Mind in Society
The Development of Higher Psychological Processes

"Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development in his own words―collected and translated by an outstanding group of scholars. A landmark book.” ―Contemporary PsychologyThe great Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky has long been recognized as a pioneer in developmental psychology. But his theory of development has never been well understood in the West. Mind in Society corrects much of this misunderstanding. Carefully edited by a group of outstanding Vygotsky scholars, the book presents a unique selection of Vygotsky’s important essays, most of which have previously been unavailable in English.The mind, Vygotsky argues, cannot be understood in isolation from the surrounding society. Humans are the only animals who use tools to alter their own inner world as well as the world around them. Vygotsky characterizes the uniquely human aspects of behavior and offers hypotheses about the way these traits have been formed in the course of human history and the way they develop over an individual’s lifetime.From the handkerchief knotted as a simple mnemonic device to the complexities of symbolic language, society provides the individual with technology that can be used to shape the private processes of the mind. In Mind in Society, Vygotsky applies this theoretical framework to the development of perception, attention, memory, language, and play, and he examines its implications for education. The result is a remarkably interesting book that makes clear Vygotsky’s continuing influence in the areas of child development, cognitive psychology, education, and modern psychological thought.Chapters include:Tool and Symbol in Child DevelopmentThe Development of Perception and AttentionMastery of Memory and ThinkingInternalization of Higher Psychological FunctionsProblems of MethodInteraction between Learning and DevelopmentThe Role of Play in DevelopmentThe Prehistory of Written LanguageThis audiobook is expertly read by John Malone, with audio engineering by Blake Rook. It was produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont.