Understanding Vygotsky: A Quest for Synthesis

This book presents the most comprehensive introduction to the life and ideas of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) yet written. As a key to understanding one of the most potent influences on developmental theories this century, Van der Veer and Valsiner explore Vygotsky's ideas in the contexts of Russian psychology and the politics of the inter-war years. The authors chart Vygotsky's intellectual development through the course of his life, establishing links with his predecessors and contemporaries and illustrating his intellectual interdependence with the contemporary scientific community and the creative endeavors of the fine arts. Careful analysis of his social context allows detailed discussion of Vygotsky's indebtedness to literary scholarship, with psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology and paedology.

Understanding Vygotsky not only shows the extent to which Vygotsky's work can be further developed to be relevant to the end of the twentieth century but also opens up scope for a more detailed analysis of his contemporaries. It will be essential reading for all students of Vygotsky and his ideas.

Rene van der Veer has taught at the Free University of Amsterdam and the University of Leiden, where he is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Education.

Jaan Valsiner has been teaching developmental psychology and pursuing collaborative research at a number of different universities in Europe, the USA, Australia and Brazil, since his departure from the Soviet Union in 1980. For the last decade he has been a faculty member of the Developmental Psychology Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.