The structure of higher mental functions
pp. 359-373
in: Robert W. Rieber, David K. Robinson (eds), The essential Vygotsky, Berlin, Springer, 2004Abstract
The conception of psychological analysis that we tried to develop in the preceding chapter leads us to a new representation relative to the mental process as a whole and its nature. The most substantial change that occurred in psychology recently is that an analytical approach to the mental process was replaced by a holistic or structural approach. The most influential representatives of modern psychology advanced the holistic point of view and placed it at the base of all psychology. The essence of the new point of view is that the significance of the whole, which has its own specific properties and determines the properties and functions of the parts that constitute it, is foremost. In contrast to the old psychology, which represented the process of the formation of a complex form of behavior as a process of mechanical summation of separate elements, the new psychology places at its center the study of the whole and such of its properties as cannot be deduced from the sum of the parts. The new point of view has accumulated much experimental evidence that confirms its correctness.