Translating<i>Perezhivanie</i>into English

Abstract

An outline is suggested for how the word perezhivanie can be appropriated from Russian psychology in general and Vygotskian psychology in particular, as a meaningful word in English-language psychology, drawing on cognate concepts from Freud, Winnicott, Dewey, Kübler-Ross, Stanislavskii, and so forth. It is suggested that through its connection with the working out of a person’s life-projects, perezhivanie plays a key role in connecting psychology with social theory.