The life path of the individual. How to choose a life path and not make a mistake

What is a person's life path - is it his own choice or destiny? Faced with a new problem, a person asks himself this question more than once. There is no single opinion. Most people attribute all their failures in life to fate, and all achievements to their abilities and personal qualities.

What is a life path

Ultimately, this is the life a person lives. Why way? Life is a constant movement, development. Therefore, they say that life is a path, a road that a person needs to go through. Like any road, it has two points: the initial - birth, and the final - death. The further a person moves along this path, the greater the baggage of his knowledge. The more he learns, the wiser he becomes, the shorter the path that remains for him to go.

Its duration depends on health, the combination of many circumstances and the intersection of human destinies. The quality of the life path is directly proportional to the efforts of a person that he makes in achieving his goals.

Different views on the path traveled by man

Realists argue that the choice of life path always remains with the person. Everything that he achieves in this life is the result of efforts, knowledge, movement towards the chosen goal. Most will agree with this. People who have set themselves a certain goal in life and, despite the obstacles moving towards it, always achieve it. But each of the realists will agree that situations and events happen in life that are completely independent of the will of a person. They make changes to their lives. What is it - quite explainable or rock of fate, from which you can not run away?

It is customary for mystics to believe that a person's life is programmed by someone in advance, but is not protected from the influence of life circumstances. This can be confirmed by negative events that haunt a person throughout life. But psychologists give this their explanation and name - "stuck" emotions. If they are negative, then by creating negative energy around them, they also attract similar events to themselves. But what “stuck” emotions can explain wars, disasters, accidents, and other incidents? So there is something above.

Philosophical view

From the point of view of philosophy, the life path is considered as the history of the formation and formation of a person, personality. It should be noted that not every person in the process of formation becomes a personality. It all depends on the significance, eventfulness of his path. Here, too, everything begins with birth, and ends with the transition to another world.

Some philosophers interpret the concept of "life path" a little differently. Explaining everything by the sequence of passing through certain stages of changing a person, becoming a person. These are infancy, childhood, adolescence, youth, maturity, old age, old age. Each has its own significant events and leaves an indelible mark on a person's life.

There are many other definitions of the concept of "life path", but they all, one way or another, come down to the above concepts. This is the passage by a person of all stages of the path from birth to death, his evolution, significance in the life of society.

Events in a person's life, their meaning and sequence

Since we live in a society, a person's life path does not go by itself, it is influenced by certain events and their sequence. Events can have a positive and negative meaning in the fate of a person, help to reveal talents, make them stronger or, conversely, break them. Make adjustments to his fate. For example, meeting a person with a bright personality, whether positive or negative, can turn a person's life around sharply, speed up or slow down his movement towards a certain goal.

A private event can affect one person or his loved ones, change their fate. Events in the life of the country affect many destinies. You can fight with some of them, try to change their influence on your life, extract some benefit for yourself and those around you. Others are perceived as fate, a given that you need to try to survive. But practically not a single event passes without a trace, it leaves a certain trace in a person's life.

Emotions associated with events

The formation of a person depends on many factors. This is physical and spiritual development, knowledge that he acquires in the process of living. Of great importance are emotions caused by certain events that carry a positive or negative charge. Positive ones make life brighter, happier, livelier, richer. They give a person faith in life, people and themselves. They strengthen health, give strength.

Negative events, on the one hand, cause difficult emotions: fear, disappointment, dejection, loss of a person's faith in the best. They can destroy life, crush him as a person. They are the source of various diseases. On the other hand, if a person has a strong character, they can make him even stronger, wiser. The Christian faith calls difficult events associated with negative emotions, trials that a person needs to go through and overcome them.

Purpose of life as a driving force

Each path should lead a person to a specific goal. Without it, life is meaningless. A goal, no matter how small, is a stimulus that helps you move forward, and movement is life. Having reached the goal, a person receives a lot of positive emotions, self-confidence, satisfaction from what has been achieved. Without it, a person does not live, but exists. It is a tragedy when we do not see any meaning in our lives. Having achieved the small, you can move on, try to reach the big peaks.

Vocation or permanent employment

It is impossible to go your own way without difficulty. A profession or vocation is one of the main phases of a person's life. It is she who plays a huge role in his formation as a person. Life and creativity are inseparable. Labor, creativity are an important part in the fate of every person. The quality and comfort of life depends on the choice of profession. Prestigious work that can provide certain benefits requires knowledge, skills and many other qualities.

Favorite work brings not only material well-being, but also a lot of positive emotions, a sense of satisfaction. Work is not to your liking oppresses. If it is impossible to change an unloved job, then there is a sense of doom, characteristic of a forced person.

The roads we choose

How to choose your own path, along which you can reach the end with honor? The problem of the life path is the choice of the goal to which it leads. Each person is unique, and his path through life is purely individual. Despite the rich human experience: hundreds of books by brilliant authors who described the fate of heroes in their works; published biographies of thousands of prominent people; a complete analysis of trial and error, roads leading nowhere - everyone goes his own way, makes his own mistakes and falls.

The path that a person chooses, he will have to go through. No need to be afraid of mistakes, falls and disappointments - this is an experience that will come in handy in life. It makes us stronger, more self-confident. There is another condition that will help you understand all the intricacies and vicissitudes of your own destiny, teach you how to analyze and extract the grain of truth. This is knowledge. Lifelong learning is a prerequisite for success.

Heroes of "War and Peace" in search of the meaning of life

Everyone wants to live a decent life. At any age, a person dreams of good things. In their essays about the life path, schoolchildren who have not yet gained sufficient knowledge, having passed only an insignificant period of life, write about their choice, not imagining what lies ahead for them. This is good. This is an occasion to think, let the essay be written in other people's words and much is not always clear in the actions of literary heroes. But their destinies, written by the master, will make it possible to understand that the main thing is to have a clear goal in front of you and go towards it.

An example of this is the fate of the heroes of War and Peace. Pierre's life path is a spiritual path of searching for his place in life, full of suffering, mistakes and disappointments, which led to love and happiness. For his spiritual work was not in vain, he learned to understand people, appreciate the true and reject the false. He, an illegitimate child, deprived of a family, the love of his parents, was an eccentric who was laughed at and not taken seriously. Becoming a Freemason, he was deeply disappointed.

Having become the owner of a huge fortune, he suddenly becomes a person who was admired in the eyes, and behind his back they continued to consider worthless. He got acquainted with flattery, sycophancy, fawning, perfectly aware of this. Love for Helen made him unhappy, as he understood that this woman simply cannot love. She uses him for her own purposes, cheating on him. Only after going through French captivity and falling in love with Natasha, he understood the meaning of life, feeling his need and finding happiness.

Most schoolchildren prefer to write essays about Bolkonsky's life path, since it is more understandable. This main character, lovingly described by L. Tolstoy, unlike his friend Pierre Bezukhov, is handsome, respected in society. He knows what is needed in life. He did not need to look for the meaning of life, he saw it in the service of the Fatherland, caring for an elderly father and raising a young son. Endowed with all positive qualities, knowing the path to follow, was he happy? After all, it is simple human happiness, according to Bezukhov, that is the highest meaning of life.

The life path of a person ... What is it? A simple set of biography facts or a subjective picture of the world, something destined or moving, changing at the will of the personality itself?

Questions that are not so easy to answer. However, one can speculate and see what opinions scientists express about this fundamental problem.

What Science Says

The problem of the life path is studied by many disciplines: psychology, history, philosophy, biology... And of course, experts in each field offer to look at this problem from a certain angle. For example, biologists talk about the importance of the so-called sensitive periods in a person's life, that is, those in which the most favorable conditions are created for the formation of certain properties and qualities of the body (for example, the period of speech development).

Sociologists note the importance of social rituals: coming of age, marriage… After all, after such events, as a rule, a person has a new set of rights and obligations, his attitude towards himself and the attitude of others change.

Now psychology defines the life path of the individual very broadly: the process of individual development from birth to death. But is it really individual? Each of us is influenced by the rules and norms accepted in society, the same social rituals that exist in any culture.

It is believed that you need to finish school, then a university, work, start a family ... Or are the biological stages of development the same for all organisms of the same species, which we also already mentioned? And then how to find your own, really your own way, if everything seems to be decided for you?

Here comes another term - "life cycle". It just includes the recurring, already defined stages of development that all people must go through - the biological and social stages. The first, for example, include birth, childhood, youth, growing up, aging ... The second - the assimilation of any social role, its performance, and then the rejection of it.

Where are we going

It was from the definition of the life cycle that Charlotte Buhler, the researcher who proposed the concept of “personal life path”, was repelled. Unlike the life cycle, the life path includes the ability to choose from a variety of options. Considering the relationship between the phases of the life cycle and studying the biographies of real people belonging to different social groups, she identified three lines that set the direction of human life.

• Objective events that come to replace each other.
• The way a person experiences the change of these events, his spiritual world.
• results of human action.

In general, according to Buhler, the main force that makes a person move along the path of life is the desire for "self-fulfillment", that is, the achievement of all goals, conscious or unconscious. Buhler identified the stages of the life path, based on two factors - the age of a person and his attitude towards goals in each period of development.

• Up to 16-20 years: before self-determination. Questions about how to find your life path do not bother a person yet.
• Up to 25-30 years: activation of tendencies towards self-determination. A person is looking for a suitable type of activity, chooses a life partner. Goals and plans for life are still preliminary.
• Up to 45-50 years: the culmination of self-determination. This is the heyday: it is believed that it was possible to determine a professional vocation, to create a stable family. There are already results that can be compared with the intended goals. However, a crisis may also occur at this stage. A person may realize that goals have not been achieved or have been set incorrectly.
• Up to 65-70 years: a decrease in tendencies towards self-determination. The psychology of personality is changing: from now on, a person is more turned back, to the past, and not to the possibility of new achievements.
• From 70 years: after self-determination. A person is seized by the desire for regularity and peace. At this stage, a person can appreciate life as a whole.

Buhler singled out the event as an elementary structural unit of life, and, as she believed, events can be objective (occurring in the external world) and subjective (in the inner world of the individual). It's interesting that a large number of The latter, according to the researcher, indicates more active attempts to find out one's destiny, a stronger desire for self-determination.

The first Russian scientist who considered the problem of the life path, S. L. Rubinshtein, also adhered to the event approach. In his opinion, only certain turning points that set the direction of personality development in the later period of life can be attributed to events. Rubinstein insisted that the life path must be considered not only as a process of development of the organism, but also as an individual history of a particular person.

The individual contribution of a person is also emphasized by K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya. The researcher does not deny that a person is limited by society and the norms prevailing in it, but at the same time, she is able, by comparing herself with others, to find her place in the world. A special view of one's own life is important - it must be considered as controlled, subject to the mind and efforts of a person.

In search of myself

Modern psychology as a whole notes several factors that affect a person's life path: a certain historical period, objective events occurring during it, social norms, actions of a person, her inner experiences, and so on.

One way or another, it’s hard not to admit that the choice of a life path largely depends on the person himself. Any periodization of the development of life is conditional, each approach is subjective.

For example, one can argue with the stage of old age in Buhler's concept. Yes, of course, this is a less active period compared to maturity, but life (especially in our age) does not stop at all after 70 years. It is the same with the earliest stage: certain individuals are known who, already in adolescence, have decided on plans for life.

This must not be forgotten when trying to find your way in life: in the end, the choice is always yours. Of course, the problem of choosing a life path after reading this text will not be solved. It will not be resolved even after a dozen such texts or more serious psychological works.

Psychology can only partly help here, but competent psychological training or specialist advice may tell you in which direction to move. In any case, you have begun the search for an answer, which means that you have stepped on a difficult, but incredibly interesting and useful path of self-improvement. And it's already great! Author: Evgeniya Bessonova

Personal life strategy

The life path is an individual history of a person, its content, ideological essence. The structure of the life path includes those facts, events and actions that determine the formation of an individual as a person.

Life path strategy:

It begins with a concentration of teenage dreams and fuzzy desires, plans in which the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bits own future arises.

Through the choice of a profession and specific life plans, a life program is realized in which a person embodies his vocation, a specific dominant goal and purpose of his life.

An active attitude towards oneself and one's life practice enables a person to a large extent consciously determine the plot and direction of the life path in physical, social and spiritual spatio-temporal coordinates.

Realizing his needs and motives, satisfying his interests, a person determines his life path in the course of study, communication and work.

A life strategy is a constant alignment of one's personality with the nature and way of one's life, the construction of life, first based on one's individual capabilities and data, and then on those that are developed in life. The strategy of life consists in ways of changing, transforming conditions, situations of life in accordance with the values ​​of the individual, in upholding the main thing at the cost of concessions in the private, overcoming one's fear of loss and in finding oneself.

Life strategy can be based on the idea of:

integrity;

phasing;

prospects for your life.

Each person has their own strategy. It is an individual organization, a constant regulation of the course of life as it is carried out in a direction corresponding to the values ​​of a given personality and its individuality.

Five phases of the human life cycle (Sh. Buhler, 1968):

General characteristics of the phases of the life cycle.

• 1.1 to 16/20 - no family, profession, no life path;
• 1.2.16 /20-23/30 - preliminary self-determination, choice of a spouse;
• 1.3.23 /30-45/50 - maturity - own family, found a calling, sets specific life goals, self-realization;
• 1.4.45 / 50 - 69/70 - an aging person, a difficult age of a spiritual crisis, self-determination disappears by the end, setting life goals;
• 1.5.69/70. - an old person, no social ties, aimless existence, turning to the past, passive expectation of death, self-completion.

The views of S. Buhler (1968) on the problem of the life path of the individual:

the life of a particular person is not accidental, but natural, it lends itself not only to description, but also to explanation;

the main driving force of personality development is the innate human desire for self-fulfillment, self-fulfillment, that is, the comprehensive realization of oneself;

a person can realize himself only through creativity, creation;

self-fulfillment is the result of life's journey.

The theoretical background of this approach is covered in the works of S.L. Rubinstein (1989), B.G. Ananiev (1980), K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya (1991), I.I. Loginova (1978) and others. In modern Western psychology, B. Liverhood (1977), H. Tohme (1983) dealt with this problem.

Life path according to S.L. Rubinshtein (1989) is a movement towards perfection (aesthetic, social, psychological). For B.G. Ananiev (1980) the main characterization of life is the age of a person. Age connects the social and biological into the main "quanta" - periods of life. In the life path, he distinguishes knowledge, activity, communication through which the personality manifests itself, and several periods of life (Table 51).

Life path - the life of a person as a person, the history of individual development (B.G. Ananiev, 1980).

periods of life.

Manifestations of personality in the process of life path:

childhood - education, training, development;

youth - training, education, communication;

maturity - professionalism, social self-determination of the individual, the creation of a family, the implementation of socially useful activities;

old age is a departure from socially useful and professional activities, maintaining activity in the family sphere.

K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya (1991) highlights the problems of personal life:

correlating oneself with a variety of social conditions, forms and structures of life, its explicit and hidden principles and mechanisms, and determining one's trajectory of movement in them;

correlating oneself with the forms of social life in which one has to live and act, revealing one's capabilities, and on this basis determining one's place in these forms, structures - one of the main tasks of individual life;

separation, on the one hand, of the interest of society and the individual contribution of each person to public life, in the direction of using his abilities and, on the other hand, creating the conditions for the development of his individuality by the individual himself.

The biggest difficulty in posing the problem of personal life is precisely to realize it as a problem, to imagine it not as it spontaneously develops, but as it could be with a reasonable attitude to life and efforts.

Life Path Research Methods

The formation and development of the psychology of the life path in the twentieth century led to the emergence of new ways of self-analysis of the development of the individual during his life. Many of these methods are denoted by the term "biographical" method of studying personality (from the Greek "bios" - life, "grapos" - description).

The biographical method originally arose as a literary method; its largest representative is the French critic and writer of the 19th century. Sainte-Beuve. The biographical method, understood from the point of view of not only history, but also the prospects for the development of the individual, is of particular value, since the study of the life path is becoming one of the central, key problems of modern human knowledge.

The concept of "biographical method" has different meanings. We note a few:

This is the use of biographical directories, biographies, which has become widespread in psychology and the history of science, as a source of obtaining data on the personal and psychological characteristics of a person.

Use for the analysis of materials of various kinds of personal documents (autobiographies, letters, diaries, memoirs, etc.), as well as biographical interviews and questionnaires.

Using biographical analysis techniques to predict a person's creative achievements. For example, biographical questionnaires, the main idea of ​​which is to ask questions aimed at highlighting events, attitudes, preferences, behaviors already associated with the past, which are more predictive than questions related to present events.

The meaning of the biographical method lies in the search for significant lines of personality development, highlighting the key events of this development, establishing the relationship between them. The biographical method is embodied through:

a biographical interview (eg, a "life choice" biographical interview);

computer methods of life choice (for example, the system "Persoplan" (A.G. Shmelev); "Biograph" (A.A. Kronik); "Lifeline" (A.A. Kronik);

tests (for example, the Life Satisfaction Index test);

situational causometry (associated with the problems of forecasting and studying the realism of our expectations (I.B. Kuzmina).

Hermeneutics - a method of descriptive psychology, common to the sciences of society, culture, man, is the art of interpreting various kinds of texts - literary, religious, historical, scientific, etc. An analogue of hermeneutics in objective psychology is the method of analyzing products of activity. There is a broad understanding of hermeneutics, which includes the understanding and interpretation of any texts. Moreover, the totality of human experience as a whole can act as a "text". This experience can be presented both in various kinds of texts and in other products of material and spiritual culture. In psychology, these can be stories, autobiographies, drawings, actions, behavior, etc. Thus, psychological hermeneutics is the art and theory of interpreting and understanding psychological experience. The method of hermeneutics is used among the methods of descriptive psychology to study and describe the life path of a person.

Signs of a stop in personal growth

Personal growth is spontaneous changes that occur in the inner world of a person and are expressed in constructive mastery of the environment, socially beneficial development and cooperation with people.

Personal growth involves:

expansion of zones of self-awareness (F. Perls);

full awareness of real life "here and now";

deciding how to live in the present moment;

taking responsibility for your choices.

Personal growth is a controversial process, on the way of which there are many obstacles. The main contradiction of personal growth comes from the dual nature of man. A serious obstacle to personal growth can be the contradiction between the desire for love and recognition from the outside and the natural need for activity, self-realization of one's own aspirations. Personal growth requires constant change, reassessment of previous experience at each new stage of its development.

Personal growth is a complex dialectical process, in order to resolve the contradictions of which each person needs in his life to be able to:

to understand and accept oneself, one's individuality, because, knowing oneself, a person gains true freedom and independence;

determine your place in life, among other people, because, connecting with people, a person receives their love and support;

find the value and meaning of your life, your unique purpose, bearing responsibility for this, because this is the main goal of personal growth.

Pathogenic mechanisms that interfere with personality development are as follows:

passive position in relation to reality;

repression and other ways of protecting the "I": projection, substitution, distortion of the true state of affairs for the sake of internal balance and tranquility.

Degradation of the personality is promoted by psychological and social factors. Stages of personality degradation:

• 1) the formation of a "pawn" psychology, a global sense of one's dependence on other forces (the phenomenon of "learned helplessness");
• 2) creating a shortage of goods, as a result, primary needs for food and survival become leading;
• 3) the creation of "purity" of the social environment - the division of people into "good" and "bad"; "ours" and "them", the creation of guilt and shame for oneself;
• 4) the creation of a cult of "self-criticism", recognition even in the commission of those disapproved acts that a person has never committed;
• 5) the preservation of "sacred foundations" (it is forbidden even to think, to doubt the fundamental premises of ideology);
• 6) the formation of a specialized language (complex problems are compressed into short, very simple, easy-to-remember expressions).

As a result of all these factors, "unreal existence" becomes habitual for a person, because from a complex, contradictory, indefinite real world, a person passes into an "unreal world of clarity, simplicity", he forms several "Selves", isolated functionally from each other.

Signs of a stop in personal growth:

self-acceptance;

intrapersonal conflict;

unproductive personal orientations;

violation of internal harmony, balance between the personality and the environment;

closeness to new experience;

narrowing of the boundaries of "I";

orientation to external values ​​and reference points (discrepancy between real and ideal self);

lack of flexibility, spontaneity;

narrowing of zones of self-awareness;

not taking responsibility for one's being, etc.

Personal defense mechanisms

Defense mechanisms are a special kind of mental activity, implemented in the form of specific information processing techniques that can prevent the loss of self-esteem and avoid the destruction of the unity of the "I image". For the most part, psychological defense is destructive in nature (Table 52).

Let us characterize the most frequently "working" psychological defense mechanisms, both identified in psychoanalysis and described by other researchers (F.V. Bassin, F.E. Vasilyuk, R.M. Granovskaya, I.S. Kon).

Denial is defined as the process of eliminating, ignoring traumatic perceptions of external reality. This defense mechanism reveals itself in conflicts associated with the appearance of motives that destroy the basic attitudes of the individual; with the advent of information that threatens self-preservation, prestige, self-respect. The basic formula of negation: "there is no danger, this is not"; "I don't see, I don't hear", etc. In everyday life, such a mechanism is referred to as the "position of an ostrich" (for example, the reaction to a serious diagnosis of a disease is denial, disbelief in it).

Psychological defense mechanisms

Repression is a mechanism for getting rid of internal conflict by excluding an unacceptable motive or unwanted information from consciousness. The phenomena of forgetting something are very often associated with repression. For example, facts that are especially inconvenient for us are easily forgotten.

Projection - the process of attributing (transferring) one's own feelings, desires and personality traits, in which a person does not want to admit to himself because of their unacceptability, to another person. Thus, a miser is inclined to note greed in other people, an aggressive one - cruelty, etc. A person who constantly ascribes his own unseemly motives to others is called a hypocrite.

Identification is a protective mechanism in which a person sees another in himself, transfers to himself the motives and qualities inherent in another person. There is also a positive point in identification - it is a mechanism for the assimilation of social experience. The emotional empathy of the viewer or reader with the heroes of a work of art is based on the mechanism of identification. As a defense mechanism, identification is used when an individual involuntarily becomes wholly or partly like another in order to avert their own desires or associated representations and affects that cause fear. For example, an eight-year-old girl who would love to play with her friends but has not yet done her homework is identifyingly adopting the behavior of her father, who spends long hours every day at his desk.

Regression is a protective mechanism by which the subject seeks to avoid internal anxiety, to lose self-esteem in conditions of increased responsibility with the help of those behaviors that were adequate at earlier stages of development. Regression is the return of a person from higher forms of behavior to lower ones. Infantilism in behavior and relationships is a striking phenomenon of regression.

Reactive formations are a protective mechanism for transforming a traumatic motive into its opposite. For example, an unaccountable, unreasonable hostility towards a person can turn into a special precaution towards him, through which the subject tries to overcome his own aggressive feelings, and, on the contrary, sympathy for a person can often be demonstrated in forms characteristic of hostility.

Rationalization is the attribution of logical or plausible grounds to behavior whose motives are unacceptable or unknown, as an excuse to others or to oneself for one's failure. In particular, rationalization is associated with an attempt to reduce the value of the inaccessible. This mechanism is also called "green grapes" (according to the well-known fable by I.A. Krylov "The Fox and the Grapes").

Substitution is a defense mechanism associated with the transfer of an action from an inaccessible object to an accessible one. Substitution discharges the tension created by an unrealizable need, an unattainable goal.

Isolation, or alienation - isolation and localization within the consciousness of factors that injure a person. Access to consciousness for traumatic feelings is blocked, so that the connection between a certain event and its emotional coloring is not reflected in consciousness. The phenomena of "split (splitting) personality" can be associated with such protection. According to clinical data, the milker embodies that which is alien to the first "I"; while different "I" may not know anything about each other.

Sublimation. The relation of sublimation to defense mechanisms is debatable: some psychoanalysts consider sublimation a defense mechanism, but emphasize that it is, moreover, an individual criterion of maturity of a particular kind; it leads to the fact that the individual renounces the immediate and direct satisfaction of drives and, the energy released in this case, passes into the disposal of the "I" for cultural activity.

Manifestations of psychological protection:

in the actions of a person to preserve the habitual opinion about himself,

in actions to reject or change information that is perceived as unfavorable and destroys basic ideas about oneself or about others.

For the first time, defense mechanisms were identified by Z. Freud (1989); their special study is connected with the name of his daughter - A. Freud (1993).

(1859-1947) was one of the first to attempt to depict the mental evolution of a person in real time, correlate age phases and biographical stages of the life path, link biological, psychological and historical time in a single coordinate system of personality evolution.
Karl Jaspers refers Janet's ideas to the so-called theories of stages, or levels. It is typical for such theories to consider mental life as a whole, within which each element takes its place, and the entire set of elements is structured in the form of a pyramid. The top of the pyramid represents the goal or essential vital reality. The links between the levels are realized through the relationship between the goals and the means of the present existence. "Janet interprets functions as a descending series. The top corresponds to the" function of the real ", expressed in volitional acts, attention and sensation of the reality of the moment. Below is" uninterested activity ", then the function" imagination "(fantasy), then" visceral reaction of feeling " and, finally, "useless somatic movements" (Jaspers K. General psychopathology. M., 1997. P. 644).
Pierre Janet formulated the position that the primary is real action produced in conditions of cooperation between people. In the future, this action from the real becomes verbal, and then is reduced and passes into the internal plane - the plane of soundless speech, and finally, turns into a mental action. All internal operations are the essence of transformed external ones, performed in a situation of cooperation.
There was a special aspect in the group act of cooperation, the focus on which led to the conclusion that in the interaction of individuals there is not only a social, but also a psychological context. He proclaims cooperation principle, according to which human behavior is built not only on the basis of collective ideas, has a motivational charge and is implemented by a system of external and internal operations, but also includes the relationship between participants in associated activities. The analysis of the category "attitude" is considered by him as a special aspect of a person's mental activity, which cannot be fully disclosed either in the categories of sociology or in terms of the psychology of the image-action-motive. The term "psychosocial attitude" was used to designate the new reality. Janet develops a historical approach to the psyche. Emphasizing the social level of behavior and its derivatives - Will - the ability of a person to achieve his goals in the face of overcoming obstacles. The basis for the implementation of volitional processes is the mediation of his behavior characteristic of a person - through the use of socially developed tools or means. It builds a process that has significant individual variations of conscious control over certain emotional states or motives. Due to this control, one acquires the ability to act contrary to strong motivation or to ignore strong emotional experiences. The development of the child's will, starting from early childhood, is carried out through the formation of conscious control over direct behavior in the assimilation of certain rules of behavior.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">will, memory, Thinking is the most generalized and mediated form of mental reflection that establishes connections and relationships between cognizable objects. Thinking is the highest level of human knowledge. Allows you to gain knowledge about such objects, properties and relationships of the real world that cannot be directly perceived at the sensory level of knowledge. The forms and laws of thinking are studied by logic, the mechanisms of its flow - by psychology and neurophysiology. Cybernetics analyzes thinking in connection with the tasks of modeling some mental functions.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">think . P. Janet connects self-consciousness with the development of memory and ideas about time ().
Another concept of the psychological evolution of personality was proposed by Charlotte Buhler (1893-1982). The life path of the individual was revealed through the solution of a number of tasks: 1) biological and biographical research, or the study of the objective conditions of life; 2) studying the history of experiences, the formation and change of values, the evolution of the inner world of a person; 3) analysis of the products of activity, the history of the individual's creativity in different life situations.
Biological and cultural maturation, according to Buhler, do not coincide with each other. Linking these two processes with the peculiarities of the course of mental processes, she distinguishes two phases of adolescence - negative and positive.
Negative phase begins in the prepubertal period and is characterized by restlessness, anxiety, the presence of imbalances in physical and mental development, aggressiveness. In girls, the period of negativity lasts from 2 to 9 months (from 11 to 13 years old) and ends with the onset of menstruation, while in boys the limit of age fluctuations is greater, it falls at the age of 14-16 years.
positive phase comes gradually and is expressed in the fact that a teenager begins to experience feelings of love, beauty, a sense of unity with nature, people, harmony with himself.
In cognition of the inner world of a personality, S. Buhler prefers the biographical method, the study of diaries. Having collected more than 1000 diaries, she discovered a surprising similarity between them, primarily related to topics touched by a teenager, such as feelings of loneliness, self-interest, the problem of time, the search for an ideal, the thirst for love, etc. Theories of P. Janet and S. Buhler belong to the evolutionary-genetic approach, in which an attempt is made to trace the connection between the life path of the individual and age periodization, the ratio of external and internal life events.
The most common method of early theories of the life course of a person is biographical collection of material. Researchers took such empirical procedures very seriously, knowing their advantages and disadvantages. "It is unacceptable to apply the categories of the biographical approach indiscriminately to everything that is revealed in the anamnesis or research. The biographical method is not an explanation, but a kind of observing perception. Using it, we do not discover any new factors or substances like radiations or vitamins. But it has a transformative influence on the fundamental categories of explanation. The inclusion of the subjective factor in the methodology of research is the point at which a shift in fundamental categories occurs "(Cited in: Jaspers K. General psychopathology. M., 1997. P. 812).
This methodology is based on the idea of ​​analyzing individual cases, studying the unique nature of a person, his uniqueness and not always predictability. As a rule, the method of analyzing a single case, at least in experimental psychology, is subjected to biased critical evaluation. It is based on the fact that Deduction - (from lat. deductio - inference) a logical conclusion in the process of thinking from the general to the particular. ");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">deductive the conclusion cannot be built on the basis of Inductive logic - (from Latin inductio - guidance) 1) a logical conclusion in the process of thinking from the particular to the general; 2) the transition from a single knowledge about individual objects of a given class to a general conclusion about all objects of a given class; one of the methods of cognition.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);"> inductive logic used in the study of single life histories. Jaspers, discussing the possibilities of applying the biographical method, proposes to consider individual history from the point of view of the fundamental categories of life history.
Such categories are: consciousness as a means of gaining new automatisms, building a personal world and creativity, sudden, invading changes and adaptation, crisis situations and spiritual development. All the proposed categories are given in the most general, philosophical and methodological interpretation.
Early works on the problem of the evolution of life had common roots - they understood development as an evolutionary, strictly defined process, determined by both external and internal factors; considered the development of human life, on the one hand, as unique, on the other - as a universal process. Both the individual and the general were often presented as already predetermined, predetermined. "A person's life is structured thanks to his work, activities to create his own world, creativity. A person's life, down to the deepest foundations, is determined by the possibilities of constructive activity in the world in which this person grows. The breadth of his horizons, the stability of his foundations, the shocks he experiences - all this as a whole has its source in the world where the given individual was born, and determines the measure of his self-consciousness and the content of his existential experience "(K. Jaspers. General psychopathology. M., 1997. P. 835).
In his work "Philosophical Roots of Experimental Psychology" S.L. Rubinstein wrote that the penetration of the principle of evolution into psychology played a significant role in its development. Firstly, evolutionary theory "introduced a new, very fruitful point of view into the study of mental phenomena, linking the study of the psyche and its development not only with physiological mechanisms, but also with the development of organisms in the process of adaptation to the environment" (), and secondly, led to the development of genetic psychology, stimulating work in the field of phylo- and ontogenesis - (from the Greek on, ontos - being and genesis - birth, origin) the individual development of the body is the totality of transformations undergone by the body from birth to the end of life. The term was introduced by the German biologist E. Haeckel (1866).");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">ontogeny .
S.L. Rubinshtein is one of those domestic psychologists who purposefully dealt with the problem of the individual's life path. He critically reacted to the evolutionary theory of S. Buhler, arguing, contrary to her, that the path of life is not a simple unfolding of a life plan laid down in childhood. This is a socially determined process, at each stage of which neoplasms arise. At the same time, the individual is an active participant in this process, and at any moment can intervene in it. It is in this vein, i.e. in terms of posing the problem of the life path of the individual as a process determined by social and subjective variables, in the 30s of the twentieth century. and the task of studying the individual history of a person was formulated.

11.2. The problem of the life path in the works of S.L. Rubinshtein

11.3. Space and time of personality

Personality and its development have traditionally been considered at the intersection of two axes - time and space. In Russian literature, space is identified with social reality, social space, objective reality. According to A.G. Asmolov, a person becomes a person if, with the help of social groups, he is included in the flow of activities and through their system he learns Exteriorization - (from Latin exterior - external) the transition from an internal, mental plan of action to an external one, implemented in the form of techniques and actions with objects. 2) The opposite is internalization.");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);"> exteriorized in the human world of meaning.
The problem of space and its psychological interpretation was discussed in the works of S.L. Rubinstein. He interprets it as a problem of being, the world and the existence of a person as an acting, acting and interacting subject. This point of view, of course, differs from the position expressed by A.G. Asmolov, since it allows the possibility of organizing the living space by the person himself. The latter is determined by the ability of a person to establish a variety of relationships with other people and their depth. Another person, people's relations, their actions as real "human" and not "objective" conditions of life - such is the ontology of human life. The space of the individual is also determined by her freedom, the ability to go beyond the situation, to reveal her true human nature.
In connection with such an interpretation of the personality space, questions are formulated - freedom and lack of freedom of the individual, the relationship of I-Other, the experience of the state and feelings of loneliness, etc.
The problem of time in the philosophical and psychological literature has been developed in more detail. The solution of the cardinal question for psychology about objective and subjective time made it possible to further reveal the temporal aspects of the psyche, the mechanisms of their action - speed, rhythm, intensity.
In a broader context, the lifetime problem was solved in concepts of personal organization of time K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya. concept personal time is revealed in this theory through the category of activity, which acts as a way of organizing life time, as a way of transforming the potential time of personality development into real life time (see Reader 11.1).
It is hypothetically assumed that personal time has variative-typological character, and cannot be scientifically investigated in terms of individually unique, biographical time.
This hypothesis has been tested in specific empirical studies. So, in the work of V.I. Kovalev identified four types of time regulation. The basis for the construction of the typology were - the nature of the regulation of time and the level of activity.

• The spontaneously ordinary type of time regulation is characterized by dependence on events, situationality, inability to organize a sequence of events, lack of initiative.
• The functionally effective type of time regulation is characterized by the active organization of events in a certain sequence, the ability to regulate this process; the initiative arises only in actuality, there is no prolonged regulation of the life time - the life line.
• The contemplative type is characterized by passivity, lack of ability to organize time; prolonged tendencies are found only in the spheres of spiritual and intellectual activity.
• The creative and transforming type has such properties as a prolonged organization of time, which correlates with the meaning of life, with the logic of social trends.

Only one of the distinguished types, namely the last one, has the ability for a holistic, prolonged regulation and organization of life time. He arbitrarily divides his life into periods, stages and is relatively independent of the series of events. In this sense, the event approach (A.A. Kronik) could not explain the existing individual differences in the organization of life time.
The problem of correlation of subjective and objective time was formulated in the study by L.Yu. Kublickene. The subject of the analysis was the relationship between the experience of time, its awareness and its practical regulation.

• As a result, five modes of implementation of activities were identified:
  • 1) optimal mode;
  • 2) an indefinite period, in which the person himself determines the total time and deadline for completing the activity;
  • 3) time limit - hard work in a limited time;
  • 4) excess time, i.e. time is obviously more than necessary to complete the task;
  • 5) lack of time - insufficient time.

During the study, all modes were presented to the subject, who had to choose one of the five proposed options when answering the following questions: "How do you usually act, really?" and "How would you ideally act?".

• As a result of the study, five types of personalities were identified:
  • Optimal- successfully works in all modes, copes with all temporary tasks; capable of organizing time.
  • In short supply- reduces all possible regimes to a shortage of time, since it is in a shortage that it operates most successfully.
  • Calm- has difficulty working under time pressure. Strives to know everything in advance, to plan their actions; disorganization of behavior occurs when time is specified from the outside.
  • Executive- successfully operates in all modes, except for temporary uncertainty, in all modes with a given period.
  • alarming- is successful at the optimal time, works well in excess, but avoids a scarce situation.

Each person, knowing his own characteristics of the organization of time, can either avoid difficult time regimes for him, or improve his time capabilities.
The typological approach to the time of life and its organization makes it possible to most accurately and differentially classify individual variants of the temporal regulation of a person's life path.
In a number of studies, a typological approach to the organization of time was carried out thanks to the already well-known typology of C. Jung. This is a study by T.N. Berezina.
K. Jung identified eight types of personality. The following were chosen as criteria for constructing a typology: 1) the dominant mental function (thinking, feeling, intuition, sensation) and 2) ego-orientation ( Introversion is a personality characteristic described by the Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist C. Jung in 1910 and literally meaning "onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">introversion or Extraversion - the predominant orientation of the personality outside, on the surrounding people, external phenomena, events. ");" onmouseout="nd();" href="javascript:void(0);">extraversion).
There was an opinion that representatives of the feeling type were characterized by an orientation to the past, the thinking type to the connection of the present with the past and the future, the sensory type to the present, and the intuitive type to the future.
In the study of T.N. Berezina, carried out under the direction of K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, the concept of transspective proposed by V.I. Kovalev. Transspective is such a psychological formation in which the past, present and future of the individual are organically combined and generated. This concept means an individual's review of the course of his own life in any of its directions, at any of its stages, a through vision of the past and future in their relationship with the present and the present.
The whole variety of transspectives is considered in connection with personality types. For example, an intuitive introvert evaluates the past, present and future as separately presented, unrelated images; a mental introvert connects images of the past, present and future, and the future is seen as a period of life more distant from the past and present; the sensing introvert highlights the present, while the past and future are undefined and blurred, etc.
The typological approach to the regulation of life time has a number of advantages in comparison with the event-based (A.A. Kronik) and evolutionary-genetic (Sh. Buhler). It makes it possible to explore individual differences between people in the organization of time and to consider the problem of time or life prospects in a differentiated way. From the point of view of this approach, it is customary to distinguish between psychological, personal and life perspectives.
Psychological perspective- the ability of a person to consciously foresee the future, to predict it. Differences in the psychological perspective are associated with the value orientations of the individual.
Personal perspective- the ability to foresee the future and readiness for it in the present, setting for the future (readiness for difficulties, uncertainty, etc.). Personal perspective is a property of a person, an indicator of his maturity, development potential, formed ability to organize time.
life perspective- a set of circumstances and conditions of life that create an opportunity for an individual to optimally advance in life.
Considering the evolutionary-genetic and functional-dynamic approaches to the problem of the life path of the individual and its time, one should dwell on event approach A.A. Kronika, E.I. Golovakhi.
From the point of view of the event approach, the analysis of personality development is carried out in the plane - past-present-future. A person's age is considered from four points of view, which give an idea of ​​the different characteristics of age: 1) chronological (passport) age, 2) biological (functional) age, 3) social (civilian) age, 4) psychological (subjectively experienced) age.
The authors correlate the solution of the problem of psychological age with the subjective attitude of a person towards it, with self-assessment of age. To test the theoretical and empirical hypotheses, an experiment was conducted, during which the subjects were asked to imagine that they did not know anything about their chronological age, and to name the one that subjectively suits them. It turned out that in 24% of people their own assessment coincided with the chronological age, 55% considered themselves younger, and 21% felt older. The sample consisted of 83 people (40 women and 43 men). The specific influence of the age factor on the subjective assessment of age was singled out - the older the person, the stronger the tendency to consider himself younger than his age.
A.A. Kronik and E.I. Golovakh connected the assessment of life time with the personality's assessment of their achievements (and their correspondence to age). In the case when the level of achievement is ahead of social expectations, a person feels older than his true age. If a person has achieved less than what is expected of him, as it seems to him, at a given age, then he will feel younger. An experiment conducted in a group of people aged 23-25 ​​revealed that single / unmarried young people underestimate their age compared to married / married. This, apparently, means that the appropriate marital status - marriage and the creation of a family determines the psychological age of the individual.
The life time of a person is both the years lived, according to Kronik, and the years to be lived in the future, therefore the psychological age should be assessed by two indicators: the years lived and the years ahead (so, if the life expectancy is 70 years, and the self-assessment of age is 35 , then the degree of realization will be equal to half the lifetime).
In accordance with the event approach, a person's perception of time is determined by the number and intensity of events occurring in life. You can get a concrete answer if you ask a person the following question: "If we take the entire event content of your life as 100%, what percentage of it has already been realized by you?" Events are evaluated not as objective units of life, but as subjective components that are significant for a person.
The realization of psychological time is realized by a person in the form of experiencing an inner age, which is called the psychological age of the individual.

• Psychological age is a characteristic of a person's individuality; it is measured using an internal reference system.
• Psychological age is reversible - a person can both grow old and get younger.
• Psychological age is multidimensional. It may not coincide in different areas of life (professional, family, etc.).

As we could see, the concept of S.L. Rubinshtein aroused serious scientific interest, which was reflected in the further development of the main provisions of the psychology of the life path of the individual. True, the continuity of Rubinstein's ideas was not always observed, since subsequent scientific developments were carried out in directions that did not coincide in their methodological and theoretical provisions - in the concept of personal organization of time and within the framework of the event approach. Each of these theories in its own way formulated the tasks associated with the solution of the fundamental problem of the life path of the individual, studied the problem of personal and psychological time in different ways. It seems that with all this, both schools remained open for an exchange of opinions and scientific discussions.

Glossary of terms

1. life path
2. Activity
3. Initiative
4. Responsibility
5. Psychological time of personality
6. social identity
7. Functional-dynamic approach
8. Event approach
9. Evolutionary genetic approach

Questions for self-examination

1. What do you see as the shortcomings of the evolutionary-genetic approach to the problem of a person's life path?
2. What are the main features of a person as a subject of life?
3. What is the difference between initiative and responsibility?
4. How did Rubinstein interpret consciousness, studied within the framework of the problem of the individual's life path?
5. What are the features of the functional-genetic approach to the problem of personality time?
6. How is psychological age measured in the event approach to the problem of time?

Bibliography

1. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K.A. Development of personality in the process of life // Psychology of formation and development of personality. M.: Nauka, 1981. S. 19-45.
2. Abulkhanova K.A. Rubinshtein S.L. - retrospective and perspective // ​​The problem of the subject in psychological science. M.: Academic project, 2000. S. 13-27.
3. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K.A., Brushlinsky A.V. Philosophical and psychological concept of S.L. Rubinstein. M.: Nauka, 1989. 248 p.
4. Abulkhanova K.A., Berezina T.N. Personal time and life time. St. Petersburg: Aletheya, 2001.
5. Antsyferova L.I. The psychological concept of Pierre Janet // Questions of Psychology, 1969. No. 5.
6. Antsyferova L.I. psychology of personality formation and development // personality psychology in the works of domestic psychologists. SPb., 2000. S. 207-213.
7. Brushlinsky A.V. psychology of the subject and his activity // Modern psychology. Reference Guide / Ed. V.N. Druzhinina M.: Infra-M, 1999. S. 330-346.
8. Brushlinsky A.V. On the criteria of the subject // Psychology of the individual and group subject / Ed. A.V. Brushlinskogo M., 2002. Ch. pp. 9-34.
9. Kronik A.A., Golovakha E.I. Psychological age of personality // Psychology of personality in the works of domestic psychologists. St. Petersburg: Piter, 2000. S. 246-256.
10. Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology. 2nd ed. M., 1946.
11. Rubinshtein S.L. Being and consciousness. M., 1957.
12. Rubinshtein S.L. Philosophical roots of experimental psychology // Problems of general psychology. M.: Pedagogy, 1976. S. 67-89.
13. Rubinshtein S.L. Man and the world. M.: Nauka, 1997. 191 p.
14. Sergienko E.A. Formation of the subject: an unfinished discussion // Psychological journal. 2003. V. 24. No. 2. S. 114-120.
15. Jaspers K. General psychopathology. M., 1997. 1056 p.

Topics of term papers and essays

1. The development of the views of S.L. Rubinshtein on the problem of the life path of the individual.
2. The life path of a personality and the problem of periodization of development in depth psychology.
3. Personality self-integration in the theory of S.L. Rubinstein and the integration of all opposites according to K. Jung.
4. The principle of determinism in the concept of S.L. Rubinstein.
5. Tragic and comic in the life of a person.
6. The development of ideas about personality in the works of S.L. Rubinstein.