Fundamental and Applied Approaches in Soviet Psychology of Films in 1920s–1930s

The modern development of cinema, as well as the prospects for applying psychological knowledge to filmmaking and analyzing their impact on audiences, have their roots in the early developments in film psychology in the early 20th century. However, a historical and psychological analysis of the development of film psychology is underrepresented in modern literature. This scientific field developed as an independent and interdisciplinary one at the intersection of scientific, artistic, and ideological knowledge. This article aims to examine methodological approaches to Soviet film psychology in the 1920s and 1930s. The chronological framework of the study is related to the period of the formation of the Soviet film industry and the formation of Soviet psychology during the NEP and industrialization. The relevance of the study is determined by the objective of systematizing the theoretical and methodological principles of film psychology research in the 1920s and 1930s. The method used is a problemological and source study analysis of scientific literature on film psychology from the 1920s and 1930s. The sources analyzed include monographs, journal and newspaper articles discussing theoretical and methodological issues in film studies. The Marxist (materialist) paradigm, which underpinned the development of Soviet psychology in general and cinema psychology in particular during the period under study, is examined. From the standpoint of dialectical materialism, the psyche is a product of social reality and is determined by material factors, while artistic intent is realized through the material form of cinema. Within the framework of Soviet cinema psychology, fundamental (reflexological and psychophysiological) and applied (psychotechnical and pedological) approaches can be distinguished. The reflexological and psychophysiological approaches studied the reflexive and dynamic characteristics of the functioning of mental phenomena in the process of perception and influence of cinema. In psychotechnics and pedology, the characteristics of the perception and influence of films on representatives of certain social groups and their activities in various social and professional spheres were analyzed. The described methodological developments in the field of Soviet cinema psychology in the 1920s and 1930s allow to define this scientific direction as independent and having its own conceptual specificity.