Henri Wallon (psychologist)
Encyclopedia
Henri Paul Hyacinthe Wallon (June 15, 1879 in Paris
– December 1, 1962 in Paris
) was a French
philosopher, psychologist
(in the field of social psychology), neuropsychiatrist, teacher
, and politician
. He was the grandson of Henri-Alexandre Wallon (whose decisive contribution to the creation of the Third Republic
led him to be called the "Father of the Republic").
, he took up political duties while carrying out scientific work in the field of developmental psychology
.
SFIO
and became a member of the French Communist Party
in 1942. In 1944 he was named Secretary of National Education
. He was elected Communist Deputy (1945-1946) and chaired an education reform commission that durably marked the National Education system under the name "The Langevin-Wallon Project" (1945).
Wallon was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure
in 1899, where he passed higher-level competitive examinations for teachers and professors (agrégation) in philosophy in 1902. In 1908 he became a doctor of medicine, and from 1908 to 1931 worked with mentally retarded
children.
During the World War I
, Wallon was mobilized as an army medical officer and became interested in neurology
. In 1920 he became a junior lecturer at the Sorbonne
, and then in 1925 attained his Ph.D.
(docteur ès lettres) with a thesis on "the turbulent child". He was named director of studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études
in 1927 and created the Laboratory of Pediatric Psychobiology (laboratoire de psycho-biologie de l'enfant) at CNRS
, where Paul Diel
came under his direction upon joining the laboratory in 1945. From 1937 to 1949 he was a professor with the Collège de France
(as chair of the department of Childhood Psychology and Education). In 1948, as director of the University of Paris
's Institute of Psychology, he created the journal Enfance. He was a president of the Groupe français d'éducation nouvelle from 1946 until his death in 1962.
over intelligence
whereas others appear characterized instead by the primacy of intelligence over affectivity. The child's personality is developed in this discontinuous and competitive succession between the prevalence of intelligence and affectivity. Thus, Wallon articulated at the core of a dialectic
al model of concepts such as emotion, attitudes, and interpersonal bonds. His conception of the stages implied the idea that regression was possible, contrary to Piaget
's model.
Émile Jalley showed how Henri Wallon was an attentive reader of the German scientific and philosophical literature and how he contributed to the introduction and diffusion of certain concepts of Hegel
and Freud
into French psychological theory.
While insisting on discontinuity and the concept of crisis underlying this discontinuity, Henri Wallon demonstrated his fidelity to the Hegelian theses of the dialectic. In this regard, Wallon differed from Jean Piaget, who in his own description of the stages of infantile development instead valorized interactions to the detriment of discontinuity.
Henri Wallon had a marked influence on psychoanalysis equally in France and abroad. Émile Jalley showed that he had revisited certain of Freud's observations or concepts in his theoretical developments. In turn, certain psychoanalysts adapted his observations, in particular René Spitz
, Donald Winnicott
, and Jacques Lacan
, the latter of whom owes Wallon, at least in its origin, for his mirror stage
.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
– December 1, 1962 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
philosopher, psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
(in the field of social psychology), neuropsychiatrist, teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
. He was the grandson of Henri-Alexandre Wallon (whose decisive contribution to the creation of the Third Republic
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
led him to be called the "Father of the Republic").
Career
Henri Wallon conducted two parallel careers. As a convinced MarxistMarxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, he took up political duties while carrying out scientific work in the field of developmental psychology
Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to...
.
Politics
In 1931, Wallon joined the French socialist political partyPolitical party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
SFIO
Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière
The French Section of the Workers' International , founded in 1905, was a French socialist political party, designed as the local section of the Second International...
and became a member of the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
in 1942. In 1944 he was named Secretary of National Education
Minister of National Education (France)
The Ministry of National Education, Youth, and Sport , or simply "Minister of National Education," as the title has changed no small number of times in the course of the Fifth Republic) is the French government cabinet member charged with running France's public educational system and with the...
. He was elected Communist Deputy (1945-1946) and chaired an education reform commission that durably marked the National Education system under the name "The Langevin-Wallon Project" (1945).
Psychology
Henri Wallon is better known by his scientific work primarily devoted to childhood. Following his education, he occupied the highest positions in the French university world where he fostered leading research activity.Wallon was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...
in 1899, where he passed higher-level competitive examinations for teachers and professors (agrégation) in philosophy in 1902. In 1908 he became a doctor of medicine, and from 1908 to 1931 worked with mentally retarded
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
children.
During the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Wallon was mobilized as an army medical officer and became interested in neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
. In 1920 he became a junior lecturer at the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
, and then in 1925 attained his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
(docteur ès lettres) with a thesis on "the turbulent child". He was named director of studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études
École pratique des hautes études
The École pratique des hautes études is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions....
in 1927 and created the Laboratory of Pediatric Psychobiology (laboratoire de psycho-biologie de l'enfant) at CNRS
Centre national de la recherche scientifique
The National Center of Scientific Research is the largest governmental research organization in France and the largest fundamental science agency in Europe....
, where Paul Diel
Paul Diel
Paul Diel was a French psychologist of Austrian origin who developed the method of introspective analysis and the psychology of motivation.-Life:...
came under his direction upon joining the laboratory in 1945. From 1937 to 1949 he was a professor with the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
(as chair of the department of Childhood Psychology and Education). In 1948, as director of the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
's Institute of Psychology, he created the journal Enfance. He was a president of the Groupe français d'éducation nouvelle from 1946 until his death in 1962.
Theoretical positions
Henri Wallon organized his observations by presenting the development of the child's personality as a succession of stages. Some of these stages are marked by the predominance of affectivityAffect (psychology)
Affect refers to the experience of feeling or emotion. Affect is a key part of the process of an organism's interaction with stimuli. The word also refers sometimes to affect display, which is "a facial, vocal, or gestural behavior that serves as an indicator of affect" .The affective domain...
over intelligence
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....
whereas others appear characterized instead by the primacy of intelligence over affectivity. The child's personality is developed in this discontinuous and competitive succession between the prevalence of intelligence and affectivity. Thus, Wallon articulated at the core of a dialectic
Dialectic
Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
al model of concepts such as emotion, attitudes, and interpersonal bonds. His conception of the stages implied the idea that regression was possible, contrary to Piaget
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget was a French-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology"....
's model.
The principal stages
- The impulsive and emotional stages (0 to 3 months). Dominating infantile life, they are the internal feelings (introceptives) and the affective factors fostered with the surroundings. On the motor plane this period is characterized by weak motor control and thus gestural disorder. The quality responses from the infant's surroundings will enable him to pass from the gestural disorder to differentiated emotions.
- The sensorimotor and projective stage (1 to 3 years). What prevails then for the child is the influence of the external world. The integration of this external influence will support the awakening of two types of intelligence: one practical (through the handling of objects and child's own body), the other the discursive through imitation and appropriation of language.
- The personalism stage (3 to 6 years) is characterized by a predominance, once again, of affective functions over intelligence. Around 3 years of age the child tends to be opposed to the adult in a kind of negativist crisis, but this attitude is soon followed by a period of motor and social imitation. The child expresses thus the ambivalence binding him to the prestigious model that the adult represents for him.
- The categorial stage (6 to 11 years). Here, intellectual faculties seem to take the lead over the affective one. During his schooling the child acquires capacities for voluntary memory and attention. His intelligence approaches the formation of mental categories, which lead to the capacities for abstraction.
- The adolescence stage begins after 11 years and is characterized by a primacy of the affective concerns.
Émile Jalley showed how Henri Wallon was an attentive reader of the German scientific and philosophical literature and how he contributed to the introduction and diffusion of certain concepts of Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...
and Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
into French psychological theory.
While insisting on discontinuity and the concept of crisis underlying this discontinuity, Henri Wallon demonstrated his fidelity to the Hegelian theses of the dialectic. In this regard, Wallon differed from Jean Piaget, who in his own description of the stages of infantile development instead valorized interactions to the detriment of discontinuity.
Henri Wallon had a marked influence on psychoanalysis equally in France and abroad. Émile Jalley showed that he had revisited certain of Freud's observations or concepts in his theoretical developments. In turn, certain psychoanalysts adapted his observations, in particular René Spitz
René Spitz
René Árpád Spitz was an American psychoanalyst of Hungarian origin.- Biography :Rene Spitz was born in Vienna and died in Denver, Colorado. From a wealthy Jewish family background, he spent most of his childhood in Hungary. After finishing his medical studies in 1910 Spitz discovered the work of...
, Donald Winnicott
Donald Winnicott
Donald Woods Winnicott was an English paediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory. He was a leading member of the British Independent Group of the British Psychoanalytic Society, and a close associate of Marion Milner...
, and Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
, the latter of whom owes Wallon, at least in its origin, for his mirror stage
Mirror stage
The mirror stage is a concept in the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. Philosopher Raymond Tallis describes the mirror stage as "the cornerstone of Lacan’s oeuvre."...
.
Works
- Délire de persécution. Le délire chronique à base d'interprétation, Baillière, Paris, 1909
- « La conscience et la vie subconsciente » in G. Dumas, Nouveau traité de psychologie, PUF, Paris (1920-1921)
- L'enfant turbulent, Alcan, Paris, 1925, reissued PUF, Paris 1984
- Les origines du caractère chez l'enfant. Les préludes du sentiment de pesonnalité, Boisvin, Paris, 1934, reissued PUF, Paris, 1973
- La vie mentale, Éditions sociales, Paris, 1938, reissued 1982
- L'évolution psychologique de l'enfant, A. Colin, Paris, 1941, reissued 1974
- De l'acte à la pensée, Flammarion, Paris, 1942
- Les origines de la pensée chez l'enfant, PUF, Paris, 1945, reissued 1963
See also
- Theory of cognitive developmentTheory of cognitive developmentPiaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence first developed by Jean Piaget. It is primarily known as a developmental stage theory, but in fact, it deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans come gradually to...
- Ferenc MéreiFerenc MéreiFerenc Mérei was a Hungarian psychologist and educator.- Early life :Born in Budapest into a bourgeois family, Mérei often spent time in his parents’ photography studio at the Garay Bazaar. He did not like school, where he felt excluded and his teachers' brutality caused him much pain...