Boris Parygin

Boris Dmitrievitch Parygin (Russian: Борис Дмитриевич Парыгин) (19 June 1930 – 9 April 2012) was a Soviet and Russian philosopher, sociologist and one of the founders of social psychology and member of a wide range of international academies. Parygin was a specialist in a sphere of philosophical and psychological problems of social psychology – its history, methodology, theory and praxeology.

Boris Parygin
Boris Parygin St. Petersburg. 2010.
Born	Boris Dmitrievitch Parygin 19 June 1930 (1930-06-19)  Soviet Union Leningrad
Died	9 April 2012 (2012-04-10) (aged 81)  Russia Saint Petersburg,
Alma mater	Saint Petersburg State University
Era	20th-century
Region	Russian philosophy
Main interests	social psychology
Signature

Biography

Parygin was born in Leningrad, USSR, where he survived the Siege of Leningrad. After school he attended Saint Petersburg State University where he studied philosophy (1948—1953, diploma with distinction). In 1961 he defended a theses about a problem of the social mood. In 1967 defended a doctoral theses Social Psychology as a science (questions of history, methodology and theory).[1]

Research

After graduation he was teaching philosophy at Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical Academy (1957–1962). In 1965, Saint Petersburg State University publishing house had released Parygin’s first monograph Social Psychology as a Science, which became a bibliographical rarity. In 1967, a revised edition of the monograph (15,000 copies) was translated into Czech, Bulgarian, Portuguese and Spanish.

From 1968 Parygin was at the head of the Philosophy Department of a Herzen University. There he created the laboratory of the social and psychologic studies and social psychology faculty which was the first one in the Soviet Union. Many first-rate scientists lectured there: Andreeva G. M., Bodalev A. A., Gumilev L. N., Klimov E. A., Lomov B. F., Porshnev B. F., Firsov B. M., Yadov V. A. and others. Аnd books edited by Boris Parygin were published.

In 1971, Parygin’s work titled The Basics of Socio-Psychological Theory was published (20,000 printed copies). In his book, Parygin presented the concept of the main social and psychological problems and first of all—the question of personality and human communication. This book drew a wide response in a scientific sphere of the Soviet Union and abroad. The monograph was republished in Germany (Cologne, 1975, 1982, Berlin, 1975, 1976) and in Japan (Tokyo, 1977).

The Basics of Socio-Psychological Theory. 1971. (Rus.)

“Parygin’s theory grounds on two basic concepts, two psychological phenomena are basic for his reasoning: personality and social interaction (Parygin 1965, 1971, 1999, 2010).

His main assumptions are:

– Personality, on the one hand, has a certain stability and cross-situational constancy, and on the other - it is changeable and fluid, depending on the situation;

– Personality, on the one hand, is the procreation of social interactions in the course of socialization. On the other hand, the relations between personality and social surroundings are dialectical and contradictory, because personality has the greater autonomy, the higher the level of its development is. In social interactions personality pursues its own aims and follows its own value orientations.

Parygin’s attention is focused primarily on the intra-personal contradictions in the course of personality development and on the inter-personal contradictions, which arise in the process of social interaction. His theoretical model of personality involves two different personality schemas: a "static" one and a "dynamic" one.” [2]

Young Boris Parygin. Old Gagra. Summer 1959.

At the meeting of Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1972), however, Parygin was called a leader of international revisionism of Marxism because of his independent interpretation.[3] Later he was accused of the intention to substitute Marxist philosophy by the Personality psychology. Due to this, he had got a different job in a Social and Economic Problems Institute, where he organized and led the department of socio-psychologic problems of the labor collectives. The results of his work have found reflection in his books The Scientific-Technical Revolution and personality (1978),[4] "Social and psychological climate of the collective" (1981),[5] Social psychology of territorial self-government (1993) and others. Parygin was the head of the Research Committee of a Social Association, coordinated international researches within a Comecon.

Boris Parygin died in St. Petersburg on 9 April 2012. The philosopher was buried at the cemetery in Kirillovskoye, Leningrad Oblast.

Family

Wife — Alevtina Parygina (Studzenek). Sons: Alexey, Dmitry.

Publications

He was the author of 10 prominent monographs and more than 400 articles, which were translated into many foreign languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Lettish and others.

B. Parygin. Text of speech at XI World Congress of Sociology. August 1986. New Delhi.

B. Parygin ″Social and psychological environment of collective behavio″. Text for the VII-th General meeting. European Association of Social Psychology. Varna. 1987.

Monographs

• Social Psychology. Sources and Prospects. Saint Petersburg: SPb GUP, 2010. – 533 S. ISBN 978-5-7621-0543-9 (Rus).
• Social Psychology (study guide). Saint Petersburg: SPb GUP, 2003. – 616 S. ISBN 5-7621-0250-5 (Rus).
• Anatomy of Communication. Saint Petersburg: Ed. Mikhailova, 1999. – 301 S. ISBN 5-8016-0046-9 (Rus).
• Social Psychology. Problems of Methodology, History and Theory. Saint Petersburg: SPb GUP, 1999. – 592 S. ISBN 5-7621-0100-2 (Rus).
• Social Psychology of Territorial Self-Government. Saint Petersburg: SPb GUP, 1993. – 170 S. ISBN 5-02-027347-3 (Rus).
• Social-Psychological Climate in a Collective. L.: Nauka, 1981. – 192 S. (Rus).
• Technological Revolution and Personality. Moscow, 1978. – 240 S. (Rus).
• Technological Revolution and Social Psychology. L.: Znaniye, 1976. – 39 S. (Rus).

• The Basics of Socio-Psychological Theory. Moscow: Mysl', 1971. – 352 S. (Rus).
  • Grundlagen der sozialpsychologischen Theorie. Köln: Pahl-Rugenstein. 1975. — 265 S. ISBN 3-7609-0186-7 (in German).
  • Grundlagen der sozialpsychologischen Theorie. — (1. Aufl.). Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1975.— 264 S.
  • Grundlagen der sozialpsychologischen Theorie. Berlin: VEB. 1976. — 266 S.(in German).
  • 社会心理学原論, 海外名著選〈76〉. 明治図書出版. 1977. — 281 S. (in Japanese).
  • Grundlagen der sozialpsychologischen Theorie. Köln: Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag. 1982. — 264 S. ISBN 3-7609-0186-7 (in German).

• Public Mood. Moscow: Mysl'. 1966. – 328 S. (Rus).

• Social Psychology as a Science. L.: Saint Petersburg State University. 1965. — 208 S. (Rus).
  • Social Psychology as a Science (2nd edition corrected and supplemented). L.: Lenizdat, 1967. — 264 S. (Rus).
  • La psicologia social como ciencia. — Montevideo: Pueblos Unidos. 1967. — 249 S. (in Spanish).
  • Sociialni psychologie jako veda. Praha. 1968. — 192 S. (in Czech.).
  • Социалната психология като наука. София. 1968. — 240 S. (in Bulgarian).
  • A psicologia social como ciência. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Ed. 1972. — 218 S. (in Portu.).

• What is Social Psychology. L. 1965. — 39 S. (Rus).

Articles

• Опыт ретроспективного видения судьбы социальной психологии // СПб: Вестник СПбГУ. Серия 16. 2011. Выпуск 4. С. 11-17. (Rus).
• Диалогу нет альтернативы // Ленинградская правда. — 1991, 20 апреля. (Rus).
• Advance of science and technology and the problem of self-realization of an tndividual // Proceedings of the 2nd Finnish-Soviet symposium on personality. — Tampere. — 1983, June 14-16.
• Климат коллектива как предмет диагностического исследования // Психологический журнал. — 1982. — Том 3, № 3. (Rus).
• Scientific and technological progress and socio-psychological climate in a scientific collective // Proceedings of the 1nd Finnish-Soviet symposium on personality. — Moscow, 1979. S. 18.
• Советский образ жизни как социально-психологическое явление // Вопросы философии. — 1975. — № 3. (Rus).
• Как найти ключи // Комсомольская правда. — 1974, 29 марта. (Rus).
• Укрощение строптивой. Интервью // Литературная газета. — 1973, 5 декабря. (Rus).
• Социальное настроение как объект исторической науки // История и психология. — М., 1971. (Rus).
• Структура личности // Социальная психология и философия. — Л., 1971. — Вып. № 1. (Rus).
• О соотношении социального и психологического // Философские науки. — 1967. — № 6. (Rus).
• К итогам Йенского симпозиума по проблемам социальной психологии // Вопросы психологии. — 1966. — № 2. (Rus).
• Проблемы социальной психологии // Социальные исследования. — М., 1965. (Rus).
• The subject matter of social psychology // American Psychologist. Vol. 19 (5). May 1964, p. 342-349.
• Общественная психология как социальное явление // Философские науки. — 1964. — № 6. (Rus).
• On the subject of social psychology // Joint publications research (selected translation abstract) Number: AD0405666. 16 apr.1963. Washington D.C
• Совещание по проблемам социальной психологии // Вопросы психологии. — 1963. — № 5. (Rus).
• К вопросу о предмете социальной психологии // Вопросы психологии. — 1962. — № 5. (Rus).
• О психологическом направлении в современной буржуазной социологии и о социальной психологии // Вестник ЛГУ. — 1959. — № 23. (Rus).
• Ленин об общественных настроениях // Вестник ЛГУ. — № 17. Сер. Экономика, философия и право. — 1952. — Вып. 3. (Rus).

References

1. Парыгин_Б_Д_8_1967
2. Irina A. Mironenko/ Personality as a Social Process: where Peter Giordano Meets Boris Parygin
3. Parygin Interview Archived 6 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
4. Nauchno-tekhnicheskaia revoliutsiia i lichnost : sotsialno-psikhologicheskie problemy / B.D. Parygin (in Russian). Politizdat. 1978. Retrieved 28 April 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
5. Parygin, Boris Dmitrievich (1981). Sotsialno-psikhologicheskii klimat kollektiva : puti i metody izucheniia / B.D. Parygin ; pod redaktsiei V.A. IAdova (in Russian). Leningrad: Leningradskoe otd-nie. Retrieved 28 April 2020 – via National Library of Australia.

External links

• Irina A. Mironenko/ Personality as a Social Process: where Peter Giordano Meets Boris Parygin
• Boris Parygin Foundation
• WorldCat. B. D. Parygin
• Большая биографическая энциклопедия на Академике (in Russian)
• B. D. Parygin. 8 works
• Social Psychology in the Soviet Union, by Levy Rahmani, 1973
• Parygin, B. D. University of Notre Dame
• Boris Parygin's obituary (in Russian)