Autobiography of Alexander Luria: A Dialogue with the Making of Mind [Paperback]

Michael Cole (Author), Karl Levitin (Author), Alexander R. Luria (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0805854991 | ISBN-13: 978-0805854992

Alexander Luria was one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century. His official autobiography was written as a citizen of the Soviet Union, and while it provides a compelling story of his lifelong devotion to developing a comprehensive theory of the biological and cultural foundations of human nature, it is conspicuous for the absence of information about the social context of his work and his personal struggles to be a decent person in indecent times.  
 
The current "dialogic autobiography" brings the vitality of Luria's ideas back to life. Michael Cole and Karl Levitin, both of whom knew Luria well and have written about his life and work, have written a carefully researched introduction and epilogue to the original autobiography. They provide readers, for the first time, with information about the social and personal contexts of Luria's remarkable achievements. Their account is supplemented by a DVD with reminiscences of leading psychologists from around the world who knew and worked with Luria. At last, Luria's life and science are brought together in a single volume.

The book will appeal to psychologists, neuropsychologists, and other scientists interested in Luria's life achievements.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For anyone who is familiar with and admires Alexander Romanovich Luria, this book is a delight. For those who are unfamiliar, or only vaguely familiar with him, it is an astonishing revelation.."
—PsycCRITIQUES

"It is splendid to have available a new edition of Luria's autobiography, together with a new Preface and Epilogue. ... The scientific community will welcome the opportunity to review Luria's scientific life and seminal ideas. And now, from the perspective of life after the USSR, an even wider community of scholars will learn about the extraordinary social context in which he worked."
—Larry R. Squire, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, UCSD School of Medicine and Research

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. (May 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805854991
• ISBN-13: 978-0805854992
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,725,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Luria Life in the USSR, January 26, 2006

By 

Sirrrom "CJFM" (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Autobiography of Alexander Luria: A Dialogue with the Making of Mind (Paperback)

Thursday, January 26, 2006

A Million thanks to Michael Cole and to Karl Levitin for the super DVD addition to their most informative book, "The Autobiography of Alexander Luria: A Dialogue with The Making of Mind." Most simply and broadly stated, for here, I found all of the DVD selections to be most interesting, so informative and just an exciting addition to another one of your great publications.

Clifford Morris
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unusual Book!, January 24, 2006

By 

Elaine R. Parent "Elaine Parent, Ph.D." (San Diego, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Autobiography of Alexander Luria: A Dialogue with the Making of Mind (Paperback)

This book is a real treat! It's an opportunity to learn, in his own words, the incredible diversity of Luria's autobiographical account of his contribution in so many areas of scientific psychology. And, in a figure/ground sense, he emerges fully clothed in the rich context of the contributors' personal knowledge of Luria as a person and as a scientist.

The personal accounts of the Coles and Levitin in the enveloping text set the stage for the contributions and the personal accounts of American scientists Jerome Bruner and Oliver Sachs on the enclosed DVD. Luria's Russian colleagues give a further glimpse of what life was like in Russia, during the 1930's-1980's and the incredible resourcefulness of Luria's battle for political and scientific survival during this period. The total package - - the book (the autobiographical portion) and the setting developed by the authors' contributions, both text and DVD, is a treat - - on both an intellectual and an emotional level.

Elaine R Parent, Ph.D.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The beginnings of cognitive science, January 23, 2006

By 

D. Mather (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Autobiography of Alexander Luria: A Dialogue with the Making of Mind (Paperback)

This is an excellent overview of how several disciplines developed from the collaboration of a few researchers in Russia. Luria worked with Vygotsky to undertake a revision of psychological methods and models, which had been dominated by a mechanistic, Pavlovian approach. They developed theories and performed rigorous lab experiments, but they also opened their methods to clinical techniques as well through interview and observation.

Written by Luria, this text eschews much of his personal history and focuses on thought processes as functional systems and the logistics of his experimentation. Cole and Levitin provide supplementary text and interviews to provide additional historical context. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how neuropsychology and neuroliguistics developed, or to anyone interested in how the cognitive sciences developed from astounding rationality amid totalitarian conditions.