Psychologism in literature and its main forms. “Dialectics of the soul”, “stream of consciousness”

“I’m sad,” “he’s not in a good mood today,” “she was embarrassed and blushed” - any such phrase in a work of fiction somehow informs us about the feelings and experiences of a fictional personality - a literary character or a lyrical hero. But this is not yet psychologism. A special depiction of a person’s inner world using purely artistic means, the depth and sharpness of the writer’s penetration into the spiritual world of the hero, the ability to describe in detail various psychological states and processes (feelings, thoughts, desires, etc.), to notice the nuances of experiences - these are the signs in general terms psychologism in literature.

Psychologism, thus, it represents a stylistic unity, a system of means and techniques aimed at a complete, deep and detailed disclosure of the inner world of the heroes. In this sense, they speak of a “psychological novel”, “psychological drama”, “psychological literature” and a “psychological writer”.

Psychologism as the ability to penetrate into the inner world of a person is, to one degree or another, inherent in any art. However, it is literature that has the unique ability to master mental states and processes due to the nature of its imagery. The primary element of literary imagery is the word, and a significant part of mental processes (in particular, thinking processes, experiences, conscious feelings, and even largely volitional impulses and emotions) occur in verbal form, which is what literature records. Other arts are either unable to recreate them at all, or use indirect forms and methods of depiction to do so. Finally, the nature of literature as a temporary art also allows it to carry out psychological depiction in an adequate form, since the inner life of a person is in most cases a process, a movement. The combination of these features gives literature truly unique opportunities for depicting the inner world. Literature is the most psychological of the arts, not counting, perhaps, the synthetic art of cinema, which, however, also uses a literary script.

Every genus Literature has its own potential for revealing the inner world of a person. So, V lyrics psychologism is expressive in nature; In it, as a rule, it is impossible to “look from the outside” at a person’s mental life. The lyrical hero either directly expresses his feelings and emotions, or engages in psychological introspection, reflection (for example, the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “For this reason I deeply despise myself ...”), or, finally, indulges in lyrical reflection and meditation (for example, in the poem by A. S. Pushkin “It’s time, my friend, it’s time! The heart asks for peace...”). The subjectivity of lyrical psychologism makes it, on the one hand, very expressive and deep, and on the other hand, it limits its capabilities in understanding the inner world of man. In part, such restrictions apply to psychologism in dramaturgy, because the main thing the way of reproducing the inner world in it is monologues actors, in many ways similar to lyrical statements.

The greatest opportunities for depicting the inner world of a person have epic type of literature, who has developed a very perfect structure of psychological forms and techniques, which we will see later.

However, these possibilities of literature in mastering and recreating the inner world are not realized automatically and are not always realized. In order for psychologism to arise in literature, a sufficiently high level of development of the culture of society as a whole is necessary, but, most importantly, it is necessary that in this culture the unique human personality is recognized as a value. This is impossible in those conditions when a person’s value is completely determined by his public, social, professional position, and the personal point of view on the world is not taken into account, it is even assumed to be non-existent, because the ideological and moral life of society is completely controlled by a system of unconditional and infallible moral principles. and philosophical norms. In other words, psychologism does not arise in cultures based on authoritarianism. In authoritarian societies (and even then not in all, mainly in the 19th-20th centuries), psychologism is possible mainly in the counterculture system.

In literature, a system of means, forms and techniques of psychological depiction has been developed, in a certain sense individual for each writer, but at the same time common for all psychological writers. Analysis of this system is of primary importance for understanding the uniqueness of psychologism in each specific work.

There are three main forms psychological image , to which all specific methods of reproducing the inner world ultimately come down. Let's call first form of psychological image direct , A second indirect , since it conveys the hero’s inner world not directly, but through external symptoms. The first form will be discussed later, but for now we will give an example of the second, indirect form of psychological image, which was especially widely used in the literature in the early stages of development:

But the writer has a third opportunity, another way to inform the reader about the thoughts and feelings of the character: with the help of naming, an extremely brief designation of those processes that take place in the inner world. We will call this form summarily denoting . A.P. Skaftymov wrote about this method, comparing the features of the psychological image in Stendhal and L. Tolstoy: “Stendhal mainly follows the path of verbal designation of feelings. Feelings are named, but not shown" 1. Tolstoy traces the process of feeling through time and thereby recreates it with greater vividness and artistic force.

There are many techniques for psychological depiction: various organization of the narrative, the use of artistic details, ways of describing the inner world, etc. Only the basic techniques are discussed here.

One of the techniques of psychologism is artistic detail. External details (portrait, landscape, the world of things) have long been used to psychologically depict mental states in the system of an indirect form of psychologism. Thus, portrait details (such as “he turned pale,” “blushed,” “he hung his head violently,” etc.) conveyed the psychological state “directly”; in this case, naturally, it was understood that this or that portrait detail was unambiguously correlated with this or that spiritual movement.

Details landscape also very often have a psychological meaning. It has long been noticed that certain states of nature are somehow correlated with certain human feelings and experiences: the sun with joy, rain with sadness, etc. (cf. also metaphors like “mental storm”). Unlike portrait and landscape, details "material" world began to be used for the purposes of psychological depiction much later - in Russian literature, in particular, only towards the end of the 19th century. Chekhov achieved rare psychological expressiveness of this type of detail in his work. He "pays primary attention to those impressions, which his heroes receive from their environment, from the everyday conditions of their own and other people’s lives, and depicts these impressions as symptoms of the changes that occur in the minds of the heroes” 1. A heightened perception of ordinary things is characteristic of the best heroes of Chekhov’s stories, whose character is mainly revealed psychologically: “At home, he saw an umbrella on a chair, forgotten by Yulia Sergeevna, grabbed it and kissed it greedily. The umbrella was silk, no longer new, secured with an old elastic band; the handle was made of simple white bone, cheap. Laptev opened it above him, and it seemed to him that there was even a smell of happiness around him” (“Three Years”).

Finally, another technique of psychologism, somewhat paradoxical at first glance, - default method. It consists in the fact that at some point the writer says nothing at all about the hero’s inner world, forcing the reader to conduct a psychological analysis himself, hinting that the hero’s inner world, although it is not directly depicted, is still quite rich and deserves attention. The general forms and techniques of psychologism that were discussed are used by each writer individually. Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all psychologism. Its different types master and reveal the inner world of a person from different sides, enriching the reader each time with a new psychological and aesthetic experience.

What is psychologism? Why is it used in fiction? What forms and techniques of psychologism do you know? Determination of the form and techniques of psychologism in the story of A.P. Chekhov's "Rothschild's Violin" (1894).

When analyzing psychological details, you should definitely keep in mind that in different works they can play a fundamentally different role. In one case, the psychological details are few in number and are of a service, auxiliary nature - then we are talking about elements of a psychological image; their analysis can, as a rule, be neglected. In another case, the psychological image occupies a significant volume in the text, acquires relative independence and becomes extremely important for understanding the content of the work. In this case, a special artistic quality appears in the work, called psychologism. Psychologism is the development and depiction of the hero’s inner world through the means of fiction: his thoughts, experiences, desires, emotional states, etc., and the depiction is distinguished by detail and depth.

There are three main forms of psychological imagery, to which all specific techniques for reproducing the inner world ultimately come down. Two of these three forms were theoretically identified by I.V. Strakhov: “The main forms of psychological analysis can be divided into the depiction of characters “from the inside,” that is, through artistic knowledge of the inner world of the characters, expressed through inner speech, images of memory and imagination; to psychological analysis “from the outside,” expressed in the writer’s psychological interpretation of the expressive features of speech, speech behavior, facial expressions and other means of external manifestation of the psyche”*.

Let’s call the first form of psychological depiction direct, and the second indirect, since in it we learn about the hero’s inner world not directly, but through external symptoms of a psychological state. We will talk about the first form a little lower, but for now we will give an example of the second, indirect form of psychological image, which was especially widely used in literature at the early stages of development:

A gloomy cloud of sorrow covered Achilles' face.

He filled both handfuls with ashes and sprinkled them on his head:

The young man's face turned black, his clothes turned black, and he himself

With a great body covering the great space, in the dust

He was stretched out, tearing out his hair, and beating himself on the ground.

Homer. "Iliad". Per V.A. Zhukovsky

Before us is a typical example of an indirect form of psychological depiction, in which the author depicts only the external symptoms of a feeling, without ever invading directly into the consciousness and psyche of the hero.

But the writer has another opportunity, another way to inform the reader about the thoughts and feelings of the character - with the help of naming, an extremely brief designation of those processes that take place in the inner world. We will call this method summative designating. A.P. Skaftymov wrote about this technique, comparing the features of psychological depiction in Stendhal and Tolstoy: “Stendhal mainly follows the path of verbal designation of feelings. Feelings are named, but not shown”*, and Tolstoy traces in detail the process of feeling over time and thereby recreates it with greater vividness and artistic power.

So, the same psychological state can be reproduced using different forms of psychological image. You can, for example, say: “I was offended by Karl Ivanovich because he woke me up,” - this will be a summary form. You can depict external signs of resentment: tears, frowning eyebrows, stubborn silence, etc. - This is an indirect form. But it is possible, as Tolstoy did, to reveal the internal state using a direct form of psychological image: “Suppose,” I thought, “I am small, but why does he bother me? Why doesn’t he kill flies near Volodya’s bed? How many are there? No, Volodya is older than me, and I am smaller than everyone else: that’s why he torments me. “That’s all he thinks about all his life,” I whispered, “how I can make trouble.” He sees very well that he woke me up and scared me, but he acts as if he doesn’t notice... nasty man! And the robe, and the cap, and the tassel - how disgusting!”

Naturally, each form of psychological image has different cognitive, visual and expressive capabilities. In the works of writers whom we usually call psychologists - Lermontov, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Maupassant, Faulkner and others - as a rule, all three forms are used to embody mental movements. But the leading role in the system of psychologism is, of course, played by the direct form - the direct reconstruction of the processes of a person’s inner life.

Let us now briefly get acquainted with the basic techniques of psychologism, with the help of which the image of the inner world is achieved. Firstly, the narrative about a person’s inner life can be told from either the first or third person, with the first form being historically earlier. These forms have different capabilities. First-person narration creates a greater illusion of credibility of the psychological picture, since the person talks about himself. In a number of cases, the psychological narration in the first person takes on the character of a confession, which enhances the impression. This narrative form is used mainly when the work has one main character, whose consciousness and psyche is followed by the author and the reader, and the other characters are secondary, and their inner world is practically not depicted (“Confession” by Rousseau, “Childhood”, “Adolescence” " and "Youth" by Tolstoy, etc.).

Third person narration has its advantages in terms of depicting the inner world. This is precisely the artistic form that allows the author, without any restrictions, to introduce the reader into the inner world of the character and show it in the most detail and depth. For the author, there are no secrets in the hero’s soul - he knows everything about him, can trace in detail the internal processes, explain the cause-and-effect relationship between impressions, thoughts, and experiences. The narrator can comment on the hero’s self-analysis, talk about those mental movements that the hero himself cannot notice or which he does not want to admit to himself, as, for example, in the following episode from “War and Peace”: “Natasha, with her sensitivity, also instantly noticed the state of her brother She noticed him, but she herself was so happy at that moment, she was so far from grief, sadness, reproaches, that she<...>I deliberately deceived myself. “No, I’m having too much fun now to spoil my fun by sympathizing with someone else’s grief,” she felt and said to herself: “No, I’m probably mistaken, he should be as cheerful as I am.”

At the same time, the narrator can psychologically interpret the external behavior of the hero, his facial expressions and plasticity, etc., as discussed above in connection with psychological external details.

Third-person narration provides ample opportunities for incorporating a variety of psychological depiction techniques into the work: internal monologues, public confessions, excerpts from diaries, letters, dreams, visions, etc. easily and freely flow into such a narrative element.

Third-person narration deals most freely with artistic time; it can dwell for a long time on the analysis of fleeting psychological states and very briefly inform about long periods that have, for example, the nature of plot connections in a work. This makes it possible to increase the relative weight of the psychological image in the overall narrative system, to switch the reader’s interest from the details of events to the details of feelings. In addition, the psychological image in these conditions can reach maximum detail and exhaustiveness: a psychological state that lasts minutes, or even seconds, can stretch out over several pages in the narrative; Perhaps the most striking example of this is noted by N.

G. Chernyshevsky episode of the death of Praskukhin in Tolstoy’s “Sevastopol Stories”*.

Finally, third-person narration makes it possible to depict the inner world of not one, but many characters, which is much more difficult to do with another method of narration.

Techniques of psychological depiction include psychological analysis and introspection. The essence of both techniques is that complex mental states are decomposed into components and thereby explained and become clear to the reader. Psychological analysis is used in third-person narration, while introspection is used in both first- and third-person narration. Here, for example, is a psychological analysis of Pierre’s condition from War and Peace:

“... he realized that this woman could belong to him.

“But she’s stupid, I said myself that she’s stupid,” he thought. “There’s something nasty in the feeling that she aroused in me, something forbidden.”<...>- he thought; and at the same time, as he reasoned like this (these reasonings still remained unfinished), he found himself smiling and realized that another series of reasoning was emerging from behind the first, that at the same time he was thinking about her insignificance and dreaming of how she will be his wife<...>And again he saw her not as some daughter of Prince Vasily, but saw her whole body, only covered with a gray dress. “But no, why didn’t this thought occur to me before?” And again he told himself that this was impossible, that something disgusting, unnatural, as it seemed to him, dishonest would be in this marriage<...>He remembered the words and looks of Anna Pavlovna when she told him about the house, remembered thousands of such hints from Prince Vasily and others, and horror came over him, whether he had somehow tied himself in the execution of such a task, which, obviously, is not good and which he should not do. But at the same time, as he expressed this decision to himself, from the other side of his soul her image emerged with all its feminine beauty.”

Here, the complex psychological state of mental confusion is analytically divided into components: first of all, two directions of reasoning are identified, which, alternating, are repeated either in thoughts or in images. The accompanying emotions, memories, desires are recreated in as much detail as possible. What is experienced simultaneously unfolds in Tolstoy in time, is depicted in sequence, the analysis of the psychological world of the individual proceeds, as it were, in stages. At the same time, the feeling of simultaneity, the unity of all components of inner life, is preserved, as indicated by the words “at the same time.” As a result, one gets the impression that the hero’s inner world is presented with exhaustive completeness, that there is simply nothing to add to the psychological analysis; analysis of the components of mental life makes it extremely clear to the reader.

And here is an example of psychological introspection from “A Hero of Our Time”: “I often ask myself, why am I so stubbornly seeking the love of a young girl whom I do not want to seduce and whom I will never marry? Why this female coquetry? Vera loves me more than Princess Mary will ever love me; if she seemed to me an invincible beauty, then perhaps I would have been attracted by the difficulty of the enterprise<...>

But nothing happened! Consequently, this is not the restless need for love that torments us in the first years of youth.<...>

Why am I bothering? Out of envy of Grushnitsky? Poor thing! He doesn't deserve her at all. Or is this a consequence of that nasty but invincible feeling that makes us destroy the sweet delusions of our neighbor?<...>

But there is immense pleasure in possessing a young, barely blossoming soul!.. I feel in myself this insatiable greed, absorbing everything that comes along the way; I look at the sufferings and joys of others only in relation to myself, as food that supports my spiritual strength. I myself am no longer capable of going mad under the influence of passion; My ambition was suppressed by circumstances, but it manifested itself in a different form, for ambition is nothing more than a thirst for power, and my first pleasure is to subordinate to my will everything that surrounds me.”

Let us pay attention to how analytical the above passage is: this is an almost scientific examination of a psychological problem, both in terms of methods for solving it and in terms of results. First, the question is posed with all possible clarity and logical clarity. Then obviously untenable explanations are discarded (“I don’t want to seduce and I will never marry”). Next, a discussion begins about deeper and more complex reasons: the need for love, envy and “sports interest” are rejected as such. From here a logical conclusion is drawn: “Therefore...”. Finally, analytical thought takes the right path, turning to the positive emotions that Pechorin’s plan and the anticipation of its implementation give him: “But there is immense pleasure...”. The analysis goes, as it were, in the second circle: where does this pleasure come from, what is its nature? And here is the result: the reason for the reasons, something indisputable and obvious (“My first pleasure...”).

An important and frequently encountered technique of psychologism is the internal monologue - the direct recording and reproduction of the hero’s thoughts, which to a greater or lesser extent imitates the real psychological patterns of internal speech. Using this technique, the author seems to “overhear” the hero’s thoughts in all their naturalness, unintentionality and rawness. The psychological process has its own logic, it is whimsical, and its development is largely subject to intuition, irrational associations, seemingly unmotivated convergence of ideas, etc. All this is reflected in internal monologues. In addition, the internal monologue usually reproduces the speech style of a given character, and therefore his manner of thinking. Here, as an example, is an excerpt from Vera Pavlovna’s internal monologue in Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?”:

“Did I do well to force him to come in?..

And what a difficult position I put him in!..

My God, what will happen to me, poor thing?

There is one remedy, he says - no, my dear, there is no remedy.

No, there is a remedy; here it is: a window. When it becomes too hard, I will throw myself out of it.

How funny I am: “when it’s too hard” - and now?

And when you throw yourself out the window, how fast, how fast will you fly?<...>No, that's good<...>

Yes, and then? Everyone will look: the head is broken, the face is broken, covered in blood, covered in dirt.<...>

And in Paris, poor girls are suffocated with child. This is good, this is very, very good. But throwing yourself out of a window is not good. And that’s good.”

An internal monologue, taken to its logical limit, gives a slightly different technique of psychologism, not often used in literature and called “stream of consciousness.” This technique creates the illusion of an absolutely chaotic, disordered movement of thoughts and experiences. Here is an example of this technique from Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”:

““The snow must be a spot; a spot – une tach,” thought Rostov. - “That’s not good for you...”

“Natasha, sister, black eyes. On... Tashka... (she’ll be surprised when I tell her how I saw the sovereign!) Natasha... take Tashka... Yes, you mean, what was I thinking? - no forget. How will I talk to the sovereign? No, that’s not it, it’s tomorrow. Yes, yes! To stupid us - and the hussars and mustaches... This hussar with a mustache was riding along Tverskaya, me too? I thought about him, opposite Guryev’s house... Old man Guryev... Eh, nice little Denisov! Yes, all this is nothing. I didn’t dare... No, I didn’t dare. Yes, it’s nothing, but the main thing is that I was thinking something necessary, yes, to dumb us down, yes, yes, yes.”

Another technique of psychologism is the so-called dialectics of the soul. The term belongs to Chernyshevsky, who describes this technique as follows: “Count Tolstoy’s attention is most of all drawn to how some feelings and thoughts develop from others, as a feeling that directly follows from a given situation or impression, subject to the influence of memories and the power of combinations represented by the imagination, passes into other feelings, returns again to the previous starting point and wanders again and again, changing along the entire chain of memories; how a thought, born of the first sensation, leads to other thoughts, is carried further and further, merges dreams with actual sensations, dreams of the future with reflection on the present.”*

This thought of Chernyshevsky can be illustrated by many pages of books by Tolstoy, Chernyshevsky himself, and other writers. As an example, here is (with cuts) an excerpt from Pierre’s reflections in “War and Peace”:

“Then he imagined her (Helen. - A.E.) in the first time after marriage, with open shoulders and a tired, passionate look, and immediately next to her he imagined the beautiful, insolent and firmly mocking face of Dolokhov, as it was on lunch, and the same face of Dolokhov, pale, trembling and suffering, as it was when he turned and fell into the snow.

“What happened? – he asked himself. “I killed my lover, yes, I killed my wife’s lover.” Yes. It was. Why? How did I get to this point? “Because you married her,” answered the inner voice.

“But what am I to blame for? - he asked. “The fact is that you married without loving her, that you deceived both yourself and her,” and he vividly imagined that minute after dinner at Prince Vasily’s when he said these words that never escaped him: “Je vous aime "*. Everything from this! Even then I felt,” he thought, “I felt then that it was not that I had no right to it. And so it happened.” He remembered the honeymoon and blushed at the memory<...>».

And how many times have I been proud of her<...>- he thought<..>– So this is what I was proud of?! I thought then that I didn't understand her<...>and the whole solution was in that terrible word, that she was a depraved woman: I said this terrible word to myself, and everything became clear!”<...>

Then he remembered the rudeness, the clarity of her thoughts and the vulgarity of her expressions<...>“Yes, I never loved her,” Pierre said to himself, “I knew that she was a depraved woman,” he repeated to himself, “but did not dare admit it.

And now Dolokhov, here he sits in the snow and smiles forcibly and dies, perhaps responding to my repentance with some kind of feigned youth!”<...>

“She is to blame for everything, she alone is to blame,” he said to himself. - But what of this? Why did I associate myself with her, why did I tell her this: “Je vous aime,” which was a lie, and even worse than a lie, he said to himself. - It's my fault<...>

Louis XVI was executed because they said that he was dishonest and a criminal (it occurred to Pierre), and they were right from their point of view, just as those who died a martyr’s death for him and ranked him among the face of the saints. Then Robespierre was executed for being a despot. Who is right, who is wrong? Nobody. But if you live, live: tomorrow you will die, just as I could have died an hour ago. And is it worth it to suffer when you only have one second to live compared to eternity?” But at that moment, when he considered himself reassured by this kind of reasoning, he suddenly imagined her and those moments when he most strongly showed her his insincere love - and he felt a rush of blood to his heart, and had to get up again, move, and break and tear things that come to his hand. Why did I tell her "Je vous aime"? – he kept repeating to himself.”

Let us note another method of psychologism, somewhat paradoxical at first glance - this is the method of silence. It consists in the fact that at some point the writer says nothing at all about the hero’s inner world, forcing the reader to carry out a psychological analysis himself, hinting that the hero’s inner world, although it is not directly depicted, is still quite rich and deserves attention. As an example of this technique, we give an excerpt from Raskolnikov’s last conversation with Porfiry Petrovich in Crime and Punishment. Let's take the climax of the dialogue: the investigator has just directly announced to Raskolnikov that he considers him to be the murderer; The nervous tension of the stage participants reaches its highest point:

“It wasn’t me who killed,” Raskolnikov whispered, like frightened little children when they are captured at the scene of a crime.

– No, it’s you, Rodion Romanych, you, and there’s no one else,” Porfiry whispered sternly and with conviction.

They both fell silent, and the silence lasted for a strangely long time, about ten minutes. Raskolnikov leaned his elbows on the table and silently ran his fingers through his hair. Porfiry Petrovich sat quietly and waited. Suddenly Raskolnikov looked contemptuously at Porfiry.

– You're back to your old ways again, Porfiry Petrovich! All for the same tricks of yours: how can you not get tired of this, really?”

It is obvious that in these ten minutes that the heroes spent in silence, psychological processes did not stop. And of course, Dostoevsky had every opportunity to depict them in detail: to show what Raskolnikov thought, how he assessed the situation and what feelings he had towards Porfiry Petrovich and himself. In a word, Dostoevsky could (as he did more than once in other scenes of the novel) “decipher” the hero’s silence, clearly demonstrate as a result of what thoughts and experiences Raskolnikov, at first confused and confused, already seems ready to confess and repent, decides everything. continue the same game. But there is no psychological image as such here, and yet the scene is saturated with psychologism. The reader figures out the psychological content of these ten minutes; without the author’s explanation, he understands what Raskolnikov might be experiencing at this moment.

The technique of silence became most widespread in the works of Chekhov, and after him - of many other writers of the 20th century.

Along with the listed methods of psychologism, which are the most common, writers sometimes use in their works specific means of depicting the inner world, such as imitation of intimate documents (novels in letters, the introduction of diary entries, etc.), dreams and visions (especially widely this form of psychologism is presented in Dostoevsky’s novels), the creation of double characters (for example, the Devil as a kind of double of Ivan in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”), etc. In addition, as a method of psychologism, external details are also used, as discussed above*.

We said above that the artistic world is conditionally similar to primary reality. However, the measure and degree of convention varies in different works. Depending on the degree of convention, such properties of the depicted world as life-likeness and fantasy* differ, which reflect different degrees of difference between the depicted world and the real world. Life-likeness presupposes “the depiction of life in the forms of life itself,” according to Belinsky, that is, without violating the physical, psychological, cause-and-effect and other laws known to us. Science fiction involves a violation of these patterns, emphasizing the implausibility of the depicted world. So, for example, Gogol’s story “Nevsky Prospekt” is life-like in its imagery, and his “Viy” is fantastic. Most often we encounter individual fantastic images in a work - for example, the images of Gargantua and Pantagruel in Rabelais's novel of the same name, but fantasy can also be plot-based, as, for example, in Gogol's story "The Nose", in which the chain of events from beginning to end is completely impossible in the real world.

The story of the famous expert on human souls, Chekhov, “Rothschild’s Violin” is the most powerful of his works. It literally shakes a person with its psychologism. At the same time, the story cannot be called easy to understand. The title of the story is also original: “Rothschild’s Violin.” But this is the deep intention of the writer, because the violin plays a big role in the author’s text. In fact, the violin is not just an instrument, but Yakov’s heart, his soul, pure as a source, without greed for hoarding. But the tool is not mentioned here by chance. It was this instrument that helped Yakov realize how stupidly he had lived before, that it was even better to end such a life. The main character is a simple elderly man named Yakov Matveevich. He is strong and tall, had a job as an undertaker, and had a reputation as a good worker. They called him Bronze. He was a poor man. But he had such a mentality that he noticed losses in everything. This hero evokes different feelings in the reader. He is perceived as a poor grandfather who only thinks about income, but later he evokes sympathy. One feels sorry for him, so impenetrable, but not at all as indifferent as he seems. This is clear from the words of his wife - they lost a child together. Once upon a time this strong man loved life and sang songs under a tree. But then he changed beyond recognition - he is incredibly stingy, even regarding the death of his wife. At this tragic moment, he thinks about the quality of the funeral coffin! He made it while his wife was still alive. Then he thinks about the cheapness of the funeral, and these thoughts make him happy. Jacob's tragedy is that his whole life is unprofitable. Nothing can fix it, nothing can relive it. His wife Martha is an affectionate, good woman who is afraid of her husband. Yakov did not beat her, but he threatened her, and she was afraid of this. In the story she is practically silent. He only says the phrase that he is dying and pronounces a monologue about a child “with blond hair.” However, Martha gives impetus to the evolution of the spouse’s character. After all, in essence, she is a martyr who received peace only with death. She spent more than half a century of her life living with the Soulless Man. Even when she fell ill, Yakov apologizes to the doctor for his concern “about the subject.” But Martha is not an object, but a living person, a loving heart!

Rothschild is a Jew who plays the flute. He and Yakov are in the same orchestra. His appearance is not attractive - red-haired, skinny, with red veins on his face. For some reason Bronze hated Rothschild, he even wanted to beat him. However, he is even poorer than him, why did Yakov dislike Rothschild so much? Just out of prejudice. The plot of the work is unusual and complex. It’s kind of sad after reading it, I feel sorry for the wasted lives. Martha's death was not useless, because thanks to this sad event, Jacob began to see the light mentally. He felt pity and pain. He ceased to be “bronze” - a piece of insensitive iron. He stopped counting pennies. And then, in the finale, a miracle happened. Yakov received everything he dreamed of and regretted. He gained fame and the feeling that he had not lived his life in vain, that he had benefited others. The music that Yakov created, as a musician, is eternal, his songs bring tears to listeners, they speak a language that is understandable to them. Yakov revealed his spiritual potential already on the edge of the abyss - before death. He even gives a violin to Rothschild, because he has finally gotten rid of prejudices.

Jacob's example is very important for people. After all, we all need to think about why we live, what we hide inside ourselves, what we could give to other people.

Now, when entering technical schools and colleges in Yekaterinburg, it is especially worth paying attention to this work, because this season it is especially in demand.

The concept of “psychologism in fiction” was studied in detail by A.B. Yesin. Let us consider the main provisions of his concept of psychologism in literature. In literary criticism, “psychologism” is used in a broad and narrow sense. In a broad sense, psychologism refers to the universal property of art to reproduce human life, human characters, social and psychological types. In a narrow sense, psychologism is understood as a property that is characteristic not of all literature, but only of a certain part of it. Psychological writers depict the inner world of a person especially vividly and vividly, in detail, reaching a special depth in his artistic development. We will talk about psychologism in the narrow sense. Let us immediately make a reservation that the absence of psychologism in a work in this narrow sense is not a disadvantage or an advantage, but an objective property. It’s just that in literature there are psychological and non-psychological methods of artistic exploration of reality, and they are equivalent from an aesthetic point of view.

Psychologism is a fairly complete, detailed and deep depiction of the feelings, thoughts and experiences of a literary character using specific means of fiction. This is a principle of organizing the elements of an artistic form in which visual means are aimed mainly at revealing the mental life of a person in its diverse manifestations.

Like any cultural phenomenon, psychologism does not remain unchanged in all centuries; its forms are historically mobile. Moreover, psychologism did not exist in literature from the first days of its life - it arose at a certain historical moment. The inner world of a person in literature did not immediately become a full-fledged and independent object of depiction. In the early stages, culture and literature did not yet need psychologism, because Initially, the object of literary depiction became what first caught the eye and seemed most important; visible, external processes and events, clear in themselves and not requiring comprehension and interpretation. In addition, the value of the event being performed was immeasurably higher than the value of the experience about it. V. Kozhinov notes: “A fairy tale conveys only certain combinations of facts, reports the most basic events and actions of a character, without delving into his special internal and external gestures... All this is ultimately explained by the underdevelopment, simplicity of the individual’s mental world, as well as the lack of genuine interest to this object" (V. Kozhinov. Plot, plot, composition // Theory of Literature: in 3 volumes - M., 1964). It cannot be said that literature at this stage did not concern feelings and experiences at all. They were depicted insofar as they were manifested in external actions, speeches, changes in facial expressions and gestures. For this purpose, traditional, repeating formulas were used to indicate the emotional state of the hero. They indicate an unambiguous connection between experience and its external expression. To denote sadness in Russian fairy tales and epics, the formula “He became sad, he hung his head violently” is widely used. The very essence of human experiences was one-dimensional - this is one state of grief, one state of joy, etc. In terms of external expression and content, the emotions of one character are no different from the emotions of another (Priam experiences exactly the same grief as Agamemnon, Dobrynya triumphs in victory in the same way as Volga).

So, in the artistic culture of early eras, psychologism not only did not exist, but could not have existed, and this is natural. In the public consciousness, a specific ideological and artistic interest in the human personality, individuality, and its unique position in life has not yet arisen.

Psychologism in literature arises when a culture recognizes a unique human personality as a value. This is impossible in those conditions when a person’s value is completely determined by his social, public, professional position, and his personal point of view on the world is not taken into account and is assumed to even be non-existent. Because the ideological and moral life of society is completely governed by a system of unconditional and infallible norms (religion, church). In other words, there is no psychologism in cultures based on the principles of authoritarianism.

In European literature, psychologism arose in the era of late antiquity (the novels of Heliodorus “Ethiopica”, Long’s “Daphnis and Chloe”). The story about the feelings and thoughts of the characters is already a necessary part of the story; at times the characters try to analyze their inner world. The true depth of the psychological image is not yet there: simple mental states, weak individualization, a narrow range of feelings (mainly emotional experiences). The main technique of psychologism is inner speech, constructed according to the laws of external speech, without taking into account the specifics of psychological processes. Ancient psychologism did not develop: in the 4th–6th centuries, ancient culture died. The artistic culture of Europe had to develop, as it were, anew, starting from a lower level than antiquity. The culture of the European Middle Ages was a typical authoritarian culture, its ideological and moral basis were the strict norms of a monotheistic religion. Therefore, in the literature of this period we practically do not encounter psychologism.

The situation changes fundamentally during the Renaissance, when the inner world of man is actively mastered (Boccaccio, Shakespeare). The value of the individual in the cultural system has become especially high since the middle of the 18th century, and the question of individual self-determination is acutely raised (Rousseau, Richardson, Stern, Goethe). The reproduction of the feelings and thoughts of the heroes becomes detailed and ramified, the inner life of the heroes turns out to be saturated with moral and philosophical searches. The technical side of psychologism is also enriched: the author’s psychological narrative, psychological detail, compositional forms of dreams and visions, psychological landscape, internal monologue with attempts to construct it according to the laws of internal speech appear. With the use of these forms, complex psychological states become accessible to literature, it becomes possible to analyze the area of the subconscious, to artistically embody complex mental contradictions, i.e. take the first step towards the artistic mastery of the “dialectics of the soul.”

However, sentimental and romantic psychologism, for all its development and even sophistication, also had its limit associated with an abstract, insufficiently historical understanding of personality. Sentimentalists and romantics thought of man outside of his diverse and complex connections with the surrounding reality. Psychologism reaches its true flowering in the literature of realism.

Let's look at the techniques in the literature. The main psychological techniques are:

System of narrative-compositional forms (author's psychological narration, first-person story, letters, psychological analysis);

Internal monologue;

Psychological detail;

Psychological portrait;

Psychological landscape;

Dreams and visions;

Double characters;

Default.

System of narrative-compositional forms. These forms include the author's psychological narrative, psychological analysis, first-person narrative, and letters.

Author's psychological narration is a third-person narration, which is conducted by a “neutral”, “outsider” narrator. This is a form of storytelling that allows the author, without any restrictions, to introduce the reader into the inner world of the character and show it in the most detail and depth. For the author, there are no secrets in the hero’s soul - he knows everything about him, can trace in detail the internal processes, comment on the hero’s self-analysis, talk about those mental movements that the hero himself cannot notice or which he does not want to admit to himself.

“He was out of breath; his whole body was apparently trembling. But it was not the trembling of youthful timidity, it was not the sweet horror of the first confession that took possession of him: it was passion that beat within him, strong and heavy, a passion similar to anger and, perhaps, akin to it...” (“Fathers and Sons” by Turgenev).

At the same time, the narrator can psychologically interpret the hero’s external behavior, his facial expressions and movements. Third-person narration provides unprecedented opportunities to include a variety of forms of psychological depiction in a work: internal monologues, public confessions, excerpts from diaries, letters, dreams, visions, etc. This form of storytelling makes it possible to depict many characters psychologically, which is almost impossible to do with any other method of storytelling. A first-person story or a novel in letters, constructed as an imitation of an intimate document, provide much less opportunity to diversify the psychological image, to make it deeper and more comprehensive.

The third-person narrative form did not immediately begin to be used in literature to reproduce the inner world of a person. Initially, there was a kind of ban on invading the intimate world of someone else’s personality, even into the inner world of a character invented by the author himself. Perhaps literature did not immediately master and consolidate this artistic convention - the author’s ability to read in the souls of his heroes as easily as in his own. There was no task yet for the author to depict someone else's consciousness in the full sense.

Until the end of the 18th century. for the psychological depiction, mostly non-authored subjective forms of narration were used: letters and notes of a traveler (“Dangerous Liaisons” by Laclau, “Pamela” by Richardson, “The New Heloise” by Rousseau, “Letters of a Russian Traveler” by Karamzin, “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by Radishchev) and first-person narrative (“Sentimental Journey” by Sterne, “Confession” by Rousseau). These are the so-called non-authorial subjective forms of narration. These forms made it possible to most naturally communicate about the internal state of the characters, to combine verisimilitude with sufficient completeness and depth of disclosure of the inner world (the person himself talks about his thoughts and experiences - a situation that is quite possible in real life).

From the point of view of psychologism, first-person narration retains two limitations: the inability to equally fully and deeply show the inner world of many characters and the monotony of the psychological image. Even an internal monologue does not fit into a first-person narrative, because a real internal monologue is when the author “overhears” the hero’s thoughts in all their naturalness, unintentionality and rawness, and a first-person narrative presupposes a certain self-control, self-report.

Psychological analysis generalizes the picture of the inner world and highlights the main thing in it. The hero knows less about himself than the narrator, and does not know how to express the combination of sensations and thoughts so clearly and accurately. The main function of psychological analysis is the analysis of fairly complex psychological states. In another work, the experience can be indicated in summary. And this is characteristic of non-psychological writing, which should not be confused with psychological analysis.

Here, for example, is an image of the moral shifts in the consciousness of Pierre Bezukhov that occurred during captivity. “He received that peace and self-satisfaction for which he had previously strived in vain. For a long time in his life he sought from different sides this peace, agreement with himself... he looked for this in philanthropy, in Freemasonry, in the dispersion of social life, in wine, in the heroic feat of self-sacrifice, in romantic love for Natasha; he sought this through thought - and all these searches and attempts deceived him. And he, without thinking about it himself, received this peace and this agreement with himself only through the horror of death, through deprivation and through what he understood in Karataev.

The hero's internal monologue conveys thoughts and the emotional sphere. The work most often presents the external speech of the characters, but there is also internal speech in the form of an internal monologue. These are, as it were, thoughts and experiences overheard by the author. There are such types of internal monologue as reflected internal speech (psychological introspection) and stream of consciousness. “Stream of consciousness” creates the illusion of an absolutely chaotic, disordered movement of thoughts and experiences. The pioneer in world literature of this type of internal monologue was L. Tolstoy (the thoughts of Anna Karenina on the way to the station before committing suicide). The stream of consciousness began to be actively used only in the literature of the 20th century.

Psychological detail. With the non-psychological principle of writing, external details are completely independent; they directly embody the features of a given artistic content. In Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” pictures of everyday life are given in the memoirs of Savely and Matryona. The process of remembering is a psychological state, and the writer-psychologist always reveals it as such - in detail and with its inherent patterns. Nekrasov’s work is completely different: in the poem these fragments are psychological only in form (memories); in fact, we have a series of external pictures that are almost in no way correlated with the processes of the inner world.

Psychologism, on the contrary, makes external details work to depict the inner world. External details accompany and frame psychological processes. Objects and events enter into the flow of thoughts of the characters, stimulate thought, are perceived and emotionally experienced. One of the striking examples is the old oak tree that Andrei Bolkonsky thinks about at different periods of calendar time and his life. The oak becomes a psychological detail only when it is the impression of Prince Andrei. Psychological details can be not only objects of the external world, but also events, actions, and external speech. A psychological detail motivates the hero’s internal state, shapes his mood, and influences his thinking.

External psychological details include a psychological portrait and landscape.

Every portrait is characteristic, but not every portrait is psychological. It is necessary to distinguish the actual psychological portrait from other types of portrait description. There is nothing of psychologism in the portraits of officials and landowners in Gogol's Dead Souls. These portrait descriptions indirectly indicate stable, permanent character traits, but do not give an idea of the inner world, the feelings and experiences of the hero at the moment; the portrait shows stable personality traits that do not depend on changes in psychological states. The portrait of Pechorin in Lermontov’s novel can be called psychological: “I noticed that he did not wave his arms - a sure sign of some secrecy of character”; his eyes did not laugh when he laughed: “this is a sign of either an evil disposition, or deep, constant sadness,” etc.

The landscape in a psychological narrative indirectly recreates the movement of the character’s mental life; the landscape becomes his impression. In Russian prose of the 19th century, the recognized master of psychological landscape is I.S. Turgenev, The most subtle and poetic internal states are conveyed precisely through the description of pictures of nature. These descriptions create a certain mood, which is perceived by the reader as the mood of the character.

Turgenev achieved the highest skill in using landscapes for the purposes of psychological depiction. The most subtle and poetic internal states are conveyed by Turgenev precisely through the description of pictures of nature. These descriptions create a certain mood, which is perceived by the reader as the mood of the character.

“So Arkady thought... and while he was thinking, spring took its toll. Everything around was golden green, everything was wide and softly agitated and shiny under the quiet breath of a warm breeze, everything - trees, bushes and grass; Everywhere the larks flowed in endless, ringing streams; the lapwings either screamed, hovering over the low-lying meadows, or silently ran over the hummocks... Arkady looked and looked, and, little by little, his thoughts disappeared... He threw off his greatcoat and looked at his father so cheerfully, like a young boy, that he hugged him again "

Dreams and visions. Plot forms such as dreams, visions, and hallucinations can be used in literature for a variety of purposes. Their initial function is the introduction of fantastic motifs into the narrative (the dreams of heroes of the ancient Greek epic, prophetic dreams in folklore). In general, the forms of dreams and visions are needed here only as plot episodes that influence the course of events, anticipate them; they are connected with other episodes, but not with other forms of depicting thoughts and experiences. In the system of psychological writing, these traditional forms have a different function, as a result of which they are organized differently. Unconscious and semi-conscious forms of a person’s inner life begin to be considered and depicted precisely as psychological states. These psychological fragments of the narrative begin to correlate not with episodes of external, plot action, but with other psychological states of the hero. A dream, for example, is motivated not by previous events in the plot, but by the previous emotional state of the hero. Why does Telemachus in the Odyssey see Athena in a dream, commanding him to return to Ithaca? Because previous events made it possible and necessary for him to appear there. Why does Dmitry Karamazov see a crying child in his dreams? Because he is constantly looking for his moral “truth”, painfully trying to formulate the “idea of the world”, and it appears to him in a dream, like Mendeleev’s table of elements.

Double characters. Psychologism changes the function of double characters. In a non-psychological style system, they were needed for the plot, for the development of external action. Thus, the appearance of a kind of double of Major Kovalev in Gogol’s “The Nose” - a work that is moral in its themes and non-psychological in style - constitutes the mainspring of the plot action. Otherwise, doubles are used in psychological storytelling. The devil-double of Ivan Karamazov is no longer connected in any way with the plot action. It is used exclusively as a form of psychological depiction and analysis of Ivan’s extremely contradictory consciousness, the extreme intensity of his ideological and moral quest. The devil exists only in Ivan’s mind; he appears when the hero’s mental illness worsens and disappears when Alyosha appears. The devil is endowed with his own ideological and moral position, his own way of thinking. As a result, a dialogue is possible between Ivan and him, and not at the everyday level, but at the level of philosophical and moral issues. The devil is the embodiment of some side of Ivan’s consciousness, their internal dialogue is his internal dispute with himself.

Reception of default. This technique appeared in the literature of the second half of the 19th century, when psychologism had already become quite familiar to the reader, who began to look in the work not for external plot entertainment, but for the depiction of complex mental states. The writer is silent about the processes of the hero’s inner life and emotional state, forcing the reader to carry out a psychological analysis himself. In writing, default is usually indicated by an ellipsis.

“They looked at each other in silence for a minute. Razumikhin remembered this moment all his life. Raskolnikov’s burning and intent gaze seemed to intensify with every moment, penetrating into his soul, into his consciousness. Suddenly Razumikhin shuddered. Something strange seemed to pass between them... Some idea slipped through, like a hint; something terrible, ugly and suddenly understandable on both sides... Razumikhin turned pale as death.” Dostoevsky does not finish speaking, he is silent about the most important thing - what “happened between them”: that suddenly Razumikhin realized that Raskolnikov was a murderer, and Raskolnikov realized that Razumikhin understood this.

Psychologism (English psychologism)- the term “psychologism” has many meanings. In literary criticism, this is the name given to the stylistic characteristics of works of art in which the inner world of characters (their sensations, thoughts, feelings, etc.) is depicted in detail and deeply, and a subtle and convincing psychological analysis of mental phenomena and behavior is given. There are 3 main forms of psychological image: summary-designating, direct and indirect (A.B. Esin). In the 1st case, the phenomena of the inner world are only named (as in bad psychology textbooks), in the 2nd - they are described in detail, in the 3rd - the image is carried out through a description of behavioral signs. In a special, auxiliary form, only hints of the mental states and properties of the characters should be highlighted through a description of the environment around them, as I. Turgenev masterfully did through the depiction of pictures of nature.

Outside of psychology, literary analysis is perhaps the only area where psychologism has a positive reputation and connotation. In all other contexts, it is understood as something worthy of condemnation and eradication (from the standpoint of antipsychologism).

According to N.O. Lossky: “Psychologism is a direction that considers all phenomena included in the circle of k.-l. sciences as mental processes, and accordingly asserting that the laws to which they are subject are psychological laws.” However, in the real practice of the struggle for or against P., sometimes mysterious phenomena occur, which Lossky was forced to admit: “So, often two epistemologists, who have the same negative attitude towards P., when entering into an argument, accuse each other of unaccountable P. On the contrary, sometimes an epistemologist who openly admits to being a supporter of P. unconsciously develops his theories in the spirit of antipsychologism.”

Such misunderstandings are a consequence of ignoring the general quantifier included in the definition of P. In addition, representatives of different directions may disagree with each other regarding the role played by mental processes in the field of phenomena they are studying. Finally, it is necessary to distinguish from extreme P. its moderate version - psychocentrism, which is characteristic, first of all, of psychologists themselves, and is expressed in such a somewhat naive idea of \u200b\u200bthe system of scientific knowledge (especially human knowledge), in which psychology occupies a central, leading or key position (J. Piaget, B.G. Ananyev).

Let us give brief formulations of some concepts in which psychology is seen: psychology should become the basis (foundation) for all philosophy or some of its disciplines (D.S. Mill, E. Beneke, F. Brentano, T. Lipps); psychology serves as the basis for other sciences (for example, V. Dilthey and V. Wundt saw in psychology the basis for the spiritual sciences, L.I. Petrazhitsky - for the social sciences); k.-l. is “reduced” to psychic reality. other reality (G. Tarde tried to reduce social reality to it, and Baudouin de Courtenay tried to reduce linguistic reality to it).

P. is often accused of fruitful psychological approaches, trends and schools outside of psychology, which actively use psychological theories and empirical methods of psychology, put forward psychological (including psychoanalytic) explanations of historical, ethnographic, linguistic, philological, demographic, sociological, criminological , economic, etc. facts. The only legal basis for a negative evaluative judgment about P. k.-l. A “psychologized” concept should be the detection of its internal and, moreover, quite significant errors, and not the very fact of using psychological methods, concepts and explanations in the study of social phenomena. Evidence of the improvement of the moral climate in post-Soviet philosophy and social sciences was the removal of the P. label from many foreign socio-psychological concepts. At the same time, the connotation of the term “P.” itself became more positive. But an old habit sometimes makes itself felt in a change of meaning: what was previously called P. with condemnation can now be called an “ordinary” idea (thereby committing an elementary logical error: the fact that P. is characteristic of everyday ideas is used to identify any P. with them).

Antipathy to naive psychological explanations arose long before the generally accepted date of birth of psychological science. In historical science, they were sharply opposed, for example, by Hegel, who wrote: “Until recently, according to the widespread psychological view. on history, the greatest importance was attached to the so-called. secret springs and intentions of individuals, anecdotes, subjective influences. However, at the present time... history seeks again to find its dignity in depicting the nature and course of development of a substantial whole, in understanding the character of historical persons on the basis of what they do.

A criticism of psychologism in logic and epistemology, impressive in depth and thoroughness, is contained in the 1st volume of E. Husserl’s Logical Investigations. Logical psychologism consists of understanding logic as a science related to the psychology of thinking in approximately the same way as theoretical and experimental physics are related to each other. To put it another way, psychologists believed that the laws of logic must undergo empirical testing in the psychological study of thinking or be deduced from human experience in a purely inductive way (Mill). The traditional definition of logic as the science of the laws of thinking encourages such an understanding. (At the same time, the question of the possibility of using logic as a source of explanatory hypotheses for the psychology of thinking is resolved quite positively. In particular, Piaget proposed developing psychology, the task of which would be “to construct, by means of algebra, logic, a deductive theory that explains some experimental discoveries of psychology, and not a justification of logic based on psychology.")

Despite the titanic efforts of antipsychologists to tear out “P.” the root fails. Its vitality is best evidenced by the fact that in the aforementioned “Logical Investigations,” Husserl, in place of the P. he destroyed, built a phenomenological theory of human consciousness, which, contrary to the author’s strategic intention, was soon included in the “P.” category. By the way, this theory was adopted by experimental psychologists of the Würzburg school. Husserl’s later idea of the “life world” as the basis of all objective knowledge is also regarded as a major concession to P.

In general cultural terms, the conclusion of G.P. deserves attention. Fedotov (“Ecce homo”), who examined the reasons and motives for the persecution of “P.” (as well as emotionalism, sentimentalism, and rationalism, which are close to it), that such persecution is a special case of persecution of humanism and “that without which a person ceases to be a person.” (B.M.)

Great encyclopedia of psychiatry. Zhmurov V.A.

Psychologism

designation of the point of view according to which psychology is a fundamental science and the tendency to explain events occurring in the world community in accordance with such a point of view. This point of view has good grounds, especially if we accept that man is a truly rational being, capable of rising with his mind and consciousness above random circumstances and above himself. Masses of people, immersed in momentary situations and desires, simply die because there were no people who would be able to break out of their reflexive lifestyle. In addition, people create or for some time tolerate this or that social structure in accordance with their needs, aspirations, goals, expectations and hopes, that is, in accordance with their psychology, and not the blind and primitive economic laws with which materialists are saturated, and the laws sociology, which only describes the relationships between people, groups, classes, but does not explain the reasons for such relationships;
the tendency to explain the nature of psychopathological phenomena from the standpoint of ordinary psychology, which is also characteristic of some psychologists with university degrees.

Psychological Dictionary. I. Kondakov

Psychologism

Word formation - comes from Greek. psyche - soul logos - teaching.
Category is a system of worldview ideas.
Specificity - in accordance with it, the analysis of the worldview is based on psychological data. This position was adhered to by: D.S. Mill, E. Beneke, F. Brentano, T. Lipps, W. Dilthey, W. Wundt, G. Tarde, I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay.

Neurology. Complete explanatory dictionary. Nikiforov A.S.

no meaning or interpretation of the word

Oxford Dictionary of Psychology

Psychologism- the most general meaning refers to the point of view according to which psychology is a fundamental science, and events occurring in the world are interpreted on this basis. The meaning of this term depends, of course, on who uses it. Many non-psychologists use it as a form of reproach; psychologists usually do not do this.

subject area of the term

Like any cultural phenomenon, psychologism does not remain unchanged in all centuries; its forms are historically mobile. Moreover, psychologism did not exist in literature from the first days of its life - it arose at a certain historical moment. The inner world of a person in literature did not immediately become a full-fledged and independent object of depiction. In the early stages, culture and literature did not yet need psychologism, because Initially, the object of literary depiction became what first caught the eye and seemed most important; visible, external processes and events, clear in themselves and not requiring comprehension and interpretation. In addition, the value of the event taking place was immeasurably higher than the value of the experience about it (V. Kozhinov. Plot, plot, composition // Theory of Literature: In 3 volumes - M., 1964) notes: “A fairy tale conveys only certain combinations of facts , reports on the most basic events and actions of the character, without delving into his special internal and external gestures... All this is ultimately explained by the underdevelopment, simplicity of the individual’s mental world, as well as the lack of genuine interest in this object.” It cannot be said that literature at this stage did not concern feelings and experiences at all. They were depicted insofar as they were manifested in external actions, speeches, changes in facial expressions and gestures. For this purpose, traditional, repeating formulas were used to indicate the emotional state of the hero. They indicate an unambiguous connection between experience and its external expression. To denote sadness in Russian fairy tales and epics, the formula “He became sad, he hung his head violently” is widely used. The very essence of human experiences was one-dimensional - this is one state of grief, one state of joy, etc. In terms of external expression and content, the emotions of one character are no different from the emotions of another (Priam experiences exactly the same grief as Agamemnon, Dobrynya triumphs in victory in the same way as Volga).

In European literature, psychologism arose in the era of late antiquity (the novels of Heliodorus “Ethiopica”, Long’s “Daphnis and Chloe”). The story about the feelings and thoughts of the characters is already a necessary part of the story; at times the characters try to analyze their inner world. The true depth of the psychological image is not yet there: simple mental states, weak individualization, a narrow range of feelings (mainly emotional experiences). The main technique of psychologism is inner speech, constructed according to the laws of external speech, without taking into account the specifics of psychological processes. Ancient psychologism did not develop: in the 4th – 6th centuries, ancient culture died. The artistic culture of Europe had to develop, as it were, anew, starting from a lower level than antiquity. The culture of the European Middle Ages was a typical authoritarian culture, its ideological and moral basis were the strict norms of a monotheistic religion. Therefore, in the literature of this period we practically do not encounter psychologism.

The situation changes fundamentally during the Renaissance, when the inner world of man is actively mastered (Boccaccio, Shakespeare). The value of the individual in the cultural system has become especially high since the mid-18th century, and the question of individual self-determination is acutely raised (Rousseau, Richardson, Stern, Goethe). The reproduction of the feelings and thoughts of the heroes becomes detailed and ramified, the inner life of the heroes turns out to be saturated with moral and philosophical searches. The technical side of psychologism is also enriched: the author’s psychological narrative, psychological detail, compositional forms of dreams and visions, psychological landscape, internal monologue with attempts to construct it according to the laws of internal speech appear. With the use of these forms, complex psychological states become accessible to literature, it becomes possible to analyze the area of the subconscious, to artistically embody complex mental contradictions, i.e. take the first step towards the artistic mastery of the “dialectics of the soul.”

However, sentimental and romantic psychologism, for all its development and even sophistication, also had its limit associated with an abstract, insufficiently historical understanding of personality. Sentimentalists and romantics thought of a person outside of his diverse and complex connections with the surrounding reality. Psychologism reaches its true flowering in the literature of realism.

Let's look at the techniques in the literature. The main psychological techniques are:

System of narrative-compositional forms

Internal monologue;

Psychological detail;

Psychological portrait;

Psychological landscape;

Dreams and visions

Double characters;

Default.

System of narrative-compositional forms. These forms include the author's psychological narrative, psychological analysis, first-person narrative, and letters.

External psychological details include a psychological portrait and landscape.

Every portrait is characteristic, but not every portrait is psychological. It is necessary to distinguish the actual psychological portrait from other types of portrait description. There is nothing of psychologism in the portraits of officials and landowners in Gogol's Dead Souls. These portrait descriptions indirectly indicate stable, permanent character traits, but do not give an idea of the inner world, the feelings and experiences of the hero at the moment; the portrait shows stable, personality traits that do not depend on changes in psychological states. The portrait of Pechorin in Lermontov’s novel can be called psychological: “I noticed that he did not wave his arms - a sure sign of some secrecy of character”; his eyes did not laugh when he laughed: “this is a sign of either an evil disposition, or deep, constant sadness,” etc.

Reception of default. This technique appeared in the literature of the second half of the 19th century, when psychologism became quite familiar to the reader, who began to look in the work not for external plot entertainment, but for the depiction of complex mental states. The writer is silent about the processes of the hero’s inner life and emotional state, forcing the reader to carry out a psychological analysis himself. In writing, default is usually indicated by an ellipsis.

In works imbued with psychologism, there may be interpenetrations, mutual transitions of different forms of speech - internal, external, narrative.

“And suddenly Raskolnikov clearly remembered the whole scene of the third day at the gate; he realized that, besides the janitors, there were several other people standing there at that time... So, that’s how all this horror of yesterday was resolved. The most terrible thing was to think that he really almost died, almost destroyed himself because of such an insignificant circumstance.”

Psychologism in literature and its main forms. “Dialectics of the soul”, “stream of consciousness”

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