The History of Clinical (Medical) Psychology in Pre-Revolutionary Russia: Development Outcomes

Relevance. The history of clinical (medical) psychology, despite its significance, remains an underdeveloped field of study. Globally, fewer than ten comprehensive monographs have been published on the topic, and in Russia, there is only one textbook dedicated to the discipline. Most of the historical narrative on medical psychology is scattered across individual articles, textbook chapters, and dissertations. This situation necessitates the creation of a coherent narrative capable of comprehensively reflecting the development of the discipline. According to the principle of historicism, this endeavor must begin with the origins of clinical psychology, which trace back to the late 19th century.

The aim is to identify the features of the historical development of Russian medical psychology in the pre–revolutionary period.

Methodology. To achieve this goal, comparative historical and bibliographic methods were used; the source base consisted of historiographical literature and the most significant publications on the topic of research from the end of the XIX century to 1917. The results and their analysis. In the course of the study, it was found that domestic medical psychology arose in line with the last of the three directions of psychological research (philosophical, empirical and experimental) both in the context of the scientific struggle between these three trends, and in the broader context of the ideological and political confrontation in Russia. It is shown that it was created by Russian psychiatrists (V.M. Bekhterev, S.S. Korsakov, V.F. Chizh et al.) at the junction of medicine and psychology on the basis of an experimental method, in contrast to the method of introspection that dominated academic psychology at that time, and was of a pronounced applied nature. It is noted that in the course of its development in the specified time period, domestic medical psychology was characterized by both the introduction of foreign methods into experimental research and the creation of domestic ones, attempts were made to unify methods and techniques for studying the psyche of sick and healthy people, the methodological foundation of medical psychology was laid, the basic principles of building research of this kind were determined, significant empirical the material.

Conclusion. Despite these achievements, the development of medical psychology in prerevolutionary Russia was hindered by the absence of a psychological theory capable of explaining empirically obtained data. Up until the mid-20th century, this discipline – at least in Russia – remained descriptive rather than explanatory. 

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