Scientific Heritage of F.Ye. Vasilyuk: From Psychological Counseling to Counseling Psychology

Abstract

The article analyses F.Ye. Vasilyuk’s contribution to the development of psychological counseling/ psychotherapy practices in Russia and to the formation of counseling psychology as a scientific discipline. Basing on his works on the ‘situational-historical analysis’ of the development of Russian psychology from the 1990s to the present, the article outlines the stages in the development of psychological research and practice and the corresponding tasks that were in the focus of F.Ye. Vasilyuk’s attention. The status of counseling/psychotherapy practice and its key characteristics in relation to fundamental and applied psy¬chology are analyzed in detail. The essential characteristic of counseling practice and psychology according to F.E. Vasilyuk is ‘keeping in mind’ the holistic image of an individual as both an epistemological and axi¬ological, ethical ideal. The psychotechnical implementation of such vision is illustrated by the example of the psychotherapeutic system of co-experiencing psychotherapy. In the final part the article discusses the formation of psychological counseling/psychotherapy as an anthropological practice and the problem of ‘general’ therapeutic knowledge.

Keywords

• Fyodor Vasilyuk
• psychological counseling
• psychotherapy
• co-experiencing psychotherapy
• practical psychology
• counseling psychology
• practice
• anthropological practice