Genesis of Personality as a Problem of the PetersburgLeningrad School of Personality Psychology

Introduction. The review article examines the fundamental problem of personality psychology: its genesis. Based on a critical analysis of domestic concepts of the origin, emergence, origin, and "birth" of personality, an attempt is made to systematize the views on personogenesis of the founder of the Petersburg-Leningrad School of Personality Psychology and his followers, who made an important contribution to solving this fundamental problem. Materials and methods. The research materials are scientific publications of domestic authors, which examine the problem of personality genesis. Theoretical research methods were used: theoretical analysis and generalization of materials presented in scientific literature, their systematization. Results. The contribution of V. M. Bekhterev, the founder of the St. Petersburg-Leningrad school of personality psychology, and his followers (A. F. Lazursky, M. Ya. Basov, V. N. Myasishchev, B. G. Ananyev) to solving the problem of personality genesis is established. It is shown that the study of personality and its genesis began thanks to the works of V. M. Bekhterev, who recognized that personality is not born, but arises in the process of ontogenesis with the emergence of a social component of the personal sphere, which is connected with social relations between people and performs an adaptive function, subordinating the organic component of a person's personal sphere. According to V. M. Bekhterev, the attributive feature of personality, which makes it possible to determine its "birth", is self-activity. A. F. Lazursky did not directly study the genesis of personality, but he concretized the concept of "personality's attitude to external objects" or "exopsyche", which was fundamental for M. Ya. Basov and V. N. Myasishchev's understanding of personality and its genesis. M. Ya. Basov focused on externally observable manifestations of a person's attitude to the world. He, recognizing the emergence of personality on the basis of the interaction of the organism and the environment, defined a number of significant features of the personality's attitude to external objects. Personality is an active participant in the environment, which, due to its organization, has an active impact on the process of personality birth. The interaction of personality and the actively ordered environment is carried out through activity. V. N. Myasishchev considers personality as a set of social relations, a system of individual, selective, conscious, hierarchical connections of personality with various aspects of reality. This system is an attributive feature of personality, which also develops on a "conditioned reflex" basis and testifies to the birth of personality. B. G. Ananyev, as the creator of the Soviet Leningrad School of Psychology, adhering to the idea of the emergence of personality based on the development of the individual, focuses on understanding the genesis of personality not in the ontogenetic development of the individual, but in the process of life. "The birth of personality" occurs at the start stage. The criteria for the emergence of personality is the independent inclusion of a person through professional activity or work in public life. Discussion and conclusions. A critical analysis of the works of the founder of the Petersburg-Leningrad school of psychology V. M. Bekhterev and his followers A. F. Lazursky, M. Ya. Basov, V. N. Myasishchev and B. G. Ananyev showed that none of them specifically and purposefully studied the genesis of personality, its birth. As a result of the study of personality and its development, representatives of the Petersburg-Leningrad first domestic school of personality psychology formulated a number of theoretical and methodological provisions that can be considered as prerequisites for the development of the concept of the genesis of personality. Firstly, the understanding that personality does not arise from birth, but is preceded by an individual who, obeying the basic biological law of the unity of the organism and the environment, a new way of interaction between man and the environment appears. Secondly, two independent lines of development were identified in the works: the ontogenetic development of the individual and the life path of the individual. Thirdly, representatives of the St. Petersburg-Leningrad school of personality psychology were the first to attempt to identify the attributive features of personality.