AA Leontiev - Russian psychologist and linguist: biography, main works

Many are famous for the famous psychologist and expert in psycholinguistics, the author of numerous works that largely influenced the development of Russian science, Alexei Alekseevich Leontiev. The biography of this outstanding scientist is quite intense, as is his professional activity. He passed a long scientific path from philology to psychology and pedagogy.

Having received the basic philological education, AA Leontiev gravitated to the interdisciplinary space in the field of humanitarian knowledge. Over time, the central topic of his research was the topic of communication, considered by him as a general theoretical and having an influence on other disciplines adjacent to psychology.

Leontiev is one of the first Russian researchers among those who developed the theory of "Pedagogical communication" in didactics. Despite the huge number of his own known works of science (about 900 works and 30 books), Alexey Alekseevich became the first publisher of some works of such famous scientists as IA Boduen de Courtenay, LS Vygotsky, ED Polivanov, A. N. Leontiev and L. P. Yakubinsky.

The Leontief family

On January 14, 1936, the son of Alexei was born to Leontiev. His family - the mother of Margarita Petrovna (1905-1985), father Alexei Nikolaevich (1903-1979) and his parents, Alexandra Alekseevna and Nikolai Vladimirovich, then lived in Moscow.

According to their friends, relations in the family were very warm. This concerned both the relationship with the parents of Alexei Nikolaevich, and the spouses among themselves. Margarita Petrovna devoted her life to the family and the support of her great husband, was for him a reliable back and support until the last day of his life.

Father. Professional activity

Father - an outstanding Russian psychologist Alexei Leontyev. Biography of AN Leontiev is extremely rich in scientific activity. Under the leadership of Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896-1934) together with Alexander Romanovich Luria (1902-1977), whom Leontyev met at the Institute of Psychology, after coming to work after graduating from Moscow State University, they developed a well-known cultural and historical theory and carried out numerous experimental studies aimed at On the study of the mechanisms of the formation of psychological processes.

In joint work with them, as well as with a number of other colleagues, he worked out in detail the problems of the interconnection of practical activity and consciousness, understanding, communication through activity. Thus, in the 1930s he formed the general psychological concept of activity, which to this day exerts a great influence on the development of theoretical directions in the psychology of both domestic and foreign researchers.

Thus, AN Leontiev is rightly considered the creator of an extensive scientific psychological school and numerous works that influenced not only the development of psychology, but also pedagogy, philosophy, cultural studies, and other humanities. The famous scientific work, which was published in 1975 by senior Alexei Leontyev, "Activity. Consciousness. Personality ", is a generalizing work on the theory of activity.

Childhood

Given that the childhood of Alexei Alekseevich had been in the prewar years, his childhood memories are somehow connected with war, bomb shelters and a trip to Ashgabat (late 1941) and Sverdlovsk (in the middle of 1942), where MSU was evacuated. The family was able to return to their home only in 1943.

Even before AA Leontiev began to study at school, he was engaged in a children's group for the study of the German language. The preparation was quite serious, and the tasks were complex (for example, translation of texts). When entering school number 110, Aleksei Alekseevich was not determined in the first class, but immediately in the second. Moreover, according to the results of research conducted among students, he was enrolled in the list of geeks. The result of schooling was a gold medal.

Institut years

According to Aleksei Alekseevich himself, back in 1953, when he graduated from school, it was absolutely clear that it was his true vocation to engage in science. Among all possible options for admission, he considered various humanities and even organic chemistry.

As A.A. Leont'ev recalls, psychology was undoubtedly among those sciences that attracted him. But he did not attend this faculty. Of course, one of the main reasons was that his father was in charge of the Department of Psychology at Moscow State University. Lomonosov Moscow State University. As a specialty in other educational institutions, psychology was either absent or just beginning to emerge. Therefore, A. A. Leontiev chose the Faculty of Philology.

Beginning of professional work

Alexey Alexeevich successfully graduated from the University with a degree in linguistics in 1958. His graduation thesis was highly appreciated by the teachers and became the basis for 2 publications. The result of this work was the proposal of the post of teacher at the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

During his time he became the author and co-author of publications that differed in the variety of directions. In addition, by 1963, defended the candidate for the general linguistic views of Ivan Aleksandrovich Baudouin de Courtenay.

Psycholinguistics

In addition to outstanding philological abilities and knowledge, Aleksei Alekseevich attracted other humanities. His work confirmed that Alexei Leontyev is a psychologist, psycholinguist and teacher. His main theme of that period of scientific work was psycholinguistics (the book was published in 1967). At the same time, the Faculty of Psychology was founded at Moscow State University, where the same name subject was introduced. In addition to this course, which Alexey Alekseevich taught for the rest of his life, he developed and read also other disciplines of psychological, socio-psychological, psycholinguistic, pedagogical, criminalistic and other directions.

Aleksei Alekseevich became a doctor of philosophical sciences in 1968. It should also be noted that the output of this doctoral dissertation on psycholinguistic modeling of speech was preceded by 9 monographs of different thematic areas, which do not lose their relevance in our time. The doctoral degree allowed Alexey Alekseevich in 1969 to organize a psycholinguistic research group on the basis of the Institute of Linguistics.

The field of interest of this outstanding scientist is quite large, but the problem of communication became a unifying problem for him. A. A. Leontiev saw in it the general theoretical aspect, which is manifested in many humanities. The result of his numerous works and studies was the promotion of a multilevel interdisciplinary theory of human communication and a book on the psychology of communication, published in 1974.

The transition from linguistics to pedagogy

Over time, for Alexey Alekseevich, linguistics began to recede into the background, and he turned his attention to education. The doctoral in psychology of speech communication became a confirmation (1975). After that, he moved to work at the then created the Institute of Russian language. AS Pushkin, and in 1976 became a professor.

Also in certain periods of his life he worked in the methodological center of the Russian language at the Moscow State University, he headed various councils. In 1986 he was a professor at Moscow State Pedagogical University. In 1988-1991 years. - Head of the Laboratory of Language Education, in 1990 - Secretary General of the International Association for the Collective Assistance in Language Learning. In 1992, Leontyev was elected a full member of RAO.

In 1994 he headed the Institute of Languages and Cultures. L. N. Tolstoy, who himself created. Since 1995 he became a member of the Council on the Russian language. Since 1997, he directed the "School 2000". In parallel with another work in 1998, he became a professor at Moscow State University. In 2000, he began cooperation with the Center for Radioactive Waste.

Decent change

Alexei Alekseevich has a son Dmitry (born in 1960), who also became the continuer of the family. Now he is a fairly well-known psychologist, doctor of science, professor of Moscow State University, director of the Institute of Existential Psychology and Life Creation.

Also, AA Leontiev has a daughter, but unfortunately nothing is known about her, except that she also studied at Moscow State University.