"If the patient does not feel better after talking with the doctor, then this is not a doctor."
V.M. Bekhterev

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev (January 20, 1857 - December 24, 1927, Moscow) - an outstanding Russian physician, neuropathologist, physiologist, psychologist, founder of reflexology and pathopsychological direction in Russia, academician.

In 1907 he founded a neuropsychiatric institute in St. Petersburg, now bearing the name of Bekhterev.

Biography

Born into the family of a minor civil servant in the village of Sorali, Yelabuga district, Vyatka province, presumably January 20, 1857 (he was baptized on January 23, 1857). He was a representative of the ancient Vyatka family of the Bekhterevs. Educated at the Vyatka gymnasium and the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy. At the end of the course (1878), Bekhterev devoted himself to the study of mental and nervous diseases and for this purpose he worked at the clinic of prof. I. P. Merzheevsky.

In 1879, Bekhterev was admitted to full membership of the Petersburg Society of Psychiatrists. And in 1884 he was sent abroad, where he studied with Dubois-Raymond (Berlin), Wundt (Leipzig), Meinert (Vienna), Charcot (Paris), etc. On the defense of his doctoral dissertation (April 4, 1981), a private - Associate Professor of the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy, and since 1885 was a professor at Kazan University and head of the psychiatric clinic of the Kazan regional hospital. While working at Kazan University, he created a psychophysiological laboratory and founded the Kazan Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists. In 1893 he headed the Department of Nervous and Mental Diseases of the Medical-Surgical Academy. In the same year he founded the journal "Neurological Bulletin". In 1894, Vladimir Mikhailovich was appointed a member of the medical council of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in 1895 - a member of the military medical scientific council under the minister of war and at the same time a member of the council of the nursing home for the mentally ill. From 1897 he also taught at the Women's Medical Institute.

Organized in St. Petersburg the Society of Psychoneurologists and the Society of Normal and Experimental Psychology and Scientific Organization of Labor. He edited the journals "Review of Psychiatry, Neurology and Experimental Psychology", "Study and Education of the Personality", "Questions of the Study of Labor" and others.

In November 1900, Bekhterev's two-volume book "Pathways of the Spinal Cord and Brain" was nominated by the Russian Academy of Sciences for the Academician K. M. Baer Prize. In 1900, Bekhterev was elected chairman of the Russian Society of Normal and Pathological Psychology.

After completing work on seven volumes "Fundamentals of the doctrine of the functions of the brain", Bekhterev's special attention as a scientist began to be attracted by the problems of psychology. Proceeding from the fact that mental activity arises as a result of the work of the brain, he considered it possible to rely mainly on the achievements of physiology, and, above all, on the doctrine of combined (conditioned) reflexes. In 1907-1910 Bekhterev published three volumes of the book "Objective Psychology". The scientist argued that all mental processes are accompanied by reflex motor and autonomic reactions, which are available for observation and registration.

He was a member of the editorial committee of the multivolume "Traite international de psychologie pathologique" ("International treatise on pathological psychology") (Paris, 1908-1910), for which he wrote several chapters. In 1908, the Psychoneurological Institute founded by Bekhterev began work in St. Petersburg.

In May 1918, Bekhterev applied to the Council of People's Commissars with a petition to organize an Institute for the Study of the Brain and Mental Activity. Soon the Institute was opened, and Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev was its director until his death. In 1927 he was awarded the title of Honored Scientist of the RSFSR.

He died suddenly on December 24, 1927 in Moscow, several hours after he poisoned himself with ice cream at the Bolshoi Theater1.

After his death, V.M.Bekhterev left his own school and hundreds of students, including 70 professors.

Scientific contribution

Bekhterev investigated a wide range of neurological, physiological, morphological and psychological problems. In his approach, he has always focused on a comprehensive study of the problems of the brain and humans. Carrying out the reformation of modern psychology, he developed his own teaching, which he consistently designated as objective psychology (since 1904), then as psycho-reflexology (since 1910) and as reflexology (since 1917). He paid special attention to the development of reflexology as a complex science of man and society (different from physiology and psychology), designed to replace psychology.

He widely used the term "nervous reflex". He introduced the concept of "combination-motor reflex" into circulation and developed the concept of this reflex. Discovered and studied the pathways of the human spinal cord and brain, described some brain formations. Established and identified a number of reflexes, syndromes and symptoms. Physiological reflexes of ankylosing spondylitis (scapular-brachial, reflex of the great spindle, expiratory, etc.) allow to determine the state of the corresponding reflex arcs, and pathological (dorsal reflex of Mendel - Bechterew, carpal-toe reflex, reflex of Bekhterev - Jakobson) reflect the defeat of the pyramidal pathways.

He described some diseases and developed methods of their treatment ("Post-brain ankylosing spondylitis symptoms", "Bechterew's psychotherapeutic triad", "Bechterew's phobic symptoms" etc.) In 1892 Bekhterev described "stiffness of the spine with curvature of it as a special form of the disease" ("Ankylosing spondylitis"). Bekhterev identified such diseases as "choreic epilepsy", "syphilitic multiple sclerosis", "acute cerebellar ataxia of alcoholics".

Created a number of medicinal products. "Ankylosing spondylitis" was widely used as a sedative. For many years he studied the problems of hypnosis and suggestion, including alcoholism. For more than 20 years he studied issues of sexual behavior and child rearing. Developed objective methods for studying the neuropsychic development of children. He repeatedly criticized psychoanalysis (the teachings of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, etc.), but at the same time contributed to the theoretical, experimental and psychotherapeutic work on psychoanalysis, which was carried out in the Institute for the Study of the Brain and Mental Activity headed by him.

In addition, Bekhterev developed and studied the relationship between nervous and mental diseases, and circular psychosis, the clinic and pathogenesis of hallucinations, described a number of forms of obsessive states, various manifestations of mental automatism. For the treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases, he introduced combination-reflex therapy and alcoholism, psychotherapy by the method of distraction, and collective psychotherapy.

Creation

In addition to the dissertation "Experience in the clinical study of body temperature in some forms of mental illness" (St. Petersburg, 1881), Bekhterev owns numerous works on the normal anatomy of the nervous system; pathological anatomy of the central nervous system; physiology of the central nervous system; on the clinic of mental and nervous diseases and, finally, on psychology (Formation of our ideas about space, "Bulletin of Psychiatry", 1884).

In these works, Bekhterev was engaged in the study and study of the course of individual beams in the central nervous system, the composition of the white matter of the spinal cord and the course of fibers in the gray matter, and at the same time, on the basis of the experiments performed, clarifying the physiological significance of individual parts of the central nervous system (visual hillocks, vestibule branches of the auditory nerve, lower and upper olives, quadruple, etc.).

Bekhterev also managed to obtain some new data on the localization of various centers in the cerebral cortex (for example, on the localization of skin - tactile and pain - sensations and muscle consciousness on the surface of the cerebral hemispheres, "Doctor", 1883) and also on the physiology of the motor centers of the cerebral cortex (The Doctor, 1886). Many works of Bekhterev are devoted to the description of little-studied pathological processes of the nervous system and individual cases of nervous diseases.

Cit .: Fundamentals of the doctrine of brain functions, St. Petersburg, 1903-07; Objective Psychology, St. Petersburg, 1907-10; Psyche and Life, 2nd ed., St. Petersburg, 1904; General diagnosis of diseases of the nervous system, hours 1-2, St. Petersburg, 1911-15; Collective reflexology, P., 1921: General foundations of human reflexology, M. - P., 1923; Pathways of the spinal cord and brain, M. - L., 1926; The brain and activity, M. - L., 1928: Fav. manuf., M., 1954.

Links

  • The role of suggestion in public life - speech of V.M.Bekhterev on December 18, 1897
  • Biographical materials about V.M.Bekhterev from the Chronos project

1 Regarding the unexpected death of V.M. Ankylosing spondylitis, there are three versions. Among the closest students of VM Bekhterev, there was, of course, never published, its own version of the death of the teacher: death at the moment of intimacy with one of the young colleagues, the so-called "sweet death" in the terminology of French authors. According to another version, the death of Bekhterev is connected with the fact that it was he who diagnosed V.I. Lenin: "syphilis of the brain." The most plausible, however, should be considered the version according to which Bekhterev was poisoned on the orders of I.V. Stalin after Bekhterev, after consulting Stalin about his dry hand, called him "an ordinary paranoid."

BECHTEREV Vladimir Mikhailovich (1857-1927) - Russian physiologist, neuropathologist, psychiatrist, psychologist. He founded the first experimental psychological laboratory in Russia (1885), and then the Psychoneurological Institute (1908) - the world's first center for the comprehensive study of man. Based on the reflex concept of mental activity put forward by Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov, he developed a natural-scientific theory of behavior. Arising in opposition to the traditional introspective psychology of consciousness, the theory of V.M. Ankylosing spondylitis was originally called objective psychology (1904), then psychoreflexology (1910) and, finally, reflexology (1917). V.M. Bekhterev made a major contribution to the development of Russian experimental psychology (General Foundations of Human Reflexology, 1917).

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev, a famous Russian neurologist, neuropathologist, psychologist, psychiatrist, morphologist and physiologist of the nervous system, was born on January 20, 1857. in the village of Sorali, Yelabuga district, Vyatka province in the family of a minor civil servant. In August 1867. he began his studies at the Vyatka gymnasium, and since Bekhterev, in his youth, decided to devote his life to neuropathology and psychiatry, after finishing seven classes of the gymnasium in 1873. he entered the Medical and Surgical Academy.

In 1878. graduated from the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, was left for further training at the Department of Psychiatry at I.P. Merzheevsky. In 1879. Bekhterev was accepted as a full member of the Petersburg Society of Psychiatrists.

April 4, 1881 Bekhterev successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in medicine on the topic "Experience in clinical research of body temperature in some forms of mental illness" and received the academic title of assistant professor. In 1884. Bekhterev went on a business trip abroad, where he studied with such famous European psychologists as Dubois-Reymond, Wundt, Fleksig and Charcot.

After returning from a business trip, Bekhterev begins to give a course of lectures on the diagnosis of nervous diseases to fifth-year students of Kazan University. Since 1884. Professor of Kazan University at the Department of Mental Diseases, Bekhterev ensured the teaching of this subject by setting up a clinical department in the Kazan regional hospital and a psychophysiological laboratory at the university; founded the Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, founded the journal "Neurological Bulletin" and published a number of his works, as well as the works of his students in various departments of neuropathology and anatomy of the nervous system.

In 1883. Bekhterev was awarded the silver medal of the Society of Russian Physicians for the article "On forced and violent movements during the destruction of some parts of the central nervous system." In this article, Bekhterev drew attention to the fact that nervous diseases can often be accompanied by mental disorders, and with mental illness, signs of organic damage to the central nervous system are also possible. In the same year he was elected a member of the Italian Society of Psychiatrists.


His most famous article "Stiffness of the spine with its curvature as a special form of the disease" was published in the capital magazine "Doctor" in 1892. Bekhterev described "stiffness of the spine with curvature as a special form of the disease" (now better known as ankylosing spondylitis, ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid spondylitis), that is, a systemic inflammatory disease of the connective tissue with damage to the articular-ligamentous apparatus of the spine, as well as peripheral joints, sacrum articulations, hip and shoulder joints and the involvement of internal organs in the process. Bekhterev also identified diseases such as choreic epilepsy, syphilitic multiple sclerosis, acute cerebellar ataxia of alcoholics. These and other neurological symptoms first identified by the scientist and a number of original clinical observations were reflected in the two-volume book "Nervous Diseases in Selected Observations", published in Kazan.

Since 1893 The Kazan Neurological Society began to regularly publish its printed organ - the journal "Neurological Bulletin", which came out until 1918. edited by Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev. In the spring of 1893. Bekhterev received an invitation from the head of the Petersburg Military Medical Academy to take the department of mental and nervous diseases. Bekhterev arrived in St. Petersburg and began to create the first neurosurgical operating room in Russia.

In the laboratories of the clinic, Bekhterev, together with his staff and students, continued numerous studies on the morphology and physiology of the nervous system. This allowed him to replenish materials on neuromorphology and begin work on the fundamental seven-volume work "Fundamentals of the doctrine of brain functions."

In 1894. Bekhterev was appointed a member of the medical council of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in 1895. he became a member of the Military Medical Scientific Council under the Minister of War and at the same time a member of the council of the nursing home for the mentally ill.

In November 1900. the two-volume book "Pathways of the Spinal Cord and Brain" was nominated by the Russian Academy of Sciences for the award named after Academician K. M. Baer. In 1902. he published the book "Psyche and Life". By that time, Bekhterev had prepared for publication the first volume of the work "Fundamentals of the doctrine of brain functions", which became his main work on neurophysiology. Here were collected and systematized general provisions on brain activity. So, Bekhterev presented the energy theory of inhibition, according to which the nervous energy in the brain rushes to the center in an active state. According to Bekhterev, this energy, as it were, flows down to him along the pathways connecting separate areas of the brain, primarily from the nearby areas of the brain, in which, as Bekhterev believed, “a decrease in excitability, therefore, oppression” occurs.

In general, Bekhterev's work on the study of brain morphology made an invaluable contribution to the development of Russian psychology. managed to find out the physiological significance of individual parts of the central nervous system (optic hillocks, the vestibular branch of the auditory nerve, lower and upper olives, quadruples).

Dealing directly with the functions of the brain, Bekhterev discovered the nuclei and pathways in the brain; created the doctrine of the pathways of the spinal cord and the functional anatomy of the brain; established the anatomophysiological basis of balance and spatial orientation, found the centers of movement and secretion of internal organs in the cerebral cortex, etc.

After completing work on seven volumes of "Fundamentals of the doctrine of the functions of the brain," Bekhterev began to draw special attention to problems of psychology. Bekhterev spoke about the equal existence of two psychologies: he singled out subjective psychology, the main method of which should be introspection, and objective. Bekhterev called himself a representative of objective psychology, however, he considered it possible to objectively study only externally observed, i.e. behavior (in a behavioral sense), and the physiological activity of the nervous system.

Proceeding from the fact that mental activity arises as a result of the work of the brain, he considered it possible to rely mainly on the achievements of physiology, and above all on the theory of conditioned reflexes. Thus, Bekhterev creates a whole doctrine, which he called reflexology, which in fact continued the work of Bekhterev's objective psychology.

In 1907-1910 Bekhterev published three volumes of the book "Objective Psychology". The scientist argued that all mental processes are accompanied by reflex motor and autonomic reactions, which are available for observation and registration.

To describe complex forms of reflex activity, Bekhterev proposed the term "combination-motor reflex". He also described a number of physiological and pathological reflexes, symptoms and syndromes. The physiological reflexes discovered by Bekhterev (scapular-humeral, great spindle reflex, expiratory, etc.) make it possible to determine the state of the corresponding reflex arcs, and pathological reflexes (Mendel-Bekhterev dorsal reflex, carpal-finger reflex, Bekhterev-Jakobson reflex) reflect the defeat of the pyramidal pathways. Symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis are observed in various pathological conditions: tabes dorsal, sciatic neuralgia, massive cerebral strokes, angiotrophoneuroses, pathological processes in the membranes of the base of the brain, etc.

To assess the symptoms, Bekhterev created special devices (an algesimeter that allows you to accurately measure pain sensitivity; a baresiometer that measures sensitivity to pressure; myoesthesiometer - a device for measuring sensitivity, etc.).

Bekhterev also developed objective methods for studying the neuropsychic development of children, the relationship between nervous and mental diseases, psychopathy and circular psychosis, the clinic and the pathogenesis of hallucinations, described a number of forms of obsessive states, various manifestations of mental automatism. To treat neuropsychic diseases, he introduced the therapy of neuroses and alcoholism, psychotherapy by the method of distraction, collective psychotherapy. Ankylosing spondylitis was widely used as a sedative.

In 1908. Bekhterev created the Psychoneurological Institute in St. Petersburg and became its director. After the revolution in 1918. Bekhterev applied to the Council of People's Commissars with a petition to organize an Institute for the Study of the Brain and Mental Activity. When the institute was created, Bekhterev took the position of its director and remained so until his death. The Institute for the Study of the Brain and Mental Activity was later named the State Reflectological Institute for the Study of the Brain. V. M. Bekhterev.

In 1921. Academician V. M. Bekhterev, together with the famous animal trainer V. L. Durov, conducted experiments in mentally suggesting to trained dogs pre-planned actions. Similar experiments were carried out in the practical laboratory of animal psychology, which was headed by V.L.Durov with the participation of one of the pioneers of mental suggestion in the USSR, engineer B. B. Kazhinsky.

By the beginning of 1921. in the laboratory of V.L. Durov, over 20 months of research, 1278 experiments of mental suggestion (to dogs) were made, including 696 successful and 582 unsuccessful. Experiments with dogs showed that a trainer does not have to carry out mental suggestion, it could be an experienced inductor. It was only necessary that he knew and applied the transmission technique established by the trainer. The suggestion was carried out both with direct visual contact with the animal and at a distance, when the dogs did not see or hear the trainer, and he did not hear them. It should be emphasized that the experiments were carried out with dogs that had certain changes in the psyche that arose after special training.

In 1927 Bekhterev was awarded the title of Honored Scientist of the RSFSR. The great scientist died on December 24, 1927.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev (1857 - 1927) - an outstanding Russian neuropathologist, psychiatrist and psychologist, morphologist and physiologist of the nervous system.

V.M.Bekhterev was born in the village. Sorali, Vyatka province, in the family of a college secretary. At the age of 16, after graduating from high school, he entered the Medical-Surgical Academy, later renamed the Military Medical. Because of severe fatigue in preparation for the entrance exams and nervous stress associated with passing the exams, in September he was treated in the clinic of nervous diseases of Professor N.N.Sikorsky. The acquaintance and conversations with the professor made such a great impression on the young man that this determined his choice of specialization and an active position in mastering his future profession.

The stimulus to self-realization of the creative potential of Vladimir Bekhterev was the opportunity, starting from the third year, to actively engage in research work.

In 1878, after graduating from the Academy, he was left at the Department of Nervous Diseases with Professor I.P. Merzheevsky to prepare for a professorship.

The following fact testifies to the active self-realization of V. M. Bekhterev's creative potential. At the age of 24, he successfully defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine on the topic "Experience in the clinical study of body temperature in some forms of mental illness."

His scientific work was greatly influenced by the work of IM Sechenov "Reflexes of the Brain".

Physiological works of VM Bekhterev, which are of particular importance, are devoted to elucidating the role of various divisions of the nervous system in the activity of organs and systems of higher animals and humans. Beginning in 1883, he carefully studied issues related to irritation of various parts of the nervous system, especially its higher parts. In particular, the physiological studies of V.M.Bekhterev (together with N.A.Mislavsky) are of great importance, showing that in the diencephalon (thalamic region) there are centers that control the activity of the heart, blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract, bladder , eyes and other organs and systems. Proceeding from these data, V.M.Bekhterev argued that there are higher autonomic (in particular, sympathetic) centers in this part of the central nervous system. Thus, the doctrine that the higher sympathetic centers are laid in the thalamic region of the brain, put forward in 1909 - 1912. by Austrian neurologists Karplus and Kreidl, was substantiated long before them and developed in detail by V.M.Bekhterev. In particular, he showed the importance of the thalamic nerve centers in the generation of emotions.

During an overseas business trip, undertaken to get acquainted with foreign achievements in the field of psychiatry and psychology, V.M.Bekhterev received a notice that he was elected an ordinary professor of the Department of Psychiatry at Kazan University. This happened in 1885, when he was 28 years old. Here his creative potential as an organizer of science was fully revealed. VM Bekhterev became the founder of the first Russian journal on neurology - "Neurological Bulletin" and the first B of Russia of the Kazan Society of Neurologists and Psychiatrists. In 1895, in Kazan, he created an experimental psychological laboratory. In 1888 he published the monograph Consciousness and Its Boundaries. Here, in Kazan, his research in the field of morphology and physiology of the nervous system was fully developed.


In the works of V.M.Bekhterev, key issues of psychology, clinical neuropathology and psychiatry were also highlighted. The morphological works of V.M.Bekhterev are devoted to the structure of all parts of the central nervous system: the spinal cord, medulla oblongata, diencephalon, cerebral hemispheres. He significantly expanded information about the pathways and the structure of the nerve centers; first described a number of previously unknown bundles (pathways) and cell formations (nuclei). So, the cell accumulation was described, located outside of the corner of the fourth ventricle, which was named "ankylosing spondylitis".

The results of his numerous studies Bekhterev summarized in the fundamental work "Pathways of the spinal cord and brain" (1893). The second two-volume edition was published when he was already working in St. Petersburg (1896 - 1898).

At the age of 37, VM Bekhterev became a professor at the Military Medical Academy, and in 1897 - a professor at the Women's Medical Institute. Here he created the second (after Kazan) psychological laboratory. Studying the influence of the cerebral cortex on the activity of various organs and functional systems, V.M.Bekhterev showed that the organs of blood circulation, digestion, respiration, urination, etc. are represented in the cerebral cortex by corresponding centers. He also established the localization of other centers in the cerebral cortex.

In 1895, VM Bekhterev proved that stimulation of certain centers of the brain leads to a simultaneous inhibition of the corresponding antagonistic centers. This principle was essential in the activity of the nervous system.

VM Bekhterev summarized the results of his twenty years of research in the field of the physiology of the nervous system in his major work "Fundamentals of the doctrine of the functions of the brain", published in seven issues (1903 - 1907).

Clinical works of V. M. Bekhterev are devoted to various issues of neuropathology and psychiatry. He was the first to identify a number of characteristics of reflexes and symptoms that are important for the diagnosis of nervous diseases. In addition, he was the first to raise the question of the need to study bone reflexes. VM Bekhterev described independent forms of diseases that were not previously identified by neuropathology, for example, the stiffness of the spine, called "ankylosing spondylitis".

More than 150 published works by him are devoted to clinical research; some of them are reflected in the monographs "Nervous diseases in individual observations" (issues 1 - 2, 1894 - 1899) and "General diagnostics of diseases of the nervous system" (parts 1 - 2, 1911 - 1915).

In works on psychiatry, V.M.Bekhterev considered disorders of mental processes in connection with impaired bodily functions. He opposed the embarrassment of mental patients, widely used methods of occupational therapy, physical education, hydrotherapy, etc., proposed his own methods of treating a number of diseases (in particular, the treatment of alcoholism with hypnosis). A special mixture, which has a wide therapeutic use in the clinic of nervous diseases, is known as "bekhterevskoy".

A large number of experimental studies of various types of sensitivity (skin, pain, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, vibration) have been carried out in the psychological laboratory at the Military Medical Academy. Valuable devices were designed for these studies: trichoesthesiometer, bolemer, baroesthesiometer, myoesthesiometer, acstometer, seismometer, etc. The materials were published in a special journal "Review of Psychiatry, Neurology and Experimental Psychology", which was founded by VM Bekhterev in 1896 ...

Being engaged in the practical treatment of children and adults, V.M.Bekhterev generalized his observations of the peculiarities of the psyche of adults and the causes of their diseases. These generalizations essentially lay the foundations of modern acmeology.

Contemporaries in Russia and abroad spoke of V.M.Bekhterev as a scientist who knew more and better than others about the structure and functions of the brain. Thanks to his writings, it was established that the brain is an organ of the psyche. In this regard, all reasoning about mental phenomena without connection with the brain, whose function they are, became sterile mysticism. Anatomo-physiological studies of the brain were an important condition for the transfer of speculative psychology to a natural science track.

VM Bekhterev rejected the methods and theories of the prevailing subjective psychology and put forward a theory of studying objectively observed reactions of the organism instead of the internal content of mental processes. He advocated objective psychology (1907), calling it "the science of behavior." At one time, this had a positive meaning in the struggle against idealism in psychology.

The evidence of the exceptional organizational talent of V.M.Bekhterev is the creation in 1908 of the Psychoneurological Institute, built on donations from the tsarist lands specially allocated for these purposes. The money had to be received, and the construction had to be organized. And all this V.M. Bekhterev was able to do.

The uniqueness of this scientific and educational complex was that it housed a university, which received students regardless of class origin, and research institutions. On its basis, a whole network of clinical and research institutes was created, including the first Pedagogical Institute in Russia. This allowed V.M.Bekhterev to link theoretical and practical research in the field of psychiatry and neurology, and psychology.

The teachers of the Psychoneurological Institute included such leading scientists as M. M. Kovalevsky, N. Ye. Vvedensky, V. L. Komarov. His student later was the most famous sociologist of the 20th century. Pitirim Sorokin.

A huge range of objects of experimental research - from newborns to old people, from deep brain structures to human behavior in different social environments - allowed V.M.Bekhterev to make a generalization concerning the structure of the personality of a mature person and human immortality.

After analyzing various definitions of personality given by psychologists of that time, V.M.Bekhterev found that not only and not so much the synthesis of memory, character, mind, emotions, abilities and other facets create a personality. The main thing is its focus, aspiration and focus, i.e. that organizing core, around which all other human features gather in a unique ensemble.

At the end of February 1916, on the anniversary of the opening of the courses of the Psychoneurological Institute, V.M.Bekhterev made a speech on the immortality of the human person and of man in general.

In 1918, V.M.Bekhterev became the founder of a new research institution - the Institute for the Study of the Brain and Mental Activity. He considered reflexology as an independent field of knowledge. An integral part of reflexology is V. M. Bekhterev's doctrine of the "combined" reflexes acquired by animals and humans in individual life as a result of coincidence, "combination" of various phenomena of the external world with certain innate reactions of the organism. Together with MV Lange and VM Myasishchev, VM Bekhterev conducted his experiments in groups of students of the Medical, Pedological and Psychoneurological Institutes. In the experiments, the indicators of each student were first determined (they were recorded on one sheet); then the results were discussed and voted on. The subjects were asked to make additions and changes to their previous indicators (they were recorded on another sheet).

As a result of research, V.M.Bekhterev found that the collective increases the amount of knowledge of its members, corrects their mistakes, softens the attitude towards the act, and gives general shifts in the formulated indicators. Were identified gender, age, educational and congenital differences in attitude to shifts in mental processes in the conditions of collective activity.

The results of experimental socio-psychological research were summarized by V.M.Bekhterev in his works: "Consciousness and its boundaries" (Kazan, 1888), "On the localization of conscious activity in animals and humans" (St. Petersburg, 1896), "Neuropathological and psychiatric observations" (St. Petersburg, 1900), "Psyche and life" (St. Petersburg, 1904), "Fundamentals of the doctrine of the functions of the brain", vol. 1 - 7 (St. Petersburg, 1903 - 1907), "Hypnosis, Suggestion and Psychotherapy" (St. Petersburg, 1911), "Collective Reflexology (Petrograd, 1921)," The Brain and Its Activity "(M. ; L., 1928).

VM Bekhterev is the founder of a holistic approach to the study of man, which has become the methodological principle of modern acmeology.

After the mysterious death of V.M.Bekhterev in 1927 - when he was healthy, cheerful, energetic, full of new ideas and projects - criticism of his scientific heritage began, his consistent opposition to I.P. Pavlov, and hushing up of his merits. His own psychological works were especially harshly criticized.

In 1948, in connection with the struggle against genetics, the Institute for the Study of the Brain and Mental Activity was closed. Under these conditions, the preservation and development of the psychological direction of research laid down by V.M.Bekhterev demanded from his followers great courage, determination and the manifestation of organizational talent in the new conditions. One of the talented successors of the ideas of V.M.Bekhterev, the founder of the Leningrad school of psychologists, was B.G. Ananiev.

Control questions and tasks

1. What conditions affect the expression of creativity?

2. How do you understand the meaning of the concepts "microacme" and "macroacme"?

3. What factor played a decisive role in the early self-determination of N.I. Pirogov?

4. At what age did he develop meaningful acme target programs and how were they implemented in practice?

5. Tell us about the versatile acme-target programs of NI Pirogov. What life credo were they united by?

6. What is your attitude to certain thoughts of NI Pirogov, expressed in the article "Questions of Life"?

7. What are the main directions of the implementation of the creative potential of PF Lesgaft.

8. What theories development by PF Lesgaft served as the basis for the scientific substantiation of physical education?

9. What works of PF Lesgaft do you know?

10. Tell us in what directions the versatile scientific interests of V.M.Bekhterev were manifested.

11. How did the new theories and concepts of V. M. Bekhterev find development in the organization of creative research teams?

12. Describe the main peaks of creativity V. M. Bekhterev.

1.Bekhterev V.M.Psyche and life. - SPb., 1904.

2. Guberman I.Bekhterev: pages of life. - M., 1977.

3. Krasnovsky A.A.NI Pirogov's pedagogical ideas. - M., 1949.

4. Konstantinov N.A., Medynsky E.N., Shabaeva M.F.History of pedagogy. - M., 1982.

5. Pirogov N.I.Selected pedagogical compositions. - M, 1985.

6. The doctrine of PF Lesgaft about physical education and its pedagogical activity // Stolbov VV History of physical culture: Textbook for ped. in-tov. - M., 1989.

(1857-1927) russian psychiatrist and neuropathologist

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev was born in the small Udmurt village of Sorali, Yelabuga district, Vyatka province. His father, Mikhail Bekhterev, was a police officer, his mother, Nadezhda Lvovna, came from a merchant family.

Vladimir was the third and youngest child in the family. The first years of his life were spent in constant moving. My father was promoted to Glazov, where the family settled in their own house. Soon the elder Bekhterev received a new promotion and became the head of the department for the supervision of political exiles. With one of them, the Polish journalist K. Tkhizhevsky, Vladimir studied foreign languages, preparing to enter the gymnasium. In 1864, together with his mother, he arrived in Vyatka, where he successfully passed the exams and was immediately admitted to the second grade of the gymnasium. But the success was overshadowed by the unexpected conclusion of doctors who discovered consumption of his father. The Bekhterevs had to move again, this time to Vyatka, where his father bought a house, and the family began to settle in a new place. Soon, Vladimir's father died, but his mother managed to get her children to be taught at the gymnasium "at public expense."

Vladimir becomes one of the best students in the gymnasium, he goes through the training program ahead of schedule and receives a certificate of maturity when he was not yet 17 years old. In the summer of 1872, he arrived in St. Petersburg and became a student at the Medico-Surgical Academy. As a result of the entrance exams, he received the right to free education with the only condition: after completing his studies, he had to become a military doctor.

Vladimir Bekhterev chose his future profession by chance. In the second year from overload, he suffered a nervous breakdown, and he ended up in an academic clinic, which was headed by one of the largest Russian psychiatrists, Ivan Mikhailovich Balinsky. After his recovery, Bekhterev begins attending Balinsky's student seminar.

Together with Vladimir Bekhterev, the future physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov studied at the Academy. After graduation, their friendship was not interrupted until the death of Bekhterev, although the relationship between them rather resembled a rivalry.

In 1877, the Russian-Turkish war began, and, despite the fact that senior students were not subject to conscription, Bekhterev obtained permission to go to the front. He worked as a doctor as part of a medical squad organized at the expense of the entrepreneurs of the Ryzhov brothers, took part in all major battles. The day after the capture of Plevna, Vladimir Bekhterev fell ill with malaria, and after staying in an evacuation hospital, he was sent to St. Petersburg for treatment.

After leaving the hospital, Vladimir Bekhterev learned that, as a participant in hostilities, he could continue his studies for free and without shortening the term. However, he did not take advantage of the privilege he had received and passed all the exams ahead of schedule, together with fellow students who did not interrupt their studies. In 1878, Bekhterev brilliantly defended his thesis on the treatment of rare forms of tuberculosis. The Scientific Council recommended it for publication and awarded the author a personal prize.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev could not use the right to defend his doctoral dissertation without first passing exams, since he had to continue military service. Taking into account the scientific merits of the young doctor, the leadership of the Academy was able to agree on the continuation of his service as a trainee in the academic clinic of mental and nervous diseases. Bekhterev became one of Balinsky's students. In parallel with his work at the clinic, he taught at the Academy.

In 1878 he married his compatriot N. Bazilevskaya. Soon, the spouses have a son, Eugene, followed by a daughter, Olga. A week after her birth, Vladimir Bekhterev brilliantly defended his dissertation and received a doctorate in medicine and the title of assistant professor. His thesis was devoted to establishing links between mental disorders and clinical symptoms. He formed signs by which it was possible to establish the presence of a particular mental illness.

In addition to being awarded a doctorate, Bekhterev was given the right to undertake an overseas business trip. He went to Germany, where he wanted to undergo an internship with the largest German neurologists Westphal and Mendel. Arriving in Berlin, Vladimir Bekhterev learned that the German government limited the period of stay of foreigners in the capital to six weeks. Then he moved to Leipzig, where he began to work at the P. Fleksig clinic. Under the leadership of the scientist, Bekhterev for the first time turns to the study of the physiology of nervous processes. He published several articles in German journals, where he laid the foundations for a new science called neurophysiology.

Fleksig highly appreciated the work of the Russian scientist and invited Bekhterev to continue his internship in Paris with the famous scientist Jean Martin Charcot. However, having arrived in Paris, Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev received a letter from the Minister of Public Education A. Delyanov, who suggested that the scientist take the position of professor and head of the Department of Mental Illness at Kazan University. By that time, he was one of the largest scientists in Europe.

Vladimir Bekhterev agrees and after spending only a few weeks in Paris in the summer of 1885, he returns to Russia. In Kazan, he becomes the head of one of the country's largest psycho-neurological centers, thanks to the funds allocated by the authorities, he opens a laboratory and a clinic. Gradually Bekhterev created a neurophysiological laboratory equipped with the latest technology, in which unique methods of treating mental illnesses were developed.

A talented scientist studies the structure of the brain, and summarizes his observations in the book "Pathways of the Brain" (1892), which was immediately translated into the main European languages. On his initiative, the Department of Neuropathology was established in Kazan, headed by a student of Bekhterev, Professor L. Darkshevich.

However, the family life of a scientist is not going as well as a scientific career. Soon after he moved to Kazan, his eldest son died of tuberculosis. But after a while he has a son and a daughter.

In 1893, Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev received an invitation from the head of the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy to head the department of mental and nervous diseases. Having moved to St. Petersburg, the scientist focuses on the study of the physiology of the brain. In the clinic he runs, he organizes the country's first neurosurgical department. A team of promising young researchers gathers around the scientist, a unique scientific community is emerging, in which surgeons work side by side with psychiatrists. For the first time in the world, Bekhterev demonstrates cases of surgical treatment of mental illness. In addition, he organizes a number of specialized laboratories at the clinic, in which research is carried out in the anatomy and physiology of the brain, in experimental psychology. On the initiative of the scientist, special treatment workshops are organized in which patients work. He has proven that work can be an essential treatment for mental health problems.

In 1895, the scientist published the second edition of the book "Pathways of the Brain", for which he was nominated for the K. Baer Prize, the highest award in the natural sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Bekhterev addresses the Academy with a letter in which he agrees to accept the prize only if it is shared with I. Pavlov, whose work was also nominated. The Presidium of the Academy decides to combine the first and second prizes and award the scientists with a special award in the amount of 700 rubles.

In parallel with the recognition in Russia, the international fame of Bekhterev is also growing. He becomes a member of several major scientific societies and European academies of sciences. On May 15, 1899, he was awarded the title of Academician of the Military Medical Academy.

At the end of the XIX century. The clinic headed by the scientist is becoming the largest center for the training of neuropathologists and psychiatrists both in Russia and in Europe. It employs interns from around the world and from all over the country. The clinic publishes several scientific journals and annual issues of scientific reports.

The ability to work of Vladimir Bekhterev was truly amazing. He published about twenty scientific papers annually, taught, made daily rounds, and conducted weekly outpatient appointments. Under his leadership, unique methods for diagnosing brain diseases were developed. It is curious that as far back as 1907, doctor G. Vikhrev, who worked at the Bekhterev clinic, built the world's first X-ray scope - a device that made it possible to obtain stereoscopic X-ray images. Bekhterev appreciated the discovery and predicted a great future for it, but at that time the level of development of science did not allow creating a full-fledged apparatus. Only many years later it will be built in the United States and named a tomograph.

With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev sent his students to the Far East for neurosurgical assistance to the wounded.

In 1905, the head of the Military Medical Academy dies suddenly, and the Academic Council unanimously votes for the appointment of Bekhterev to this post. Already in the first months of his new position, he decides to reinstate in the Academy all students who were previously expelled for participating in revolutionary actions. Fearing unrest, the authorities did not dare to cancel Bekhterev's order, but in January 1906 the Minister of War nevertheless removed him from his post, justifying his decision by the fact that administrative activities distract the scientist from scientific research.

Bekhterev plunges headlong into scientific work, releasing his fundamental work "Fundamentals of the doctrine of brain functions." In this work, he establishes the correspondence of the system of conditioned reflexes with the work of various parts of the brain, develops a method for complex diagnostics of the brain, with the help of which doctors of subsequent generations have successfully treated patients. The work was nominated for the Baer Prize, but Bekhterev did not receive it due to the negative feedback from I. Pavlov, who did not accept his colleague's concept, considering it too revolutionary.

Vladimir Bekhterev usually spent his free time at his dacha in the town of Kuokkala. There he met the famous Russian artist Ilya Repin, who painted a portrait of the scientist.

After the end of the war with Japan, Bekhterev was able to achieve the implementation of his long-standing plan - to organize the Psychoneurological Institute. Over time, it became both an educational and research institution. Bekhterev assembled a team of prominent Russian scientists. Physiologist Nikolai Vvedensky, historian Yevgeny Tarle, chemist D. Tsvet, biologists G. Wagner and M, Kovalevsky gave lectures at the institute.

When in 1911 some teachers left state universities in protest against the policy of the then Minister of Public Education Lev Kasso, many of them began to work for Bekhterev. The authorities did not like this development of events, and at the first opportunity that presented itself in 1913, when Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev turned 56, he was asked to submit a letter of resignation from military service, which meant leaving the Academy. At the same time, he was forced to stop working at the Women's Medical Institute, they tried to fire him from the Psychoneurological Institute, but the order of Kasso caused a unanimous protest from the entire team, and the authorities did not insist on implementing the decision.

Bekhterev remained at the head of the institute until 1918, when, by decision of the Soviet government, the institution was renamed the Brain Institute.

After leaving the academy, the scientist published a two-volume work "General diagnosis of diseases of the nervous system", where he summarized his vast experience. For many years this work has been a reference book for neuropathologists and psychiatrists.

After the Bolsheviks came to power, Vladimir Bekhterev worked on scientific councils at the People's Commissariat for Education and the People's Commissariat for Health. At the Bekhterev Institute, courses were opened to train military paramedics for the Red Army.

The scientist continued to publish scientific works. In 1918 he published the book "General Foundations of Reflexology", in which he applied Pavlov's observations to humans. Soon Bekhterev became the president of the Psychoneurological Academy.

In the spring of 1923, he went on an overseas business trip, and on the way stopped in Moscow, where he consulted Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who had recently suffered a massive stroke that caused speech loss and paralysis.

In 1925, Moscow and Leningrad celebrated the 40th anniversary of Bekhterev's scientific activity. Soon after his birthday, he loses his wife - she dies of pneumonia. To support him, his elder brother Nikolai moved to Bekhterev. Trying to re-arrange his family life, the famous scientist marries one of his employees.

In December 1927, he arrived in Moscow, where a congress of neuropathologists and psychiatrists was opening. On the morning of December 24, the scientist was unexpectedly summoned to the Kremlin for a consultation. Only many years later it became known that on that day he examined Joseph Stalin and gave him a ruthless but correct diagnosis - paranoid schizophrenia. In the evening, Vladimir Bekhterev came to a banquet on the occasion of the opening of the congress, and the next day he suddenly died from acute intestinal poisoning. Although the doctors insisted on an autopsy, the body of the scientist was urgently cremated and sent to Leningrad. The urn with the ashes was installed in the museum at the institute, created back in 1925. Only many years later she was buried at the Volkov cemetery.

The case of Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev was continued by his descendants. The daughter of his son Peter - Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva - became a neuropathologist and for the development of new methods of treatment she was elected a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Bekhterev Vladimir Mikhailovich(1857-1927) - Russian neurologist, psychiatrist and psychologist, founder of a scientific school. He wrote fundamental works on the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the nervous system. Conducted research on the therapeutic use of hypnosis, including for alcoholism. Works on sex education, behavior of a young child, social psychology. He investigated personality based on a comprehensive study of the brain using physiological, anatomical and psychological methods. Founder of Reflexology. Organizer and head of the Psychoneurological Institute (1908; now named after Bekhterev) and the Institute for the Study of the Brain and Mental Activity (1918).

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev was born on January 20, 1857 in the family of a minor civil servant in the village. Sorali of the Yelabuga district of the Vyatka province. In August 1867, the boy began his studies at the Vyatka gymnasium. After finishing seven classes of the gymnasium in 1873, Bekhterev entered the Medical-Surgical Academy. He decided to devote himself to neuropathology and psychiatry. In 1879 he was accepted as a full member of the St. Petersburg Society of Psychiatrists. April 4, 1881 V.M. Bekhterev successfully defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine.

For the article "On forced and violent movements during the destruction of some parts of the central nervous system", written in 1883, Bekhterev was awarded the silver medal of the Society of Russian Physicians. In the same year he was elected a member of the Italian Society of Psychiatrists.

Vladimir Mikhailovich drew attention to the fact that nervous diseases are often accompanied by mental disorders, and with mental illness, signs of organic damage to the central nervous system are possible. The most famous is his article "Stiffness of the spine with curvature as a special form of the disease", published in the capital magazine "Doctor". The disease described in this article is currently known as ankylosing spondillitis, or ankylosing spondylitis. Many neurological symptoms discovered by the scientist for the first time, as well as a number of original clinical observations, were reflected in the two-volume "Nervous Diseases in Selected Observations" published in Kazan.

Working in Kazan, in the spring of 1893, Bekhterev received an invitation from the head of the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy to take up the department of mental and nervous diseases. Bekhterev arrived in St. Petersburg and began to create the first neurosurgical operating room in Russia.

In the laboratories of the clinic, Vladimir Mikhailovich, together with his staff and students, continued numerous studies on the morphology and physiology of the nervous system. This allowed him to replenish materials on neuromorphology and to begin work on the fundamental seven-volume work "Fundamentals of the doctrine of the functions of the brain", which outlined the general provisions on brain activity. In particular, Bekhterev presented the energy theory of inhibition, according to which the nervous energy in the brain rushes to the center in an active state. It flows to him, as it were, along pathways connecting separate areas of the brain, primarily from nearby areas of the brain, in which, as Bekhterev believed, “a decrease in excitability, therefore, oppression” occurs.

In 1894, Vladimir Mikhailovich was appointed a member of the medical council of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in 1895 - a member of the military medical scientific council under the Minister of War and at the same time a member of the council of the nursing home for the mentally ill.

In May 1918, Bekhterev applied to the Council of People's Commissars with a petition to organize an institute for the study of the brain and mental activity. Soon the institute was opened, and Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev was its director until his death. Bekhterev died on December 24, 1927.