The Story of the Textbook by F.Ye. Vasilyuk Psychotechnique of Experiencing (A Cultural-Historical Essay)

Abstract

The article focuses on one of the first experiences of applying psychology to solving practical tasks, moreover on the scale of an entire country, in the framework of the project «Practical Psychology of Creativity», the idea of which originated in 1989. That was also the first experience of distance psychological counseling of several thousand people on the basis of specially designed for this course tutorials which included “Psychotechnique of Experiencing” by F.Ye. Vasilyuk and two more manuals: “Autogenic Training” by N. N. Petrov and “If the Situation Seems Irresolvable...” by V.K. Zaretsky. The objective of this article is to show through the analysis of less known episodes of F.Vasilyuk's biography the initial milestones of the movement towards overcoming the schism between academic psychology and psychological practice which was described by him later.

Keywords

• psychotechnique of experiencing
• creative thinking
• psychology of creativity
• creative task
• reflection
• stereotypes of consciousness