Abstract ♦ The article discusses the periodization of the Russian extreme psychology in its emergent stages. The opening of degree programs in this discipline at Russia’s leading universities has made studying the current state of extreme psychology together with the history of its development even more topical.
We suggest the socio-cultural approach to the study of the history of psychology as the theoretical basis for the study of the rise of extreme psychology, which allows us to consider it as systematically and disciplinary organized.
By the degree of formalization and the specifics of the issues of extreme psychology, its history can be classified into three periods.
The first period (mid-18th — end of the 19th century) can be termed Prescientific. The issues of extreme psychology were dealt with as part of military and industrial affairs. The ideas developed within this period were purely pragmatic, approaches situational, their presentation descriptive. Also typical was simplistic argumentation or a lack thereof.
The second period (early 20th century — mid-1990s) was the period of multidisciplinary development. Issues of extreme psychology were problematized by other sub-disciplines of psychology, as well as psychiatry. This period falls into four unique stages by the type of addressing issues of extreme psychology: 1) within mainstream psychiatry, physiology, engineering and psycho-techniques; 2) within aviation psychology, psychiatry, or physiology; 3) within aviation, aerospace, social or military psychology; 4) a broad selection of interdisciplinary approaches leading to the advent of theoretical and methodological works and their widespread introduction in psychological practice.
The third period (1990s — present) can be named the period of comprehensive development. It is characterized by institutionalization of scientific knowledge and the emergence of educational and training programs.
We can thus conclude that the problem field of extreme psychology in Russia contains certain problems which stayed invariant for all periods its development and were addressed by various methods relevant for each period.
Keywords: extreme psychology, sociocultural approach, history of psychology, periodization.
Yeliseyeva Irina Nikolayevna, lecturer and postgraduate, Department of General Psychology and History of Psychology, Moscow University for the Humanities. Postal address: B. 3, 5 Yunosti St., Moscow, Russian Federation, 111395. Tel.: +7 (499) 374-67-20. E-mail:
. Research adviser — Yuri N. Oleynik, Candidate of Psychology, Associate professor.
Citation: Yeliseyeva, I. N. (2014) Osnovnye etapy i problemy formirovaniia ekstremal'noi psikhologii v Rossii [Key Stages and Issues of the Emergence of Extreme Psychology in Russia]. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, no. 3, pp. 339–345. (In Russ.).
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