiences. And all the time keeps saying how important it is to "love" of patients. This text is full of mercy and compassion - something totally positivistic. While pathos de Kruif, of course, is that the patient should be loved regardless of disease (and not, for example, to love him for his disease, because the disease of interest), such an attitude will certainly encourages a desire to understand the experience of patients.

From "Wrestling with insanity" to "Divided Self" Ronald Laing

Two of these works came out about the same time (1957 and 1960), but the ideological chasm separates them. Unlike de Kruif, Laing - psychiatrist. In his youth he worked as a doctor in the city of Glasgow city hospital in serious department, where patients were hopeless. Many of them had been lobotomized, but has not brought benefits. Laing has worked hard to improve the content of the patients on a more human attitude towards him, but it does not go beyond, in general, the same charity, which was characteristic of pathos de Kruif. But then he got an internship Donald Winnicott, a well-known child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. It has armed it with a new approach to the psyche, which he, however, reworked according to their own experience and common sense. Winnicott - a pupil of the famous Melanie Klein, the author of the psychoanalytic theory of child development. This theory is very interesting, but very little corresponds to everyday common sense (this is typical for psychoanalysis). Moreover, it is little suited Laing in explaining the causes of severe schizophrenic disorders in adults.

However, the core of understanding Laing picked up yet, through Winnicott, in Klein, and by Klein and Freud himself. The main thing is that he understood - that in some sense schizophrenia is a degradation of the I to the infancy of disintegration, the splitting of autism (autism - this appeal I am not a reality but a fantasy). It turns out that a healthy person has to spend the effort to maintain the Self in an integrated state. The effort required and the treatment I'm back to reality. Healthy people do not notice it, simply because he has enough forces. This is just as the one who has not hurt the joints, does not notice how hard it is to actually move them. Only when they are ill, every movement is noticeable.

Thanks to its exceptional capacity for empathy, understanding that has been a characteristic feature of his personality (writes about this in his memoirs, such as Fritjof Capra), Laing penetrated deeply into the experiences of his patients. These were people, the psychological forces which were specially reduced. Laing gave it the name "ontological insecurity". This means that they both have an insecure existence. They require effort every action in reality that a healthy person does without thinking. View window, for example. Is it difficult to look out the window? But ontologically insecure person all can be permeated with fear and loathing. Big impression on Laing's famous French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who in "Nausea" novel artistic, and philosophical work "Being and Nothingness" theoretically described as the world presses in the ontologically insecure person. Sartre belongs to the famous phrase "Hell - is another." Laing watched with schizophrenia, also came to the conclusion that the other - this is the most severe for them the most, so to speak, of the pathogenic world. The schizophrenic goes to his autism, to escape the pressure further.

Thus, Laing realized that even the Jaspers believed essentially impossible: he understood the psychological state of patients with schizophrenia. His book "Divided Self" is written so clearly and psychologically certain that after reading it, even many healthy people would say, "I also felt something like that."

From "Divided Self" to "Politics experience"

In the early 60s there have been significant changes in the outlook of Laing.

Firstly, in a society ripe outrage lobotomy practice. Antipsychotics, which are in such an enthusiastic tone wrote P. de Kruif turned out to have the same side effects as the lobotomy (the person ceases to be an independent free subject), except that the transient. That is lobotomy cripple forever, and the action of neuroleptic passes if they cancel the reception (but in fact many have to make something of their life!). Psychiatric hospitals were mainly places of detention and shame, locked iron doors with bars on the windows and plastic with the included light at night.

And then it came, as they say, "Roaring Sixties". Then something was in the air. All were eager to upgrade. Even shy people were ready to protest. Even in totalitarian countries rushed winds updates. Recall our "Sixties"! Old habits, customs, fears and expectations have changed in all directions, and all were ready to change everything that is not laziness.

Against what were protesting students at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1968? I am afraid that with this move and we do not understand. For example, among their slogans was "All power to the imagination!" If you think about it, in general, how is it? Instead, what is, in reality, to teach what the university lecturer imagined? And the fact that there are real, no one is more interested in, or what? And the something you're protesting, is real? All this is difficult to lead to some type of logical consistency. But these students took to the barricades! And with them it was Jean-Paul Sartre, who was 63 years old at the time! Well the power of imagination, when you're 17 years old, but when you're sixty-three? So great if there was a need to change something in the culture and society. Something subtle, but very important.

And still - to me personally, for example - and it remains unclear if it is worth doing or not.

Against what specifically protesting psychiatrists, much clearer. Lobotomy and antipsychotics, attitude to patients as "no-human", which should definitely be cured, to become fully human. This view of the madness of silence is present even in a very clever text de Kruif. Mentally ill should recover, it should be normal! That's what so far has been the aim of the activities of doctors.

In fact, the patient became normal at the time, when aware of their disease, and "recover and become normal" case and its own purpose. Even if he were still Symptoms (well, for example, a patient is afraid to look out the window), but it tends to recover, then it is not madness. In general, a normal person in front of us, and his fear of the window now called not psychosis, and phobia (a phobia - a type of neurosis, the disease is much easier than psychosis). But if he does not want to be cured, if the window for him "really dangerous", he is insane. His diagnosis then - "schizophrenia".

And if there is a sense of madness? And if it turns out that patients understand what they do not understand healthy? If they do see the danger that nobody sees but them? In any case, if they are going through something healthy can not survive? Though maybe sometimes even I wanted to?

This is the subject, for example, Foucault's book "The history of madness in the classical age." As Foucault writes, madness never given "voice". Madness has always repressed. The patient is forced to - or cruel manner, or a soft way, or even begging, but still essentially forced - to be healthy, to start being like everyone else. And be like everyone else in this case means, first of all: to become obvious to others.

After Laing wrote "Divided Self", a book about how to understand people with schizophrenia, the problem - that the patient has become clear to others - no longer standing in front of him. Doors of insanity, which until then had been closed, opened. Sam Laing them even went and did the same many readers of his book.

It became apparent that these doors have a life, and how it should lead to "normal" - a separate issue. And it very much depends on what is meant by "normal".

By itself, the "life behind the doors of madness" (this is obvious from the book "Divided Self", and "Policy experiences") - is suffering and, of course, not the norm. Laing is sometimes misinterpreted as if he called the madness of the highest health View (wrote Rutkiewicz AM) or claimed that between madness and health there is no difference, they both - only the types of social relationships (some anti-psychiatry, for example, T. Szasz, really as they claimed, but Laing). In fact, Laing has no doubt that the psychosis - a serious illness. It only indicates that we misunderstand the health and the causes of disease must be sought, not where we are looking for them.

In what he sees the causes of disease? Again, one has to wonder how the "madness" should lead to a "normal"? Here is the famous quote from the book of R. Laing "Politics experience": "With the perfect vantage point on the ground you can follow the order of combat aircraft. One aircraft may be out of order. But the entire order can not move ahead. The plane, being "out of order", may be abnormal - the sick and the "crazy" from the standpoint of the order. But the order itself with the ideal observer's point of view may be sick or crazy. The plane is outside the order, it may also not move at the rate - more or less than the order. The criterion of "out of order" - a clinically positivist criteria.

The criterion of "not at the exchange rate" - the ontological. Fundamentally, it is important not to make the positivist error, suggesting that because the group is "in order", it means that it necessarily moves "Exchange". If the order itself is not moving at the rate that people really move "Exchange", to leave the order. "

Laing introduces the term "rate card" - a human existential orientation. All we need to sort out something important: how to relate to others? How to relate to the world? To work, love art? To God and to the delight? What are the projects of your life to build, or maybe not build any?

Modern culture or does not provide answers to these existential questions, or answers are absolutely unsatisfactory. Course Map in our culture is lost, so that "the whole procedure does not move on the course." As Laing writes elsewhere, ego should feel like a servant of the divine, not a traitor. Laing thought that when the order is without a map, and not moving at the rate, then the people in this manner, which have a special sensitivity (ie, ontological uncertainty) lose their orientation is particularly acute, especially in tragedy.

But is it possible to get them back in order, if the order is not moving at the rate? After all, they are sharper than others feel this is wrong. They should be returned in some entirely different way, and in some very different place. But how and where? Here ends the criticism, which all have strong anti-psychiatry, and begin positive proposals, which are not always able to realize in reality. Laing tried to organize anti-psychiatric commune, even sought there is a high cure rate, but due to various circumstances and communes were closed and patients are back in the disease state itself Laing, unfortunately, ended his life tragically and sadly.

From "Politicians experiences" to the "Journal of the Independent Psychiatric Association"

In the 80 years of psychiatry in the West, the pendulum swung in the direction of drug therapy for severe psychoses and neuroses for lighter - to many psychotherapeutic schools. But antipsychiatry lessons were not lost. In addition to the absolute prohibition of lobotomy, social work with patients who have been paying more attention to the problems of rehabilitation and the so-called inclusion (the active inclusion of people with disabilities in social life) it has been significantly improved.

At the same time psychiatry in our country had a very different story. After a brief liberation in the sixties (and we did not have anything like activities Laing) began trials of dissidents in which psychiatrists, unfortunately, played an unenviable role of political henchmen torturers. Over-diagnosis of schizophrenia still exists throughout the world, this could not cope any antipsychiatry, but in our country this overdiagnosis in the 70-80s of the last century reached terrifying proportions. The diagnosis of "sluggish schizophrenia" set is not only political dissidents. Moreover, it would be wrong to even think that it was prepared people for one reason or another "inconvenient" for society. He received almost all, who just for some reason come to the attention of doctors. Almost from the verdict "healthy" by psychiatrists leaving only those who came, in fact, precisely because of a diagnosis or to obtain an exemption from the army, or insanity in court.

Times antipsychiatry in Russia came together with the restructuring and the end of repressive psychiatry. So it is possible, unfortunately, to joke that the main role played antipsychiatry MS Gorbachev. However, psychiatrists and, of course, I found a job.

For Laing antipsychiatry activity began with the fact that he has done work on the understanding of experiences of patients with schizophrenia. In this he relied on Winnicott and Klein, but not only. For the very idea of understanding are the names of the great psychiatrists early 20th century: Jaspers, Bleuler, Binswanger. We play a role as existentialist philosophers: the same Jaspers, and even Heidegger and Sartre. In general, the direction of "understanding" in psychiatry was called existential-phenomenological. Sami these things - understanding of patients and anti-psychiatric trend (at least in the form of psychiatry reform towards greater humanization) are inextricably linked.

All of this, no one knew in our psychiatry. In the mid-80s it has not been transferred not only the basic philosophical writings of Heidegger and Sartre, but even purely mental work Jaspers and Bleuler. Our psychiatry has hitherto always been exclusively positivistic and physiological spirit. With positivism repressive linked in spirit as inextricably as understanding - antipsychiatry.

Thus, the anti-psychiatry activity in our country - they are united in the so-called Independent Psychiatric Association (President - prominent domestic psychiatrist-clinician YS Savenko) - focuses on two priorities. Firstly, it is, of course, human rights protection issues in connection with overdiagnosis. Secondly, it is the introduction to psychiatry phenomenological method. In this direction, they spend a great and very useful activity. For though by 2000 the basic works of Jaspers and Bleuler, and Laing had already been, of course, translated into Russian, not the fact that psychiatrists practicing their reading and that in medical schools teachers even mentioned about them.

In the "Journal of the Independent Psychiatric Association" heading "clinical reviews" regularly present. In 2006 and in 2009 came the collections composed of materials of this section:. "Clinical analysis in psychiatric practice" The whole book includes descriptions of patients, stories about them, questioning them, transcripts of discussions between doctors in each case, etc. Read it more interesting than a novel! As is clear from the fact that the output of such a book, a group of like-minded people can keep a valuable tradition, even against the prevailing academic trends.

Times of fierce debate between supporters of the anti-psychiatry and repression thing of the past: in general, we can say that even in the domestic psychiatry human rights movement triumphed. Although it was given with difficulty, not yet brought to an end, and no guarantee that the won will remain forever.

However, never leave in the past disputes between psychiatrists physiological and phenomenological methods. Therefore antipsychiatry as the most active defender of the phenomenological method will always be in demand by those who seek to understand the madness: to understand its psychological causes, its meaning and place in the culture - and not just get rid of it.

Gestalt Psychology

13 Dec 2016

Psychologist Dr. Doping tells about the phi phenomenon, the integrity of the perception and the difference between Gestalt psychology and Gestalt.

Gestalt is a general psychological direction, which is connected with attempts to explain first of all perception, thinking and personality. The main explanatory principle of Gestalt psychology puts the principle of integrity.

The concept of Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychologists appeared as an attempt to construct a psychology by analogy with physics. There was a period of so-called open crisis in psychology, when classical psychology of consciousness, which tried to explain our subjective experience, dividing it into separate elements, and sensations associated with them traces of previous experiences in the past experience, has exhausted itself. We began to collect such data, it became clear in our minds the whole the sum of its parts can not be reduced. Holistic perception of the image can not be collected from the individual sensations associated with the color, shape, surface quality, and so on. Gestalt psychology and decided that she will try to give an explanation, using as support the concept of subjective phenomenal field that exists in our minds, which can be compared with an external electromagnetic field - it also forces act. And from the action and reaction of these forces and formed the final image that can not be folded out of its individual elements.

Something was clear even before the Gestalt psychology was formed as a separate psychological trend. For example, in the XIX century Austrian researcher by the name of Christian von Ehrenfels introduced the principle of transposition. We can take the same melody and play it on the tone above or below the tone. Each note will change, and the melody we still know. This is the idea that a complete image ("Gestalt") can not be reduced to the sum of the individual elements. Phenotropil, Semax, Picamilon, Noopept, Piracetam, Cogitum would help you to improve mental abilities.

History of Gestalt

The emergence of Gestalt psychology as it is traced back to 1912 when one of its founders, Max Wertheimer, published a description of one of the most striking phenomena of perception irreducibility to the sum of the individual feelings, which he called phi- phenomenon. Gestalt psychology, as they tried to work on the model of physics, were very fond of all the phenomena denoted by Greek letters. Wertheimer was driving a vacation home on the train, looking out the window, and suddenly it occurred to him that if we observe the two take turns flashing dots, two light sources, we will perceive the movement of the light source from one point to another (according to this principle are arranged cinema and cartoons), and at even slightly higher rate of presentation see "pure" movement - not the movement of the object and movement as such, which Wertheimer and designated as the phi phenomenon. He jumped off the train, locked himself in a hotel for a month and engaged in the study of this phenomenon. It could not explain the modern psychology of the time, because what we perceive, was to emerge as the sum of sensations, and no feelings of intermediate positions between the two extreme positions could not be. Movement there is no objective, but we perceive it.

Then there was the idea that the whole is not reducible to the sum of its parts, it is more important than the parts, and may determine their perception. Whole or integrity ( 'figure') began to designate the German word Gestalt. Then the psychologists began to study what the laws are for the formation of a gestalt - first on the material of perception, then on the material of thinking, then these ideas have penetrated into the psychology of motivation and psychology of the individual, and then have increased by almost the entire American social psychology, because the main Gestalt personality Kurt Lewin was forced to flee during the Nazi era (actually, like many Gestalt psychologists) in America, and there is a very strong influence on the development of local psychology.

The concept of Gestalt in Gestalt psycology

The word Gestalt translated from German as 'form' or 'figure'. But Gestalt psychology it has more value or integrity of the whole, can not be reduced to the sum of its parts. For example, if we are talking about perception, for integrity (gestalt) will be understood as the so-called good or equilibrium organization of the visual field.

Gestalt try all describe the language of force interactions and suggest that all the elements of the world, as we perceive them, are subject to the interaction of two types of forces: binding that are trying to combine all these elements into a coherent whole, and constraints, which do not give the whole world around curl at one point or at the same spot. Achieving a balance between these forces - this is the presence of what we call the gestalt. In this case, we simply perceive the world around us, we can not ignore this. A notice in the case when dealing with configurations such as dual or torn. We learn the triangle, even where his hand is not completely closed. See how it is formed integrally (Gestalt), it is possible on the phenomenon of the material described by the Danish Gestalt Edgar Rubin - Rubin vase (or "profiles and vase").

The picture with the two profiles on the sides can be perceived as profiles, and can be perceived as a vase. And when we see a vase, she seemed to go out on us forward, and profiles disappear, turn into the background - the vase becomes a figure, gestalt. And when we begin to perceive the profiles, then they are already like us go forward, and vases are no longer there - it is a background that is behind them.

On the basis of this law education an integral figure - the so-called law pregnantation, the integrity of the law - it is clear that any psychic organization is always so good, as far as conditions allow perception. Gestalt begin to formulate specific laws of perceptual organization, indicating the basis on which the elements are grouped in the visual field, and are still used in the design. Items can be grouped on the basis of proximity, on the basis of similarity, on the basis of good continuation, closure, or on the basis of belonging to a common area.

For these laws of perceptual organization is supposed "game" of forces in the phenomenal field, in the field of our consciousness, which forms a gestalt integrity. The idea of the organization in opposition to the idea of summation - folding of the individual elements - is the key to Gestalt psychology.

The main issue, which is now in the focus of modern Gestalt psychologists of perception: when there is a perceptual organization? In the early stages of information processing? In the later stages? Do I need to account for it? Or first elements are organized and then we direct attention to the object, which has already received? And there are a lot of questions.

Development and research of Gestalt psychology: Koehler, Dunker, Levin

Very soon after Wertheimer published his study of the apparent movement, Wolfgang Köhler, the other the future founder of Gestalt psychology, I was engaged in a seemingly distant from the subject area of research: he studied the tasks apes. During the First World War, he worked on the island of Tenerife and studied how monkeys solve problems and take out the bait when it can not get it just like that, but only with the help of some tools, such as a stick, or when it is a tool to collect from several parts, or when you need to remove the barrier or build a building from several boxes to get to hanging from the ceiling of a banana.

Before Gestalt psychologists believed that animal behavior in this situation is subject to the rule of trial, error and accidental success. It was assumed that animals behave in various ways, but only successful movements receive reinforcements and then fixed in the animal experiment. But in order to found a movement, the animal must first move erratically, jerking, rushing in all directions.

But the monkeys in experiments Kohler did not behave well. They first tried to do something, perhaps angry, and then thought, froze and find solutions. For example, a monkey grabbed a stick and pulls to itself a banana or drags boxes, put them on each other, and climbed again took out a banana. And Keller suggested that this phenomenon can be explained only by relying on the integral structure of the situation and on the concept of gestalt that the situation in which there is a conflict between what we have, and that is what we want (that is, between the conditions and the requirements of the task ) - this is not the whole situation, not a gestalt, and solved the problem - a gestalt, a good, integrated configuration.

Then Karl Duncker moved it to solve creative problems man, calling it a restructuring situation, the transition from the "bad" disputed structure to "good", a holistic, where the gap is eliminated. One of the main ideas Dunker was that the decision of creative tasks - it is always a restructuring of the initial situation, so past experience, consisting of frozen "ready" structures, solving creative problems interfere. This idea was opposed by all the old psychology, tries to explain human thinking and problem solving through the use of their past experience.

Such restructuring in Gestalt psychology began to designate another important term, which then became the property of ordinary language with some other value, - the term "insight". Initially experiments Kohler's insight was defined as an instantaneous change in the behavior that leads to the solution of the problem. Then Karl Duncker, examining the decision of small creative tasks (which we now call the "situation puzzle"), a person, identified as an insight restructuring problematic situation, which leads to the elimination of the main conflict and resolving problems. But the original idea is the same: in visual perception, thinking and solving problems, as well as in memory and attention basic law - this is the principle of integrity, or finding a "good configuration" gestalt. Russian psychologist of the early twentieth century, Lev Vygotsky, who wrote the famous work about the open crisis of psychology, on this occasion a little mockingly wrote: "And God said, Let there be a gestalt - and became a gestalt." Indeed, when we take one explanatory concept and trying to bring it all to him, sometimes it turns out to stretch.

Gestalt perception quite rapidly developed until the 1940s, first Wertheimer described the apparent motion (phi phenomenon), then Kurt Koffka, the third founding father of Gestalt psychology, used the field concept and acting in it the forces by publishing the book "Principles of Gestalt psychology." Then Wolfgang Köhler, who has by this time ceased to study the thinking of apes, introduced another important principle of Gestalt psychology - the so-called principle of isomorphism (equal forms). He suggested that the structure of the external world - the physical field - isomorphic to the electromagnetic processes in the brain and processes in our minds - "phenomenal field". In other words, we can speak of "equality of forms" in the physical, physiological and phenomenal fields.

After that Gestalt perception actually came in sluggish mode: most Gestalt leaders were forced to flee from Germany to America because of the occurrence of the Nazis, and in 1950 came the cognitive revolution in the United States, and it turned out that Gestalt psychology was, in fact, inside cognitive psychology of perception. Although it is now possible to name a few names of existing Gestalt psychologists.

Another direction in Gestalt associated with the name of Kurt Lewin, who tried to apply the ideas and principles of Gestalt psychology, but in its interpretation - to the behavior of the individual in the world. He saw human behavior as a function of his personality as a system voltage requirements and environmental structures, to describe where he again used the concept of field. Ideas had been following. Our personality at any time - it's changing and dynamic system of temporary requirements. At one point, we need one, at another time - more ... Levin called them quasi- needs contrasting true that we have always been. These quasi- needs add objects of the world, who have to have a particular valence of: they either draw us or repel. The easiest way to catch these quasi- needs and valence in a situation where a person does not have to anything to anyone and do not want anything, such as sitting in a lab and waiting for the start of the experiment. If you scatter all sorts of items, for example a bell, pencil around it, something else, it is possible to round the corner to see how he is in the call bell, then wagged his pencil in his fingers, then something else will take in hand. Or if we're going in the subway and see that we are faced man in a black coat over white thread is caught, awfully hard to resist and do not remove this thread.

There Levin introduces the so-called opposition field behavior, which is controlled by the structure of the medium, and volitional behavior, for which there is a person. If a person can get on the field, rise above it, it can not remove the thread. But it is important that in any case the whole system, including the person and the environment, too, tends to equilibrium - just as Gestalt perception, just as a conflict, the situation in the unfinished thought. And from this point of view, it turned out that this tool is very useful for the analysis of conflicts as such, because the conflict - is the presence of two divergent trends in behavior.

Conflicts in Gestalt

Kurt Lewin described the main types of conflicts, which are then entered into a gold fund in the area of conflict resolution. In fact, Levin became its ancestor. When we are in conflict? For example, when we simultaneously want two different things: at the same time want to sit at home and go to the exhibition, for example. We have two valence of the object, which we break apart - it is a conflict of the type double attraction. Or maybe a conflict of the type double repulsion: I hate to do homework, but hate to get a deuce. The third type of conflict - the simultaneous attraction and repulsion, for example, like to be asked to play with some kind of a domestic company, but very scared that chase. Here we see that the same object has a positive valence and negative, but it is necessary that one of these trends outweighed.

The personality conflict was too long can not. After Levin was described another type of conflict - a double attraction-repulsion when there are two objects, both of which are one and the other valence - is, for example, the human situation, which is trying to escape from an old family, and create a new one. Next geshtalt-psychological of these ideas in the annex to the person began to grow social psychological theories. First Fritz Heider proposed balance theory, suggesting that the balance, the balance can be achieved in the mind of man (in his knowledge - hence the term "cognitive balance"), and not necessarily in the interaction with the field, as the Levin suggested. Our mental life, according to this theory, tends to equilibrium. If, for example, there is a person A, which I like, and the person B, which I like, I would be comfortable if they like each other too.

And if I do A, and like B and A and B, they hate each other, I'm out of this situation will go through the balance of the search: either I will make peace between them, or I'll start to treat bad A bad start or refer to B. This configuration It will be an equilibrium. This theory has not seen: it replaced the theory of cognitive dissonance, which suggested Leon Festinger. In the end, it all goes back to the same gestalt. Festinger through the idea of getting rid of dissonance, that is finding equilibrium, finding a good configuration, and tried to explain the motivation of human behavior, social groups, different socio-psychological phenomena such as the spread of rumors and so on. If we have two sources of information which are contrary to each other, you need to have something to do with either one source of information, either with our attitude to it, and ultimately on the basis of this can be attributed to all human behavior. For example, if a heavy smoker persistently say that smoking is harmful, thereby creating cognitive dissonance (a mismatch between the two views), he can either quit smoking or to devalue the source of information (for example, decide that he says so, because envy) or start looking for counter-examples (cases where smokers lived happily ever after).

Advantages over other schools

There is one great advantage of Gestalt psychology to many other schools - is an attempt to use a single explanatory principle, which would cover all aspects of reality. But perhaps this is her fault, because it turns out that when we say the magic word "gestalt" in the end, we almost did not explain.

Currently, Gestalt psychology - it is rather a historical trend. Gestalt thinking as such does not remain, although specific studies using its methodical instruments held. Dynamic psychology Kurt Lewin gave a lot of interesting results in studies, but it has actually flowed with numerous modifications in the field of social psychology and now exists there.

Gestalt perception there is a very locally or in the synthesis of cognitive psychology. This is a fairly discrete community, primarily in the US, where there are some people who use the machine Gestalt psychology in the first place in the perception of shapes and allocation figures on background (for example, Stephen Palmer, James Pomerantz, an Israeli researcher of perception and attention, Ruth Kimchi). While in 2012, the centenary of the publication of the work of Wertheimer phi phenomenon, left a rather large review of current research in the mainstream of Gestalt perception Johan Vagemansa with colleagues.

The difference from the Gestalt psychology Gestalt

There direction under the name of "Gestalt", which has quite distantly related to Gestalt psychology, except that it is based also on the idea of reorganization (restructuring) of human experience at this particular point in time, finding some equilibrium structure. Most probably, the famous Gestalt technique - the so-called method of the empty chair. Man gives the chair offered to imagine that he is sitting there, and talk to them and watch what happens to a man when his emotions arise, the resistance when he shows ardor and so on.

And that is very important and what Gestalt opposes psychoanalysis - an analysis of the current situation of the present, that is what is happening here and now. Psychoanalysis is directed to the past, it was in the past, looking for the current problems of human life. Gestalt therapy always works with this, and in this sense it echoes the Gestalt psychology, when there is a structure of the field here and now. But Fritz Perls, who is considered the founder of gestalt therapy, Gestalt psychology was not. He used some terms, especially the beautiful word "gestalt", but the conceptual basis were not taken from Gestalt psychology as a branch of psychology - it's just a set of techniques for working with the current patient self-awareness, to bringing it to sustainable holistic state. Gestalt as such attempts to formulate general psychological laws: to explain cognition - perception, thinking, memory and attention work on the basis of the principle of gestalt, an integrated organization and structure; there is work to dynamic psychology, giving an explanation of situational human motivation and behavior of the person. And apart from this there are Gestalt as the direction of psychological practice, using a specific set of techniques and systems, although perhaps, colleagues working in this direction, can correct me here. However, not Gestalt psychology and Gestalt therapy is the first thing comes to mind modern man, when he hears the word "gestalt."

Psychology of Creativity: How creative solutions are born

13 Dec 2016

This is a basic study, it is designed for a broad audience and will be useful to all those who would like to understand the basics of psychology of creativity and learn about the mechanisms of adoption of creative solutions.

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Psychology of creativity seeks to answer the eternal question of how people create new: coming up with new theories to cope with problematic situations, creating new technical equipment, products and services. Actually, how psychologists explain the birth of the creative (beautiful, original, new, unexpected) ideas will be discussed. And also about how to help yourself treat their creative abilities and apply them to the case. We will discuss what is creative thinking with psychological point of view, as it can be studied by scientific methods, and that I want to know about it, but it remains a stumbling block for researchers.

"People and Challenges"

Creative people and productive solutions

"Big" and "small" creativity

The role of consciousness and the unconscious in the process of solution

Status inspiration

"Why do creative tasks difficult?"

The creative tasks are different from the routine?

Patterns and barriers

Challenges

"The creative personality: Myth or Reality?"

The human personality: heredity and environment

Personality traits associated with creativity

External and internal motivation

-"Theory of Creativity"

Network models and remote association

peripheral attention

Status flow

-"Intellect and creativity"

Creative skills

How to measure creative abilities: intelligence tests, tests of creativity

universal problem of ability

-"Is it possible to improve their creativity?"

Development of creative abilities: Methods and Problems

Strategies and methods of teaching

Situational influence on creativity

Pharmacological drugs – Picamilon, Piracetam, Noopept, Phenotropil - features and pecularity

-"How to activate the creative search: the here and now"

Generation (generation) and selection of new solutions, "lateral" thinking and the use of metaphors

Development of new ideas

Evaluation of the solutions

So where are the creative solutions?

-"Creativity and social success"

Creativity and Learning

Creativity and professionalism

Creativity and Career

How to Develop Creativity?

13 Dec 2016

Psychologist Dr. Doping tells about the psychology of creativity, finding creative solutions and heuristic strategies.

The fact that you have to be creative, for the last 200 years in Europe not only speaks lazy. Since the Romantic philosophers gave rise to the idea of the creative genius and it has become a mass, common in the widest circles of society, no one doubts that the creative to be good. In different countries and social conditions of people are looking for ways to enhance their creative recipes efficiency, not to mention the fact that looking for an explanation to the phenomenon of creativity.

Creativity in the broadest sense is called the creation of something new, the fact that people had not created, not seen, could not conceive. There are many types of creativity: intellectual, artistic, theatrical, and so on - all this means that a person creates something that did not exist before, and the extent of this creativity can be very different. New things can be for himself, for the group to which he himself relates, or even for the whole of humanity.

The myth about the creative person

When it comes to creative people, all under different understands this phrase. Many people think of creative professionals: actors, artists, scientists, and so on. However, in a sense, can be creative people, albeit in varying degrees. Anyone can, using their existing capabilities to create something new, at least within their own lives.

It is often said that as a child more creative, but with age the ability to create leaves. This is not true. Children are less likely than adults to be associated with all sorts of social norms, attitudes and other constraints, but the whole idea that children are more creative, do not correspond to reality. Children are as different in their inclinations and abilities, as well as adults. In this sense, no particular distinction.

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The fact that a person with age more and more difficult to take bold creative solutions is just the flip side of the phenomenon of maturity, which is the base for our culture. An adult is a person who takes into account the weight of the conventions and restrictions, which are finding it difficult to refuse. That is, in this respect, in culture or growing of society, on the one hand, provides many opportunities, on the other hand, in the world live causes various limitations.

In recent decades due to technological progress there has been some substitution of creative activity of searching for information. That is, for those cases where the earlier people understand that getting away nowhere and you have to make some effort and work something out, "to make the head" - to look for new ideas to try out different solutions, and so on, there is now the Google, there are social networks. The process of inventing and developing good creative solutions are often replaced by the search for a ready answer. In addition to being the wrong decision may not be suitable for the particular case, it deprives an incredible source of motivation and just enjoy the process of struggle with the uncertainty and victory over it.

Heuristic strategies

Nevertheless, even in the face of such social restrictions have the opportunity to develop creative abilities, but also it is necessary to come up with different tricks to help us, at least temporarily lose a set of constraints, some way to get around them, to slip away from them. Actually, this is the highlight of pragmatic science such as psychology of creativity. It not only describes what is, but also trying to find a very different kind of recipes that help people to use their creative abilities. In this respect, of course, psychology tries to be creative and really is practice-oriented.

Development of creative abilities is a slow process, as opposed to the process of solving some local problems, which can be sorted out for a limited time. With creativity so you can not cope. Age restrictions in terms of development of creative abilities is not revealed, but more productive to start doing it in early childhood.

Creativity - is a collective term for a "bouquet" of abilities. It can be very different to behave, to develop the creative abilities. Dancing, painting, theater, discussions of scientific problems, invention - all this in one form or another has a positive effect on creativity. At the same time, of course, there is a special tricks and techniques. The most famous of them are tied to our culture in a relatively early age, when they try to develop creativity in children and speak of it as the development of general abilities. To do this quite well described in psychological and pedagogical literature things: children are taught to work with different materials, and look in a variety of situations, some surprising new twists, some new chords, new associations and unexpected comparisons, and more.

For adults it is much worse than is written and drawn. Development of creativity in adulthood requires non-trivial actions, trivial words and actions. Any classic areas: artistic creativity, creative theater, dance, word games, painting - all suitable as a material, which can develop their creative abilities. However, it is very important to do this regularly, the result can not be achieved in 10 minutes.

There are no clear procedures for the development of creative skills, which would work equally well in the minds of all people. It is necessary to try out different recipes, and some of them will work, and some is not guaranteed. Determine what will work a priori impossible. We need to try and do both, and the third - on one hand. On the other hand, all these recipes are based in the broadest sense to psycho-physiological human nature. There are a good time to work, and for yourself you need to be able to see them. There are certain steps that help you to get involved, "enter" in the creative work. Actions that help us to solve problems, cope with problematic situations are called heuristic strategy. They need to know, and some of them are able to use. In addition, there are situations in which the work is particularly difficult. These situations need to either avoid or be able to rebuild them, and so on.

Creativity Psychology

Psychology of creativity - the direction of psychology, which studies how people, having the psychological apparatus, which they have, creating new things, objects, ideas and so on. Psychology of creativity, being an ordinary science, is engaged not practical recipes and a description of how to construct the life around. The theory of creativity is looking for creative activity mechanisms, that is, the psychological mechanisms that enable the creation of new products, the creation of new ideas. Accordingly, it is such a somewhat normal psychological research area in which people are looking for an explanation of how the acting heads of different mechanisms that help or provide for the creation of the new. Then, when these mechanisms are understood, already starting from this, you can come up with recipes to realize that hinders the creative work, and that will help. But first it must be study because first of all you need to describe the mechanisms themselves.