The concept of regression and Vygotskian developmental theory

The paper examines the heuristic value of the concept of regression in the context of developmental ideas advanced by the Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934). The language of semiotic mediation of behavioral acts and mental operations seems to be more adequate at the present stage of research than the old metaphors of mental “economy” and cathexis. This position is supported by a number of developmental and clinical studies undertaken by Vygotskian students. Analysis of these studies allows one to make a tentative suggestion regarding a formal scale of cognitive advancement/regression, which may replace the search for empirical coincidences in the behavior of children, people in “primitive” societies, and mental patients. While constructing such a scale one should take into account the type of communicative situation in which “regressive” forms of behavior or thinking are observed.