Originally published: . Volume 8, No. 5. Source pages: 11.
by Susan Andrews, PhD
Professor Alexander Luria’s Successor, Professor Janna Glozman, volunteered a day of her New Orleans vacation to talk to a small, but dedicated, group of interested neuropsychologists on April 28, 2017. Professor Glozman was a student of Alexander Luria and later took over his position as Research Director of the Centre of Develop-mental Neuropsychology. She is also a Professor of Psychology and Leading Researcher at Moscow State University.
Dr. Darlyne Nemeth had the good fortune to be introduced to Dr. Glozman by Dr. Tony Puente last year when she was invited to speak at an international conference in Moscow. Dr. Nemeth toured Luria’s lab and discovered that Dr. Glozman planned to visit New Orleans for 3 days in late April as part of a cruise she was taking.
Dr. Glozman brought with her a Powerpoint presentation that described Alexander Luria’s “Life and Contribution to Psychology in the 20th and 21st Century.” Many of us know of Luria’s important contributions to the emerging field of neuropsychology during WW2. I think I can speak for the entire group this past Friday that none of us had any idea how far reaching his other contributions were to Psychology in general. This informal presentation turned out to be one of the most exciting days I have ever spent. I had to keep pinching myself as she showed us pictures of letters from Freud to Luria, pictures of Luria, herself, and luminaries as Piaget, Vygotsky, Pavlov, Picasso, Pribram, and Tony Puente. Several of us were frankly – “star struck.”
Luria was greatly influenced early in his career by psychoanalytic theory. His first book published in 1922 was Principles of Real Psychology. Luria became interested in the old word association test and in measuring the length of time before the subject makes a response to different words. This became the origin of the Lie Detector test. Dr. Glozman mentioned the KGB several times in her presentation and how several times Luria came close to being imprisoned. He even entered medical school and became a neurologist to avoid prison at one point.
Ivon Pavlov held Russian Psychology firmly in his grasp and nothing could be published without his approval. So, Luria’s book Nature of Human Conflict was published in English in 1932 but not in Russia. It was finally published in Russian in 2012. Pavlov said it was too “subjective.”
Luria became interested in Art Psychology due to his first wife, an actress, who introduced him to many artists. Later he became interested in Genetic studies and he was the first to use the twin method to study genetics. Genetics was declared a “False Science” in Russia in 1935. During this same period (1924 to 1935) Luria had started a program with Vygotsky of neuropsychological studies and they established the first lab of neuropsychology in the world at an old neurology hospital in Moscow. Each Monday, since 1924, Luria would assess medical patients with students. Dr. Glozman continues this tradition to this day. At one point, Luria had seen a number of Parkinson’s Disease patients and, with his genius for observation (like Piaget, for example), he observed that while the patients could not walk easily, they could climb stairs. He reasoned that this was because the walking was automatic and not much at the conscious level while one has to pay attention when climbing stairs.
Luria developed his battery of Neuropsychological tests between 1935 and 45. He finished his PhD in 1937 and entered medical school. He graduated with a diploma as a neurologist in 2 years and interned at the Institute of Neurosurgery. During World War II he was appointed Chief/Director of a Neurosurgical Hospital. His books on acquired traumatic aphasia come from his work in this period. When the war was almost over, he returned to Moscow and was decorated with the Order of Lenin in 1943 for his work in neuropsychological/neurological rehabilitation.
In the 1950’s, Luria became interested in Developmental Neuropsychology. He took over the Directorship of the Institute of Mental Retardation. Dr. Glozman continues this work today and described what she and Luria call “remediation” instead of “rehabilitation” of children who had never developed many of the skills or cognitive stages. Her recently published book, Developmental Neuropsychology was written in English and describes these techniques in detail. The book is available on Amazon.
In 1958, Luria became President of the International Neuropsychological Society. He only began to study memory in the 1970’s. He died of heart problems in 1977, leaving a huge legacy of psychological work. Dr. Glozman is President of the Luria Congress and has invited us all to this years congress in Russia on October 13-16; http://luria- congress.urfu.ru. I think she genuinely means it.
Enjoying a piece of neuropsychology history with Professor Janna Glozman. Bottom left and clockwise is Dr. Paul Harch, Patricia McElroy, Dr. Don Nemeth, Glozman’s friend, Dr. Janna Glozman, Dr. Darlyne Nemeth, and Dr. Susan Andrews on bottom right. Dr. Glozman was a student of Alexander Luria. (Photos courtesy of Dr. Andrews.) Dr. Paula Glozman (Photo courtesy Dr. Andrews)
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