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Abstract. The article deals with the biography and scientific achievements of an outstanding Russian psychiatrist Vladimir Fedorovich Chizh in correlation with the biography and scientific achievements of the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. The highlights of the main protagonists’ biographies are remarkably similar: born in small provincial towns of old empires, the difference in the date of birth is less than a year, studied in metropolitan universities, both were fascinated with Nietzsche's philosophy, were regarded by their contemporaries as good organizers and prominent scientists. Vladimir Chizh studied psychiatry under authority of I.P. Merzheyevskiy and graduated from the Military Medical Academy at the same time as Vladimir Bekhterev. During his internship abroad Chizh studied hypnosis learning from the leading experts of his day: J. Charcot, I. Bernheim and J. Delboeuf. He studied neurology and psychiatry under the guidance of P. Fleksing, learned methodology of psychological experiment from W. Wundt. At the age of 30, he became the first head physician of the St. Petersburg city hospital for the mentally ill in the name of Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon (600 beds), where he organized one of the first psychological laboratories in Russia. He is the founder of experimental psychology in Russia. From 1811 to 1915 he headed the Department of Psychiatry of the Yurievsky University (presently the University of Tartu, Estonia). Chizh was one of the first in Russia to develop understanding of the personality and individuality from the most basic, medical stand point. He is the author of about 200 publications, including several monographs on various aspects of psychiatry, neurology, criminal anthropology and psychology. V.F. Chizh was the world’s first scientist to formulate the principle of complacency (at least 6 years before Freud) and one of the first in Russia to postulate the importance of the activity approach in psychology. Key words: history of psychotherapy; history of clinical psychology; Chizh; Freud; history of psychoanalysis; Petersburg school of psychotherapy.
In recent years, biographical methods are becoming increasingly popular in modern psychology due to the trend of holistic study of personality in context of a historical epoch throughout a person’s life [9]. Studying the life trajectory of a scientist helps to gain greater insight into the essence of his/her vision and, consequently, his/her scientific theories; on the other hand, analysis of the dynamics of development of scientific ideas indirectly clarifies the biographical nuances — the reasons for choices made in difficult circumstances, at the crossroads of one’s life. Prof. B.G. Ananiev defined the biographical method as "collection and analysis of data about the life of a man as a person and an actor (analysis of anthropical documents, testimonies of contemporaries, the products of the person’s activity, etc.)" [1]. In psychotherapy, there is a maneuver, when the therapist asks questions, and the client, answering them, talks about him/herself and at the same time — about some significant person. The "double" answers create an effect of "psychological mirror", which gives the client a better understanding of him/herself, the nuances of relationships with significant others, and their reactions to actual life events. The highlights of the main protagonists’ biographies are remarkably similar: born in small provincial towns of old empires, the difference in the date of birth is less than a year, studied in metropolitan universities, both were fascinated with Nietzsche's philosophy, were regarded by their contemporaries as good organizers and prominent scientists. However, if the first is remembered mostly by historians of science, the recognition and popularity of the latter is still comparable to the recognition and popularity of show business stars. Yet, much more importantly, as it will be shown later, despite the almost identical results in some parts of their life journeys, only one of them was able to make a coherent picture out of segmentary fragments, propose an original theory of personality and a self consistent psychotherapeutic method and to establish a psychotherapeutic school of thought. What are the reasons for this striking difference? The search for the answer to this question is the focus of this article. Vladimir Fedorovich Chizh (09.06.1855 — 12.04.1922) — Russian psychiatrist, neurologist, psychologist, professor and writer. Sigmund Freud (05/06/1856 — 23/09/1939) — Austrian psychiatrist, neurologist, psychologist, professor, author of psychoanalysis.
Table 1 Completion of medical education and first steps in psychiatry
As can be seen from Table 1, the beginnings of Chizh’s and Freud’s careers fall in the same time interval. By the age of 28, both have overcome the initial barrier — graduated from a medical school, received a medical degree and took their first steps in psychiatry. Both learned from prominent psychiatrists of their time. Chizh's mentor was Ivan Pavlovich Merzheyevskiy; Freud studied under the authority of Theodore Meinert. For further understanding it is important to notice that Vladimir Chizh graduated from the Military Medical Academy at the same time as Vladimir Bekhterev. Surprisingly, in the eyes of posterity Chizh appears to be sort of like a Bekhterev’s younger brother, but in fact their scientific and personal relationships were much more complex. For example, Bekhterev is credited as the organizer of the first psychological laboratory in Russia, though he simply repeated ("rechecked") the psychological experiments previously conducted by Chizh, with the same results [6]. Unlike Freud, who focused on research, Chizh managed to get great practical medical experience working in a naval hospital. This experience allowed him to get the doctor’s position at Prison Hospital [17] after his return to St. Petersburg, which largely predetermined his fate. The difference between the appearance, outlook and behavior of sailors and prisoners struck the young doctor, giving rise to the interest of his entire life — the study of the psychological causes of delinquent and criminal behavior. A deliberate violation was considered by Chizh as a consequence of an organic mental disorder — "moral insensibility". In the Russian Empire after defending a thesis the most talented scientists received scholarships for training in the best European clinics and laboratories. As pointed out by I.E. Sirotkina, Chizh received a grant from the Ministry of the Interior (in charge of the prison hospital where he worked) together with the task to investigate the effect of solitary confinement on the health of prisoners [14]. The main scientific goal of the internship was to determine whether the solitary confinement can cause "insanity prison". The views of experts on the matter diverged. Some believed that the deprivation of liberty is unacceptable as it causes mental disorders. Others, however, argued that offenders are originally different in their psychological characteristics and so insensitive to the hardships of imprisonment. Prior to his trip abroad Chizh shared the views of his teacher, Merzheyevskiy, and believed that solitary confinement is harmful to mental health. Later, his views on the subject changed. Here is what Chizh wrote about this matter: "I have inspected solitary confinement prisons in Belgium, Germany and France; for over three years I worked in St. Petersburg prisons, but have not find conclusive the statements of some observers about the dangers of solitary confinement" [Ibid]. The official biographer of the founder of psychoanalysis — American psychoanalyst Ernest Jones — writes that after graduation from medical school, despite the obvious advances in neurology, Freud "found the medicine too tedious," because of what he often suffered a depression [4]. Perhaps disappointement in medicine and poor psychological condition led Freud to addiction to psychoactive substances. In 1884 he read an article by a military doctor Theodore Ashenbrandt on stimulating properties of cocaine, which inspired him extremely. For six years — from 1884 to 1900 — Freud did cocaine very actively. As a result of the developed addiction, he suffered headaches, heart attacks and frequent nosebleeds [7]. Chizh also was interested in the influence of psychoactive substances on the human mind. While working on his thesis, he published two articles: one on sexual perversions and the other on impact of drugs (morphine, atropine, argentic nitrate and potassium bromide) on the nervous system [17]. However, the findings made by the Austrian and the Russian psychiatrists were quite different. Despite the opinion of the rest of the doctors Freud spoke enthusiastically about cocaine and considered it to be almost a panacea (he did cocain himself, assigned it to his patients, friends, and even to his own wife); Chizh, by contrast, was convinced that drug use indicates the "moral ugliness".
Table 2 Foreign internships and professional development
The following biographical period in the career of the Russian doctor goes up the hill, while the professional success of his Austrian counterpart is much more modest. In the same age — 29 — V.F. Chizh and S. Freud go abroad for internships with the leading European specialists. Much has been written about the huge impact that the hypnotic technique of Jean-Martin Charcot had on the founder of psychoanalysis. However, Vladimir Chizh studies hypnosis to an even greater extent: not only in France (Jean-Martin Charcot in Paris and Hippolyte Bernheim in Nancy), but also in Belgium — with Joseph Delboeuf. It is important to emphasize that as a result the Russian doctor managed to combine in his practice achievements of the major schools of hypnosis, which enabled him to avoid the disadvantages for which Charcot was criticized. In addition to hypnosis, Chizh studies neurology and psychiatry with professor Paul Fleksing in Germany and more importantly — methodology of psychological experiments, with Professor Wilhelm Wundt. After returning to Russia Chizh begins to actively use the knowledge acquired during his internship. For instance, when at the age of 30 he became the first head physician of the St. Petersburg city hospital for the mentally ill in the name of Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon (600 beds), he sought the purchase of the necessary equipment in Germany and opens a psychological laboratory. Now the hospital is named after Skvortsov-Stepanov.
By the middle of 1885 Chizh publishes a book titled "Scientific psychology in Germany", in which he gave an overview of the formation of the German school of experimental psychology and detailed methods of psychophysics and psychometrics; in the first half of 1886, in the article "Apperception processes of the mentally ill" publishes results of the first Russian experimental psychological study [6]. Therefore, it is no accident that in the age of 31, Vladimir Fedorovich gets invited for a teaching position, he becames an assistant professor of the Military Medical Academy in psychiatry and nervous diseases, and two years later — an assistant professor of judicial psychopathology at the St. Petersburg University Faculty of Law. Aged 33, V.F. writes very important works — the first part of "Elements of personality", where he is one of the first in the world to approach the creation of the theory of personality, and the work titled "Pushkin as an ideal of mental health", which opens a series of studies of personality characteristics of the great personalities on the basis of their mental products.
V.F. Chizh has made an enormous contribution to the development of scientific psychology in Russia and the creation of prerequisites for the development of psychotherapy. Presumably, Chizh started his studies of the personality problems after hearing Pyotr Viktorov's report "The doctrine of the personality as a neuropsychological body" at the First Congress of Russian psychiatrists in 1887 But, despite the fact that Victorov was a Russian pioneer of this complex subject, he was expelled from Moscow for his activities as a revolutionary populist and never could get back to science [18]. In 1910—1912 Victorov worked as the director of the Mogilev County Psychiatric Hospital named after St. George in Pechersk, where he developed a staff schedule of reception and supervisory units and lighting standards for hospital buildings. From Mogilev he moved to Vitebsk, where he headed a male psychiatric ward of the county hospital (1912—1917). Two years later another important article is issued where Chizh developed his ideas about the importance of the higher principle — "Morality of the mentally ill". By the age of 35 Chizh became known as one of the most promising young Russian scientists. He has excellent command of practical experimental methods, and in addition, is able to generate original theoretical hypothesis. He is an excellent doctor who combines an excellent proficiency in psychiatrics with the most modern psychotherapeutic approaches. He also proved to be a good manager and organizer in the field of health care. Therefore it is no coincidence that when Emil Kraepelin refused to swear allegiance to the Russian tsar and his employment contract was not renewed, Vladimir Chizh was invited to take the vacant post of head of the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Tartu. Another important fact: when Chizh headed the department in the Yuryev University (the University of Tartu) he faced an unusual problem. The University of Tartu was the only one in the Russian Empire, where teaching was held in German, but a new directive from the authorities required the Russification of the educational process [5]. Chizh had a perfect command of the language of Goethe and it proved very useful to him. Soon he issued another work — "Hypnosis and suggestion", in which Chizh summarizes his views on the mechanisms of psychotherapy. Sigmund Freud also undertakes an internship at the Charcot clinic in Paris, at the age of 29. Having returned to Vienna, he opened a private practice and realizes his dream to marry Martha Bernays. The relationship with his wife was a strong motivator for Freud throughout his life. In addition, Freud continues to do the "rough" scientific work translating articles and writing scientific reviews for professor Max Kasovitz. In an attempt to use in his private practice the experience gained abroad, Freud tries to use hypnosis in the treatment of neuroses. However, the outcomes are very different from what he had seen at the Charcot clinic — to put it mildly, they leave much to be desired. Therefore Freud is forced to use a combined approach. He combines hypnosis with electrotherapy, and in some cases he also assigns injections of cocaine. But the attitude of the professional medical community towards cocaine drugs is getting more and more negative. Freud realizes the need of a different approach to psychotherapy of neuroses. A kind of breakthrough comes when he gets acquainted with the method of Josef Breuer. Freud intuitively feels that Breuer discovered the right way, and is actively involved in the collaborative work, despite the very negative review of the "new therapy" issued by professor Charcot. The next insight occurred when working with Anna O., which defined psychotherapy as "interpretation". Freud breaks off his relations with Breuer and abandons hypnosis. From now on the interpretation was his main instrument. Let us draw up an intermediate summary. By the age of 39 Chizh is the Head of the Department of Psychiatry, he has completed the formation of a scientific base in psychology — in 1893 he issued the second part of "Elements of personality". In the first article on the psychology of the personality titled "Elements of personality" (1889) Chizh wrote: "A man does what gives him a pleasant feeling, doing what saves him from trouble. That is a simple and precise definition of the meaning of all human activities". V.F. Chizh further developed this idea, and in fact, suggested an original classification of the motives of human behavior. The Chizh’s theory had a great influence on A.F. Lazurskiy [13], which is clearly seen in the work of the latter dedicated to the tiered theory of personality. In our opinion, the works of Chizh and Lazurskiy should be read simoultaneously, in order to better understand their views on the personality and motives. Thus, the first group is comprised of the motives of immediate pleasure. Their dominance leads to sudden impulsive acts, which was observed by V.F. in the mentally ill [6]. According to the Lazurskiy’s theory, representatives of the "lower-level" are typically characterized by reactive behavior, caused by the desire to reduce the "amount of suffering" due to the pressure of external circumstances. Representatives of this group often find themselves as outsiders in social terms and need help from the relevant government institutions. V.A. Zhuravel writes that V.F. Chizh related to motives of the second group as good utilitarian motives. The effect of these motives is long-lasting, and it makes for more or less long chains of different acts. Of interest is the conclusion of V.F. Chizh that people differ among themselves not so much in what they consider to be their benefit as in their balance between "the amount of activity caused by the first group motives and the amount of activity caused by the second group motives". It would be a mistake to think — he noted — that education and extensive knowledge give the advantage to the motives of the second group — "Only the richness in higher feelings makes the motives of the second group stronger". And so, of course, the weakening of the second group motives was regarded by V.F. Chizh as one of the early signs of a mental illness [Ibid]. According to Lazurskiy, individuals operating on the "middle level" are characterized, above all, by active behavior (goal-oriented activity), the desire to change themselves and the world around them in accordance with a certain plan. In the terminology of S.L. Frank, in thir actions they are guided by the "ethics of love for one's neighbour". The third group of motives is the motives of duty. V.F. Chizh noted that the prevalence of the motives of duty is, above all, an expression of the highest psychic organization: in order "to understand these motives clearly and correctly, it takes a high development of the mind, to take suffering and joy of neighbors close to our hearts, it requires vivid and well-developed higher feelings, so that the motives of immediate pleasure and benefit would not distract the mind from activities based on the motives of duty, it requires a strong inverted will"[Ibid]. According to the Lazurskiy’s theory, representatives of the "highest level" are altruistic and future-oriented. According to S.L. Frank they are guided by the "ethics of love for one's stranger". To sum up, in modern terminology, representatives of this level are characterized by proactive behavior. In addition to the fact that V.F. Chizh brilliantly uses the methods of experimental psychology of the day, he gropes for a new method of psychological research — the study of the psychology of prominent people in the wake of their activities in life. Unfortunately, soon after moving to Esthonia Chizh’s pace of scientific development slowed down, and he spent most of his energy on the completion of already existing research projects entrusted to him by the department. For instance, many former students of Emil Kraepelin defended their thesises under Chizh’s leadership. Education at the department was Russified. In fact, a very good university clinic was organized and equipped. Many more important and useful things were done… But the work on the theory of personality and the psychotherapy method was not completed. At the age of 38 Sigmund Freud finalizes preparations for the development of his concept of moral development. He overcame his fears and doubts. He has something to say, and he's ready to do it. From now on, his career will develop only on the rise.
Table 3 Professional maturity
Studying the heritage of Vladimir Fedorovich Chizh leaves the impression of a certain duality. On the one hand, in many of his theoretical work he discusses the importance of "the paramount manifestations of humanity". In "Elements of personality", he argues that the higher development of the brain and more intense mental activity is, the clearer is expressed the love for others as beings gifted with psychic life, to people as such. And in "The psychological substantiation of pessimism", he writes that work for the benefit of others is not only "the most essential of human needs", but also that it "makes a person a worthy fellow member of the human society", as without labour "one can not be moral" [Ibid]. On the contrary, the indulgence of one’s own selfishness and other weaknesses of nature lead to degradation of the individual. V.A. Zhuravel illustrates this through the example of Chizh’s attitude to private property: "These people do not understand and can not enjoy the spiritual blessings, they are poor in spirit: there are only bodily pleasures for them, and since a fortune these days gives its holder the opportunity to enjoy all the pleasures of the flesh, they seek to increase their wealth". Love for private property, in a categorical statement of Chizh, inevitably makes one selfish and usually is the motive of immoral and even criminal acts, and "the more the inferior feelings are developed in a person, the more of an animal he/she is" [Ibid]. Thus, Chizh justly can be considered the immediate predecessor of A.F. Lazurskiy in creating the psychological theory of personality and one of the founders of the psychology of attitudes [13]. On the other hand, personal predilections of Chizh (his devotion to the philosophy of Nietzsche) have formed the scientist’s pessimistic outlook. This affected not only his scientific theories, but also on his personal life. According to the opinin of V.A. Zhuravel, after the age of 40 Chizh experienced an existential crisis that was quite hard. Perhaps the key to that lies in some unknown details of his personal life. It is known that Chizh got married quite late — in the age of 50, and had no children of his own as a matter of principle as he did not want to increase the amount of suffering in the world. [6] His fascination with the psychological analyses-pathographies may have been dictated by two factors: the scientific one — the search for a new scientific method (in this sense he is a precursor of V.N. Myasishchev and B.G. Ananiev) and the personal one — an attempt to recover from pessimism. Sigmund Freud, in contrast, was extremely family oriented, he repeatedly stressed that owes to his wife and his six children much of the things he achieved in life. A curious detail: А.M. Etkind points out that at 41 Freud also experienced an existential crisis caused by fading of his libido; thus he wrote "his friend that sexual arousal does not attract him" [20]. Chizh's pessimism also strengthened due to years of conflict with his colleagues. The reason was Chizh’s scientific theory that delinquent and criminal behavior is based on "moral insensibility", which applied not only to common criminals, but also to political criminals. Moreover, Chizh was a staunch supporter of the theory of heredity. It is known that he noted the fallacy of the popular belief that hard drinking is just a bad habit. He believed that the main mistake was that those who drink out of vanity or weakness of character, and those who drink for pleasure were tared with the same brush. V.F. Chizh claimed that alcohol as such can not be pleasant to a person of a healthy organization and being a strong nerve poison it can ultimately delight to people whose occupation is boring or requires a huge exertion [6]. Contemporaries reproached Chizh because in his youth he was fascinated by the theory of Lombroso and even called him a genius [14]. The bulk of Russian doctors rejected the theory of Lombroso. Another reason is his attitude to the government. Vladimir Chizh held conservative and patriotic views, whereas the medical community of the early twentieth century was dominated by anti-government sentiments. In many ways, this was due to social policy of the government. The best representatives of medical science realized that many diseases had social causes. In addition, after graduation every young doctor was obliged to work for several years in the outback "at a socially important position". This allowed to acquire the necessary professional experience, but was not paid well enough. Some of the duties had to be performed for free. А.I. Jarotskiy in 1907 noted that the beggarly wages of physicians not only reduced the quality of medical services, but also impair their mental health [22]. Among other reasons, it is important to highlight the predominance of scientific (atheistic) ideology and specific commitment of physicians to "European values". Taken together, all this contributed to the spread of radical sentiments among doctors. Many of them participated in social protests in one way or another. For instance, some prominent psychiatrists, such as N.N. Bazhenov and V.P. Serbskiy were hiding from the police revolutionaries and illegal literature in their psychiatric hospitals; others, such as P.P. Tutyshkin and S.I. Mitskewich, joined the revolutionaries themselves and participated in anti-government activities more actively [14]. These processes affected universities as well. Government's attempts to "tighten the screws" only worsened the situation. For instance, when opening the Russian Congress of Naturalists and Physicians in Odessa in 1883, Ilya Mechnikov notes the disastrous situation in the sphere of higher education: "While at the highest level it is stated openly that a good functionary at an institute department in Russia is preferable than the most distinguished scientists, the young people show the same contempt for science" [11]. In 1887, Vladimir Bekhterev reacts to political events with the following phrase: "We are exposed to mental microbes and are in danger of being mentally infected". Indeed, the society was divided, the legitimacy of the constituted authority was being questioned. The high degree of social tension is evidenced by the events that took place at the II Congress of Russian Psychiatrists in Kiev, where after Bekhterev’s speech the conference was closed, and some members were arrested, and only through the efforts of Ivan Sikorsky the situation was finally altered [15]. So it is no coincidence that in 1904 at Pirogov Congress in St. Petersburg and in 1905 in Kiev, the majority of speakers stated that improving the healthcare system and public health is impossible without serious political reforms [Ibid]. In contrast to his radical colleagues, who charged the fault of the increase in violence only upon the tsarist government, Chizh argued that both sides of the political opposition are guilty [14]. Since the beginning of the 1905 revolution, psychiatrists began to write about the increasing number of mental illnesses, linking it to the growing violence on the streets. In particular, they began to talk about a special category — "revolutionary psychosis" — that affected mainly victims of repressions. Chizh rejected the category of "revolutionary psychosis", as he previously did the other categories of reactive disorders — "prison" and "war" psychosis. He insisted: "the issue of violent mental disturbances as the cause of mental illnesses should be considered as buried in oblivion. Normal healthy people can not become insane as a result of strong emotion". Chizh reproached his radical colleagues for tailoring the etiology of mental illnesses to the measure of their political sympathies, and warned that it "will enhance public distrust of psychiatry" [19]. He called on to do science separating psychiatry from events of the day, for which he was ostracized. As a result, Chizh took an even more radical position: he suggested considering revolutionaries "anarchists or political criminals" whose destructive zeal "depends on their healthless organization". The revolutionary crowd seemed to him consisting of alcoholics and mentally ill, and its leaders — to be degenerates [14]. Thus, the annoying need to "fight back" the attacks of the "revolutionary" colleagues was added to the efforts on equipment of the university hospital and management of the department of psychiatry. He started to fall short of time. In 1904 the last defense of a thesis under the authority of V.F. Chizh took place [Ibid]. However, in spite of everything, Chizh published such significant works as "The psychology of a ruler, a villain, a fanatic" (1905—1907) and "The importance of the political life in the etiology of mental illnesses" (1908). Relations with radical colleagues grew even more aggravated. So when in 1910 Chizh was offered to enter the position of a Department Head at the University of Moscow, which became vacant after personnel purges, heturned down this offer although it was flattering career wise. To paraphrase a classic, you can say that he preferred life in a remote province by the sea to metropolitan revolutions. In 1908 another important event took place. Employee of V.F. Chizh — Alexander Yarotskiy — developed the world's first method of positive psychotherapy [15; 16]. In scientific terms Yarotskiy’s formation was greatly influenced by V.M. Bekhterev and I.I. Pavlov, under whom he studied and defended his thesis in St. Petersburg, as well as Ilya Mechnikov, under whom Yarotskiy trained in Paris twice at the time when the future Nobel Prize winner worked on the basis of positive psychology [15]. It was at this time that Mechnikov wrote his "Nature of man" (1903) and "Etudes of optimism" (1907), where he adduced reasons in favor of the biological nature and the evolutionary benefits of optimism [10; 11]. Yarotskiy was sent to the Yuryev University as a result of participation in political activities — he was regarded as unreliable. Vladimir Chizh patronized Yarotskiy, but because of the abovesaid circumstances he did not pay much attention to his discovery. As a result the book of A.I. Yarotskiy titled "Idealism as a physiological factor" (1908) found less resonance in the scientific community than it deserved. Perhaps that is why in 1911 while analyzing the possibilities of the positive approach to psychotherapy Bekhterev refers to a book by Joseph Martsinovskiy, which was issued later than Yarotskiy’s monograph, and does not mention the work of his fellow countryman [2]. Although, in fairness, it should be noted that "the first popularizer of Freud's ideas in Russia" N.E. Osipov not only noticed this book, but also criticized it as being contrary to the psychoanalytic basis in his articles "Idealistic sentiments and psychotherapy. On the book of professor Yarotskiy" (1910) and "Psychotherapy in literary works L.N. Tolstoy (an excerpt from the work titled "Tolstoy and medicine")" (1911). It could not have been otherwise, because Yarotskiy insisted on the therapeutic value of high ideals and aspirations, without which "any distinction between human and veterinary medicine would have erased" [14; 22], while Freud held a different view of human nature and psychotherapy. Importantly, V.N. Myasishchev and B.G. Karvasarsky considerd arete therapy of A.I. Yarotskiy to be a significant historical milestone in the formation of the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) school of psychotherapy. It was the positive approach which has become the cornerstone of psychotherapeutic methods of Bekhterev, Myasishchev, Karvasarskiy [16]. There were objective reasons for that: particularities of Russian culture and as a result — particularities of Russian school of philosophy. Unlike western philosophy, Russian philosophy differed by its optimism and faith in the man. Suffice it to recall the 30-year-long dispute about the man’s nature between Martin Heidegger and Semyon Frank [15]. Therefore, a positive understanding of human nature could not but become a determining factor for the Russian psychologists. This is confirmed by the fact that even the "psychoanalytic works of Lou Salome are characteristic of enthusiasm and optimism, so different from the grim stoicism of late Freud’s works" [20]. And after all Lou von Salome was not only a student, but also the muse of Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche. And it is no mere chance that it was she who became a personal analysator of Anna Freud and was the first (in 1896) to describe in Russian the main provisions of Nietzsche's philosophy. However, Lou von Salome was a Russian in the first place — in terms of her view of life. Despite the long years she spent in Germany, she felt as a part of the Russian world — she was well familiar with Russian philosophy, maintained relations with Russian poets, artists, writers, psychologists and psychiatrists. This is where the roots of her optimistic approach were. Etkind writes that "erotic psychology of Lou Salome, combining such diverse spiritual influences as Nietzsche’s romanticism, Solovyov's religious philosophy and Freud’s psychoanalysis, remained associated with the main channel of contemporary Russian culture" [Ibid]. This thesis can also be illustrated through the example of formation of the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) school of psychotherapy. The following statement of V.M. Bekhterev is filled with a deep faith in human nature: "… a man is not only able to improve, but he can not help improving in the surrounding environment, and so his improvement continues relentlessly, slowly at one point and fast at another, but it goes on and on for the lifetime until its final limit. In every moment of a human life there is only a step to get higher — to the highest forms and manifestations of individuality — that is the fundamental rule of the normal development of human life". The ideology of pathogenetic psychotherapy was expressed by Vladimir Myasishchev as follows: "It is mobilization of all the best, the superior in man that should be the main task of psychotherapy". In these words, you can easy hear the voice of A.F. Lazurskiy and A.I. Yarotsky [15]. The technical side of psychotherapy was regarded by V.N. Myasischev (in continuation of V.M. Bekhterev’s views) primarily as methods of persuasion and re-education: "The power of teachers and doctors is to master the mindset of a student or a patient to make the correct point of view the point of view of the directed person, and to make the right attitude his attitude" [12]. His student E.K. Yakovleva elaborated on these thoughts: "Psychotherapy has two aims: firstly, the restructuring of the patient’s existing attitude affected by disorders, which prevented a correct reflection of reality, and secondly, the development of those aspects of the patient's personality that were insufficiently developed" [21]. It is easy to notice that pathogenetic psychotherapy focuses on developing practices that is possible only with a positive image of the man [Ibid]. Boris Dmitrievich Karvasarsky spoke very briefly: "Man is kind by nature". As one of the Russian experimental psychology forbearers Chizh turned out to be able for bringing a dramatic change of the view on research methods. Then the method of clinical surveillance was regarded as of paramount importance. In 1912 in his work "Pedagogics as an art and as a science" he notes: "Only ideation and intuition can open the riddles of psychical life. Scientifically we perceive in psychical life "from the point of common", but the intimate. Individual core of the person could be reached only by the intuition and a man can't help but regret about his vain efforts to replace the intuition with discursive cognition. It is as impossible as hearing colors and seeing sounds". <…> "Outstanding clinicians individualize their patients, they do not treat the diseases, they treat patients. Those doctors are artists, and as the best representative of this kind can be considered S.P. Botkin. This is the secret of their success and the charm, which they impose for their patients" [6; 14]. Thus Chizh suggested to reconsider the results of historical controversy between psychologies K.D. Kavelin (1818—1885) and physiologist I.M. Sechenov (1829—1905) on the ways scientific psychology development. Kavelin used the same method as Wundt, describing thoughts and feelings of culture creators in terms of armchair psychology. During the work on his book "Aims of psychology" he based on the enormous material describing character, mental abilities, family relations, beliefs and features of behavior of Russian people, gathered in the archives of Geographical Society of Russia. For several decades thousands members and volunteers of Geographical Society of Russia (teachers, doctors, landlords, civil servants, priests) had been working with one and same scheme in different locations, "where Rus can only be found". Collected materials were so unique that such famous western psychologies as George Wundt and Herbert Spenser expressed their regrets on impossibility of working in the archives of Geographical Society of Russia. "Fight for the future" was won by Sechenov. In 1872 when the famous discussion occurred Chizh was only 17 years old. No surprise that he became a staunch supporter of experimental method and after many years Chizh achieved the connection of both scientific lines. It was symbolic, that the last published article of V.F. Chizh became "Psychology of village ditty", where he wrote about Russian people with great affection, while the last significant Freud's work was "Moses and monotheism" with analysis of an absolutely essential moment of the Jewish people history. In 1915 Vladimir Chizh, being loyal to his convictions, went to war. After becoming an Authorized Representative of Russian Red Cross in Kiev, he organized the public assistance for mentally unsound soldiers of Russian army. V.F. Chizh passed away there in the house of senior writes near Kiev on the 4th, December 1922 [6]. The year 1922 turned out to be ambiguous for Freud. London University honored him as one of five genius of mankind. He entered the society of Philo, Maimonides, Spinoza and Einstein. In a year the book "The Ego and the Id", where the personality theory was described for the first time, was published. Although that year Freud was diagnosed with "intraoral cancer" and due to the medical condition he started taking opiates. Sigmund Freud’s last 15 years of life were filled with various events, but the peak of his scientific work passed then, in the year of Vladimir Chizhov's death. Turning back to the questions specified in the beginning of the article, it’s important to mark that Sigmund Freud had been seeking for his scientific destination but when he had found it he never stopped. All his efforts were directed towards the achievement of his objective. He had to back down his academical career and focused on writing monographs, where he explained the essence of his personal theory and psychoanalytic therapy at large. He spent enormous time for creation of the first world’s professional association, gathering together representatives of the same psychotherapeutic method, psychoanalytic therapy. Vladimir Chizh, conversely didn’t use once created scientific and organization capacity. He diffused strength and time for the sake of many important but immediate tasks and as a result he didn’t manage to achieve the main: to finish the creation of personal theory and psychotherapeutic method. At the same time it is important to underline that V.F. Chizh made a huge contribution into the establishment of clinical psychology in Russia and in the world, as for example in the series of papers he generalized an amount of life and medical observations and considerations. But those times (at least till the end of the 19th century) no one developed on Russian basis the understanding of personality and individuality from the fundamental medical points. He is the author of more than 200 published works, including several monographs on different questions of psychiatry, neuropathology, criminal anthropology and psychology. More than a half of them are the original works, the others though are detailed and instructive reviews, interviews, analysis covering the questions of psychology. Moreover, V.F. Chizh is the forebear of experimental psychology in Russia. It is a historic evidence, that in the Kazan Physiological Laboratory the colleges of V.M. Bekhterev we rewriting the results, gained by Chizh. Turning back to the comparison of the main line of the article, it’s necessary to remind that V.F. Chizh was the first in the world, who had stated the "principle of complacency" at least 6 year earlier than Freud did it. Moreover, he developed an original system of incentives, where the "principle of complacency" is only a part and not the whole. Thus, V.F. Chizh created a scientific basis on which A.F. Lazurskiy later developed the world's first theory of personality. It should also be noted that V.F. Chizh was one of the first in Russia to postulate the importance of the activity approach in psychology. He regarded labour as "an essential need of a man" and emphasized that only labour "makes a person a worthy fellow member of the human society", and without it "one cannot be moral" [Ibid].
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For citation Slabinskii V.Yu. Vladimir Chizh and Sigmund Freud: similarity of biographies and dissemblance of fates. Med. psihol. Ross., 2015, no. 3(32), p. 1 [in Russian, in English]. Available at: http://mprj.ru ↑
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