Aleksandr Luria: Biography Of The Pioneer Of Neuropsychology
Luria’s name is widely known by all those who are dedicated to the world of neuropsychology and neurology. And it is that Aleksander Romanovich Lúriya is considered the main father of modern neuropsychology combining interest in mental processes and the physiology of the brain.
In this article we present a brief biography of this important author and researcher of the human brain.
Aleksander Romanovich Lúriya (known as Aleksandr Luria, Aleksander Luria or Alexander Luria) was born on July 16, 1902 in Kazan, Russia Son of the dentist Eugenia Victorovna Hasskin and the doctor Roman Albertovich Lúriya, he grew up in a wealthy family of Jewish origin in which he was educated in various languages.
From his youth he began to train in the field of knowledge that he himself would help expand. Let’s see how it happened.
Education and first steps
Luria’s training began at the age of seven, and this training was interrupted by the Russian Revolution. At the age of sixteen he would be accepted into the University of Kazan, from which he graduated in 1921.
His first interests were limited to the field of social and psychology , being especially interested in the field of psychoanalysis. In fact, in 1922 he helped create the Kazan Psychoanalytic Society, his first works dealing with sex differences in clothing. Interest in the evaluation of mental problems and the effects of fatigue would also arise in him. Other authors that he would admire and follow closely were Pavlov and Bechterev.
Luria met Vygotsky in 1924, at a Psychoneurology Congress held in Leningrad. Together with him, he investigated the interaction between perceptual processes and culture when generating higher mental functions in adults, with the special importance of language.
would begin to emerge interest in brain areas and the location of different functions criticizing the prevailing localizationism and proposing the idea of complex functional systems in which functions depend on networks of dispersed connections and not only on a specific region.
World War II and specialization in neurology
After Stalin took political control and different political purges began, he was forced to abandon sociocultural study, and would focus on studying medicine with a specialization in neurology.
His interest in the area of language continued and he would often explore this area, especially in the field of aphasia and its relationship with thinking.
Luria worked in Kisegach during World War II , and frequently observed the effects of tumors and brain injuries. It was at this time that the foundations of neuropsychology were born by linking injuries with cognitive and language problems.
After the war, Luria’s work would focus on the development of language and thinking, especially in children with intellectual disabilities.
Death and legacy
Luria died in Moscow on August 14, 1977, at the age of 75 from a heart attack.
Father of modern neuropsychology, Luria’s legacy has allowed a better understanding of the functioning of the brain and the cerebral location of the various systems that allow certain functions.
Numerous evaluation instruments have been created from criteria based on his work in addition to allowing the development of techniques that allow improving and recovering functions in cases of brain injury.
