Cultural-historical Activity Psychology in Extreme Situation: the Pandemic Challenge

Proceedings of joint session of two research seminars «Cultural-activity psychology» and «Time. Subject. Consciousness. Activity», Faculty of Psychology, Moscow Lomonosov State University, April 6, 2020

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the person, the society, and the whole human civilization, and it also has challenged the human sciences. The discussion raises a fundamental problem: the collision between psychology and the need to rethink the understanding of а person. A person is considered in the transition from an abstract «psychological» individual to a real, concrete, living person in his bodily, organismic embodiment (or in the aspect of a natural biological subject). The question of expanding the cultural-historical understanding of a person through the prism of his individual history in mastering socio-historical experience is raised. The idea of a critical, emergency situation is introduced not only in the optics of society and nature in the whole or in abstract-hypothetical constructs, but also at the level of individual life of a person. The authors reflect an importance of considering the extreme situation of human existence in theoretical conceptions, not only as an applied problem. Negative interpretations of an extreme, emergency situation require conceptualization in  terms of positivity – as a source of overcoming, solving life problems, development, and discovering, opening new experience. In addition, the concept of practice in psychology, which was mentioned by L. Vygotsky, also requires a radical revision. The practice of helping should be considered not only an applied branch in psychology, but in its fundamental, theoretical meaning, revealing psychological helping as the implementation of caring practice. The authors agree, that the existence of a person under the global threat of COVID-19 pandemic radically changes the interaction between a person and society. Global pandemic affects social practices to reveal a person in the context of new relation towards society. Public life is put «on pause» in order to protect a life of individual person. The phenomenon of death, that was previously subjected to theoretical repression in psychology, is now considered to be a part of human life. Meaning as the meaning of life has to be correlated with the meaning of death, which allows to reveal the existence of a person in the fullness of his life and being.