Abstract
In a recent study, Lev Vygotsky’s intellectual work has been characterized as motivated by a “quest for synthesis” (Van der Veer & Valsiner, 1991). Vygotsky possessed a broad knowledge of the psychological ideas of his time; he was internationally oriented and personally acquainted with many psychologists outside the Soviet Union. His persistent concern was to transcend the contemporary state of knowledge in psychology and to bring to a synthesis the theoretical ideas which he found in the intellectual community of the 1920s and 1930s. He did this by creating novel ideas in an effort to bring others’ intellectual achievements together. Van der Veer and Valsiner write that “his best-known contributions…are all reflections on and developments of the original work of his predecessors and contemporaries” (1991, p. 397). Among these “best-known contributions” is Vygotsky’s theory of sociogenesis, which he borrowed to a large extent from Pierre Janet (Van der Veer & Valsiner, 1988).
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Elbers, E. (1994). Sociogenesis and Children’s Pretend Play: A Variation on Vygotskian Themes. In: de Graaf, W., Maier, R. (eds) Sociogenesis Reexamined. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2654-3_13
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