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.

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).

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 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 and 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, Berlin, 1976) and in Japan (Tokyo, 1977).

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. Later he was accused of the intention to substitute Marxist philosophy by the Philosophy of Personality. 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), “Social and psychological climate of the collective” (1981), 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.

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).

Main publications:

• Socio-Psychological Climate of a Collective. 1981. (in Russian).
• Scientific and Technical Revolution and Personality. Moscow, 1978. – 249. p. (in Russian).
• The Basics of Socio-Psychological Theory. Moscow, 1971. – 352 p. (in Russian).
• Public Opinion. Moscow. 1966. – 328 p. (in Russian).
• The Science of Social Psychology. L., – 208. 1965. (in Russian).

Articles:

• Parygin B.D. The subject matter of social psychology // American Psychologist. Vol. 19 (5). May 1964, p. 342-349.
• Parygin B.D. On the subject of social psychology // Joint publications research (selected translation abstract) Number: AD0405666. 16 apr.1963. Washington D.C