From Schools in Psychology to a Complex Science

The paper examines the last decades of the history of world and Russian psychology through the prism of the concept of a “closed fracture” of the early 1970s, introduced by the author, which is understood as a previously undescribed milestone in the history of world psychology. Under the influence of a whole set of reasons, a number of tectonic changes are observed at this turn, related to both the social and organizational structure of the scientific community and the methodology, as well as the problem fields and targets of psychological research. The system-forming change is the transition from alternative explanatory concepts and the same proposed by different schools to the integration and coordination of concepts based on the movement towards the development of a common language. This milestone can be considered as the starting point of modern psychological science. Accordingly, the main trend in the development of psychological science, including the Russian one, after this turning point is the movement from a variety of schools to a single complex science, from paradigms to interparadigm bridges.