Aleksei N. Leontiev

Alexei Nikolaevich Leont'ev (Russian Алексей Николаевич Леонтьев; * 5 Februarjul / February 18 1903greg in Moscow, .. † January 21, 1979 ) was a Soviet psychologist.

Together with Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria was one of the protagonists of the culture known as Historic school work contexts in Soviet psychology. His numerous experimental, theoretical and methodological contributions deal with questions of the psychology of memory, perception and of thinking, biological and cultural origins of the psyche, personality development and educational psychology. One of his greatest achievements is considered the formulation of the general activity theory, in Leontiev analytically between activity ( motive), action (target ) and operation ( task) is different.

Leontjews theory was instrumental in the Federal Republic of Germany influence on the development of critical psychology by Klaus Holzenkamp.

His son is the Soviet linguist and psychologist Alexei Alexeyevich Leontiev (* 1936).

Writings (selection )

German editions

• (1964 ): Problems of development of the psyche. Berlin: people and knowledge.
• (1981 ): Psychology of the image. In: Forum Critical Psychology, Vol 9/1981, 5-19.
• (1982 ): Activity, consciousness, personality. Cologne: Pahl - Rugenstein.
• (1984 ): The general activity concept. In: Aleksei A. Leontiev and others ( 1984): Basics of a theory of linguistic activity. Stuttgart: Kohl hammer, 13-30.
• (2001): early writings. Berlin: Pro Business.