“Any path is just one of a million possible paths.”
Carlos Castaneda

There are a great many ways... which one to choose? Speaking about purpose and its search, one cannot ignore the whole human life path. This is a more capacious and long-lasting concept that spans the entire human life. Someone lives by the inertia of “let everything go as it goes”, rejoices at successes and is upset when they bypass him, saying that this is fate... And someone is looking for the right path for themselves - their own path. So, what should you prefer? Choosing a life path or let your life take its course?

Faced with another failure in their life, probably every person has wondered, is it possible to change anything at all? As a rule, we attribute all problems and consequences of mistakes to fate. And we chalk up every success to our own account. But maybe, it is worth analyzing failures as well? See your mistakes and wrong actions in them? Watch the children: one, having tripped over a stone, will look at it, draw conclusions and avoid it next time, while the other will constantly fall in the same place. Such an ingenuous example can be applied as a stencil to any human action. And this is not the ability to think logically - it is, first of all, the desire to understand “why I fell.” It is unlikely that any adult will seriously think that fate placed this stone under his feet. And perhaps choice of life path and lies in first learning to analyze what consequences will follow what actions.

After all, few people think that human life path The path he walks on is not only the presence or absence of work, income, success. This is both a worldview and the ability to build harmonious relationships both in the family and with business partners, the ability to be happy and constructively sad, the ability to LIVE. Agree, our perception of everything that happens depends on our attitude to the world around us. You can create, but you can destroy everything . Obviously, these are two opposite poles, but the road between them is very short, since it depends only on our thoughts and feelings. And we know how to control these matters, or at least we can learn.

Do choice of life path yourself, compare:

• Destruction - this is irritation, fear, melancholy, dissatisfaction with oneself, disappointment, jealousy and even a feeling of guilt, which entails punishment (of oneself). All this not only forces a person to destroy relationships, his life, but also himself, since thoughts and feelings tend to materialize.
• Creation - this is responsibility for your actions, feelings and thoughts. This is the understanding that our own subconscious mind is in control. human life path. This is the road of development.

Some will say that the answer is obvious, but how to find yourself your path, and not the principles of life, even after making the right choice of life path? After all, the feeling of unfulfillment is also a destructive force.

“Each of us has only one true calling -
find a way to yourself"
Hermann Hesse

Find yourself like No matter how it sounds to skeptics, people have strived at all times. But in the entire history of mankind, no one has ever found an answer to the question, how to find yourself, your own life path. A person thinks about this all the time, although it is difficult to solve the issue by reflection alone.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step"
Lao Tzu

As with achieving a goal, you need to be able not only to think/analyze/draw conclusions, but also to act. You have already taken the first step - you have decided what you need find yourself. How you will do it - that’s another question.

“Either I will find my way, or I will make it myself.”
F. Sydney

Finding yourself means feeling fulfilled, in demand and, as a result, happy. The components of happiness for many are health, family and, of course, success at work - in a job that gives pleasure. It is precisely the last component that is the most difficult for most: how to find yourself- your place in life, your calling, your business. Returning to the question of how to find your calling, you should understand that no one can answer it unequivocally, but a number of specialists offer trainings and various exercises that help you find tips, responses within yourself to what really, perhaps, will become your business. life.

You will find how to take the next step in finding your calling, your life path, in the next article, in which we will talk about.

IN Western culture numerology has been known for a long time. This teaching can be traced back to the famous Greek mathematician and mystic Pythagoras: he used it 2500 years ago.
He even built a special numerological scheme, according to which everyone should live the life prepared for them by numbers. Like, if you don’t do this (due to ignorance or inability to hear your heart), your life path is simply doomed to failure!
It sounds kind of crazy, but try it. And tell us if Pythagoras was right about your natural talents!

So here's a 60-second test to help you find out if you're on the right path in life.

Step 1: Add all your birthday numbers together. Don't forget to write full year your birth (for example, 1969, not 69).

Step 2: If the number turns out to be two digits, add the numbers from it. For example, if you get 27, then 2+7=9. Continue this until you end up with one number from 0 to 9.

Let's take for example March 29, 1969. Suppose one of you was born on this very day. It turns out that the full date looks like this: 03/29/1969.

2+9+0+3+1+9+6+9 = 39
3+9 = 12
1+2 = 3. So your life path is number three!

Step 3: find your number on this list and find out what you need to do in life!

Life path #1:

People-units- these are, first of all, original thinkers and creative minds. They often make excellent goal-oriented leaders who prefer to do everything themselves or be responsible for everyone at once.

Occupations that suit you: Freelancer/Independent Contractor; Business owner; manager; Sales Manager; marketer; advertising specialist; designer; quality engineer; trainer-consultant; politician; developer or broker; Financial Consultant; creative director; athlete.

Life path #2:

Two people Primarily detail oriented. They love to notice and see what others do not see and do not notice. They usually make great friends and caregivers because no one is as supportive as they are.

They usually manage life quite deftly because they are used to trusting their intuition. They also often fight to empower others.

Professions suitable for you: Teacher; psychotherapist; healer; cook; negotiator/diplomat; politician; musician; artist; designer; Social worker; administrator; therapist; alternative medicine specialist; accountant; masseur; actor.

Life path #3:

Three people They are used to speaking for themselves: they love to express themselves and have a creative nature. That's why they're usually so pleasant to talk to!

They can infect anyone with their passion for beauty. And the main thing for them is to reveal their “I”: be it in creativity or in sports. at least in oratory; at least in the scientific community.

Here are the professions suitable for you: entertainer; artist; journalist; designer; cook; musician; dancer; trainer; writer; photographer; salesman; architect; Graphic Designer; hairdresser; cosmetologist; visagiste; art specialist.

Life path #4:

Four people- these are those who most of all of us value details and a systematic, methodological approach. If you want to do something desperate and quick with them, such people will not agree: they like it when their plan is thought out to the smallest detail.

That is why they make such highly professional managers and organizers. Wherever a four-man appears, stability and order reign for a long time.

Professions suitable for you: director; manager; Business owner; editor; auditor; accountant. doctor; engineer; military or law enforcement officer; personal trainer; analyst; architect/urban planner; advocate; official, business consultant; banker or finance and investment specialist.

Life path #5:

Fives- these are people who value variety, novelty and the excitement of uncertainty above all else in life.

Of course, they are naturally gifted with communication skills and strong analytical thinking. Friends appreciate them for what they always give good advice, know how to advertise and promote unpopular ideas and can be even the devil’s advocate!

Here are the professions that are suitable for you: Project Manager; manager-consultant in a travel agency; organizer festive events; investigator; advertising and marketing consultant, promoter, PR specialist, hairdresser; athlete or TV presenter.

Life path #6:

People born under the sign 6, most often choose to work in the service sector. They enjoy helping, advising and supporting others. They make excellent advisors, consultants and managers.

Here is a list of the most suitable professions for you: hairdresser; fashion consultant; interior designer; therapist; teacher; healer decorator; chiropractor; model. visagiste; medical worker; cosmetologist

Life path #7:

Seven people have a contemplative character. They are not very active, they like to think about everything thoroughly: this is the nature of their analytical mind.

They learn quickly and well and are able to develop complex strategies to solve complex issues. They also love technology and are always on a spiritual quest. Their favorite science is psychology.

Here are the professions that suit your soul: researcher/scientist; analyst; IT consultant; philosopher, psychologist. journalist. quality engineer; programmer; accountant. spiritual teacher; doctor; naturopath; biographer.

Life path #8:

Eight people are talented, innovative leaders born to solve big problems. They rarely like to work for someone, especially if that someone is a dictator. This is why these people are most successful when they start their own business.

Accordingly, here are the professions suitable for you: business owner; independent contractor; Project Manager; banker; business consultant; broker; advocate; surgeon; politician, high-ranking official.

Life path #9:

Nines- unique people. Because they combine creativity, and the ability to work for the benefit of others. Therefore, they most often choose to work in the service sector.

Such people often become talented teachers (those whom students remember for the rest of their lives), healers, and leaders. Your opinion is usually listened to, isn't it?

Here are the relevant industries and professions for you: healthcare or education specialist; artist; professional writer; human rights activist; advocate; actor; politician; civil activist; human resources specialist (HR); PR specialist, energy engineer, graphic designer; fashion designer; photographer.

In modern psychological science Such phenomena as character, life orientation (the meaning of life, life philosophy, “life line”), talent and life experience can be combined in the concept of “a person’s life path.” We call the problems associated with its study biographical. They are closely intertwined with the socio-historical processes of the era. “A person is a person only insofar as he has his own history,” wrote S.L. Rubinstein.

In Soviet psychology, S.L. was the first to address the topic of life path. Rubinstein, B.G. Ananyev. ON THE. Rybnikov took the initiative to develop research on the genetic psychology of personality (20s). For B.G. Ananyev's problem of life's path became relevant in the early 30s. in connection with research on characterology conducted by him at the Psychoneurological Institute. V.M. Bekhterev in Leningrad. S.L. Rubinstein paid attention to the psychological issues of biography, theoretically considering issues of self-awareness in “Fundamentals general psychology" Subsequently, various aspects of a person’s life path and life activity were developed in the works of Soviet scientists devoted to the nature of man and his development.

Life path is “the history of the formation and development of an individual in a certain society, a contemporary of a certain era, a peer of a certain generation.” The historical nature of a person requires the psychologist to study or at least take into account the historical circumstances of her life. In psychology, a person’s biography has always served as a rich source of knowledge about personality, but, more importantly, it itself is subject psychological study.

“The position that development is the main way of existence of an individual at all stages of his individual path puts forward for psychology one of the most relevant and least studied tasks of psychological research into the holistic life path of an individual.” The relationship between biographical events and moments in the natural life cycle of an individual; phases, periodization of life; crises of personality development; types of biographies; age characteristics the inner world of man; the role of spiritual factors in the regulation of social life; age dynamics of creative productivity; overall life course performance; satisfaction with life, etc. - this is not a complete list of questions concerning the very nature of life’s path.

The first systematic study of the patterns of life path was undertaken by S. Bühler and her colleagues at the Vienna Psychological Institute in the 20-30s. . Based on a large amount of empirical material, she established that, despite individual uniqueness, there are patterns (“regularities”) in the timing of the onset of life optima, depending on the ratio of spiritual, “mental,” and biological, “vital” tendencies. Were also discovered Various types life development of personality. S. Bühler developed an idealistic concept of human development as a process of gradual formation and change in the spiritual target structures of self-consciousness. The ideas and empirical research of S. Bühler contributed to the design humanistic psychology in the West .

Existentialist, neo-Freudian models of life development were comprehensively and deeply subjected to critical analysis in Soviet science. This criticism is conducted from the perspective of Marxist methodological principles and is constructive in nature. Soviet psychology defined a fundamentally different strategy for developing problems of individual personality development. This strategy was first outlined most fully and programmatically by B.G. Ananyev. He substantiated the project of science about the holistic development of man in a single life cycle. This science, according to Ananyev - ontopsychology, should combine age-related psychophysiology, which studies the ontogenesis of psychophysiological functions of the brain, and genetic personology, aimed at studying the actual personal evolution in the process of life. The subject of ontopsychology is the relationships, interdependencies of ontogenesis and life path, which determine the main patterns of holistic individual human development.

In this integrity, however, B.G. Ananyev clearly distinguished two interacting ones, but still special forms. Firstly, ontogenesis - the development of the individual and his brain, psychophysiological functions. Ontogenesis is programmed genetically and occurs in biological life time. Secondly, the life path, which is built according to social projects in historical time, is dated by historical and biographical events.

Ontogenesis with a sequence of phases (birth, maturity and maturation, aging and death) acts as an objective factor in the life path. “The history of the individual and the subject of activity unfolds in the real space and time of ontogenesis and, to a certain extent, is determined by it...”. Objective, social and subjective, personal regulation of life, life path planning cannot occur without taking into account the natural life span, the degree of maturity of the body and brain, and age-related health restrictions. The very possibility of subjective regulation of life activity does not arise immediately, but gradually, as the brain and its functions mature, and at the same time as intelligence, self-awareness, and character develop in the processes of socialization. Before becoming a subject, a person exists as an object of many social influences. Objective determination of life path - partly by ontogenesis and in to a large extent social circumstances - is not canceled even when a person becomes a subject in full. The relationship between subjective and objective regulators of life's path is an important issue in biographical research, a point at the intersection of psychology and ethics. The psychological aspect of the answer to this question lies in the study of the mechanisms of subjective regulation by a person of his life and thus his own development. These mechanisms actualize the existing structures of self-awareness, character, life orientation, and talent.

To the extent that a person himself organizes and directs the events of his life’s path, builds his own development environment, and selectively relates to those events that do not depend on his will (for example, socio-historical macro-events of our time), he is subject of life activity. The principle of life activity developed by K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, , specifies in relation to the individual more general principle unity of consciousness and activity. According to the way consciousness is formed and manifested in activity, integral, “apex” personality structures - character and talent, life orientation and life experience - are formed and manifested as its subjective regulators.

The concept of life activity reflects the active role of a person in own destiny. The degree of this activity may vary depending on the maturity of the character and its originality. On this basis, it is possible to distinguish between levels of life activity and associated personality types. (At the same time, one cannot abstract from the socio-historical meaning of the values ​​for which the individual lives and fights.) At one pole is a life subordinate to circumstances, a patterned fulfillment of social roles, so to speak, a life of automatism. At the other pole is life creativity, when life activity, embodied in specific forms of social behavior and activity, is directed by the subject in accordance with fundamental relationships and attitudes, when life activity is adequate to character and is self-expression. Truly creative self-expression must be based on the right reflection circumstances and consequences of one’s own behavior, reflecting the objective laws of reality.

Life creativity occurs in social behavior (actions), in communication, work and cognition. The life path of a creative personality is full of events - events of the environment, behavior, inner life. This eventfulness affects the nature and completeness of memories. Memories can be used to judge personality type.

The unity of consciousness and activity is, in biographical terms, the unity of internal and external life. In the broadest sense of the word, the concept of inner life covers all phenomena of mental activity. Inner life should be considered as a psychological component of the life path. It not only reflects real events, but itself is a subjective reality - life. Indeed, a spiritual biography can be no less meaningful and significant than an objective picture of life. Sometimes in biography it comes to the fore. For example, Kant's biographers draw attention to the contrast between the dramatic history of the philosopher's thought and the monotony of his private life. A.V. Gulyga writes in this regard: “Kant has no other biography than the history of his teaching... The most exciting events in it are thoughts.”

The “cell” of inner life is experience. In “Fundamentals of General Psychology” S.L. Rubinstein noted the universal nature of this phenomenon and considered it a personal, subjective aspect of consciousness as a whole. “Experience,” notes S.L. Rubinstein, is primarily a psychic fact, a piece own life the individual in his flesh and blood, a specific manifestation of his individual life. It becomes an experience in a narrower, specific sense of the word as the individual becomes a person and his experience acquires a personal character... A person’s experiences are the subjective side of his real life, subjective aspect of a person’s life path.” In this second sense of the word, experiences can be called biographical experiences. In fact, their subject is biographical events reflected in the processes of memory, thinking, and imagination. Through them, life activity is regulated, and, finally, they themselves can become life events.

Experiences exist in the form of emotionally charged processes, for example mnemonic, which in personal-biographical terms act as processes of historical memory - memories. Like any biographical experience, memory is included in the life activity of the individual. In connection with life activity, memory has been studied much less than in connection with more private types of activity, say, with learning. The laws of imprinting, preservation, forgetting and reproduction in the system of historical memory have their own specificity, determined by the vital significance of the recorded events. Yes, unlike simple shapes memory in memories there are such images that have super-longevity, super-durability due to the uniqueness of events. Moreover, what is important is not so much the emotional coloring of the image, but its content and vital significance. “The unpleasant persists especially long and lastingly because it is constantly experienced not as a known suffering, but as a known “life lesson.” The pleasant is preserved as a certain moment of moving life forward." This is a long-standing assumption of B.G. Ananyev was confirmed in the experiments of P.V. Simonova. “Memories of faces, meetings, life episodes, which were not at all associated in the anamnesis with any out-of-the-ordinary experiences, sometimes caused exceptionally strong and persistent, objectively recorded shifts that could not be extinguished by repeated reproduction. A more thorough analysis of this... category of cases showed that the emotional coloring of memories depends not on the strength of the emotions experienced at the moment of the event itself, but on relevance these memories for the subject in this moment» .

Not only the preservation, but also the forgetting of biographical facts is determined by their vital significance, as S. Freud drew attention to. Forgetting as the involuntary displacement of an image from consciousness is real. But something else is also possible, when a person stores an event in memory, but deliberately avoids reproducing it, not wanting to harm himself. heartache, disturb the conscience. Memories sometimes require courage.

Memories, embodied in emotionally charged ideas, are part of the actual structure of the personality, forming the mental “fabric” of its self-awareness. By summarizing memories, the life experience of an individual is formed. “Thanks to memory, the unity of our consciousness reflects the unity of our personality, passing through the entire process of its development and restructuring. The unity of personal self-awareness is associated with memory. Any personality disorder, reaching in its extreme forms to the point of its collapse, is therefore always associated with amnesia, a memory disorder, and, moreover, precisely this, its “historical” aspect.” Memories are crucial for a person to understand his own life, master his experience, and regulate his life activities on this basis.

Inner life can also be carried out in the processes of imagination. For different people imaginary life - in dreams, hopes, foresights - has different meanings. Sometimes it almost completely replaces real life. Escaping reality into the realm of memories or dreams has the meaning of “protection.” However, this style of internal life demobilizes a person and reduces the level of his social activity. It is optimal when a rich inner life is commensurate with real life, otherwise it itself will eventually become exhausted. “In order to survive, you must first of all live. The nature of human experiences, their depth and truthfulness—the correspondence with life—depends on the fullness and strength of life, on the social existence of a person.”

Experiences undoubtedly also have a mental component. “Thinking processes are involved in solving life and moral problems that involve making a choice and constructing” a strategy of behavior. The point of view of a person's life as a chain of tasks that are typical for a certain age or that arise when faced with various circumstances implies the inclusion of intelligence in the structure of personality. Determining a line of behavior or even a line of one’s entire life is a creative task addressed largely to the intellect.

It can be seen that the functioning of thinking when solving life problems is in many ways similar to mental activity in a problem situation that has no biographical significance at all. In both cases there is a preparatory phase, a moment of insight and a subsequent comprehensive justification for the decision. Moreover, even a random impression can play the role of a “hint”. The brightness, unforgettable moments of insight, when the truth is discovered in its moral, vital significance, indicates that these moments entered the spiritual biography of a person and became events.

The phenomenon of spiritual events was very expressively described by the writer Vera Ketlinskaya in her autobiographical novel “Hello, Youth!” She writes: “In the spring, three events took place, seemingly not major ones, but unless epochal events play a role in our mental life! I still feel those three incidents as turning points.” In particular, V. Ketlinskaya recalls the impression of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the sounds of which strengthened her thoughts about a rebellious life. “That exciting, indestructibly cheerful melody arose... and again sparkled - like a premonition that was not entirely clear to me - the moment of awareness of my fate.” A specific impression (here aesthetic) caused experiences that have a biographical meaning (“awareness of fate”). It was not the music itself, but the experiences arising under its influence that formed the essence of the event. Aesthetic experience here contributed to determining the life direction of the individual, and therefore it indirectly influenced the course of life, and therefore became an event in it.

Psychologists have to study and understand the special qualities of all mental processes like experiences. In the flow of inner life, memory becomes a memory, imagination - a dream, thinking - a means of comprehending the essence of life's tasks, inner speech - the voice of conscience (B.G. Ananyev persistently drew attention to this ethical function of speech back in the 40s) In this, biographical meaning, a person’s mind acquires a new quality: “The ability, developed in the course of life in some people, to comprehend life in the grand scheme of things and recognize what is truly significant in it, the ability not only to find means to solve randomly emerging problems, but also to identify the tasks themselves and the purpose of life is to truly know Where in life to go and For what,- this is something infinitely superior to all learning, even if it has a large stock of special knowledge, this is a precious and rare property - wisdom" .

The experiences of strong, talented people rise to the level of passions in in the best sense this word, i.e. to passions inspired by noble ideas (pathos). Great deeds mature in the boiling of such passions - this is evidenced by the biographies of outstanding scientists, writers, and revolutionaries. More than once doubts have been expressed about the possibility of a scientific, psychological study of deeply personal experiences, especially passions - these phenomena are attributed entirely to the department of art and fiction. For example, P.V. Simonov strongly insists on this. He makes pessimistic conclusions regarding the scientific independence of the psychologist. “The subjective side of the inner world of the individual,” he writes, “is not ... the subject of science in general. Retreating from the related disciplines that are pursuing him - neurophysiology, ethology, anthropology, sociology, etc., the psychologist at a certain moment finds himself in a territory where he feels inaccessible to representatives of these branches of knowledge.

With relief, he looks around and discovers that he is in the territory of... art." Real difficulties in understanding the depths of personality should not, however, be perceived as the fundamental powerlessness of science in this area. Biographical studies in psychology testify in favor of science. Without recourse to a full-blooded inner life with its passions scientific psychology still looks unfinished, “torn off at the most interesting place.”

Experiences are a dynamic effect of the entire personality structure, which is most integrally represented in character and talent (B.G. Ananyev). The dynamics of inner life in its biographical meaning are permeated with ideological motives, it bears the stamp of worldview, life philosophy personality. In experiences, the value aspect of self-awareness is revealed, the personality’s relationships are actualized, including towards oneself, generalized in reflexive character traits - self-love, self-esteem, honor. Reflexive properties, “although... are the most recent and dependent on all the others, complete character structure and provide it integrity. They are most intimately connected with the goals of life and activity, value orientations, attitudes, performing the function of self-regulation and control of development, contributing to the formation and stabilization of the unity of the individual.”

Reflexive character traits are stable properties of self-awareness, which in personal-biographical terms acts as awareness of oneself as a subject of life's path, responsible for one's own destiny - unique, inimitable, unique. Self-awareness correlates, on the one hand, the life plans and potentials of the individual, on the other, real achievements in creativity, career, personal life. A mature person understands the logical nature of his path, builds a concept of life, linking the past with the present and future. Self-awareness is impossible without knowledge of one’s own existence, the contingent and the necessary in it, the actual and the potential, the actual and the possible. The depth and adequacy of this knowledge are largely determined by a person’s intelligence and, if you like, talent.

Character is the integration of personality properties, genetically related to its tendencies. The system of potencies is integrated into the structure of abilities, and moreover, into talent (see). The psychology of talent is something more than the psychology of abilities. It's not just a matter of at different levels these potentials. Talent is the unity of abilities based on the worldview and life orientation of the individual. Talent is the effect of individualizing abilities, merging them with character. Following B.G. Ananyev, we believe that in the concept of “talent” it is not so much the level of abilities and its components that is important, but rather their originality, compliance with inclinations, awareness and self-regulation. Character and talent in relation to the path of life act as its subjective factors, regulators of the life process and social life. However, they themselves are primarily a product of biographical development. The fate of a talented individual, the possibility of his flourishing, the individual characteristics of the structure of talent, the area of ​​application of creative forces depend on historical time, on the class affiliation of the individual, on the circumstances of the social environment of development. Story creative activity inseparable from the civil and personal destiny of a person. That is why psychological studies of talent and characterology studies necessarily turn to biographical material.

Being dependent on biography, talent, in turn, leaves its mark on the fate of the individual. Awareness of one's talent reinforces self-esteem, promotes responsibility for its implementation and development, and encourages a person to live in accordance with his calling. Thus, talent acts as a kind of imperative of life. Moreover, the person realizes social function their talent, their responsibility to solve urgent problems of social life and thereby respond to the demands of our time. In other words, a person realizes not only his potentials and calling, but also his social, historical mission - purpose. This happens not only with great people, but with every conscious subject with a sense of social responsibility and a sense of history. Everyone makes their contribution to the historical process, and everyone is to some extent irreplaceable.

Talent, being an imperative of life, also serves as its instrument. In literary criticism, the correct idea has been expressed that talent in life creativity is no less valuable than in special types activities. So, in the new book by Yu.M. Lotman about Pushkin, the poet’s life is considered as a work of genius. “Pushkin entered Russian culture not only as a Poet, but also as a brilliant master of life, a man who was given the unheard-of gift of being happy even in the most tragic circumstances.” Creativity of life, self-worth worthy of the years lived - the main thesis old job G. Vinokura “Biography and Culture”.

So, the multilateral connections between the personality structure, represented by talent and character, and the life path determine the place of these integral formations in the circle of biographical problems: they are the result of the life path and its regulators, moreover, they are the basis of life creativity.

The study of biographical phenomena has not only theoretical, but also practical significance. By understanding the patterns of life activity and life path, a person can better imagine the optimal option for his own development and determine his life path. Understanding the role of the individual in planning and implementing one’s life path contributes to a more responsible attitude towards it, the desire to set serious life goals and achieve their implementation.

For the first time, the concept of a person’s life path was put forward by S. Bühler. She identified three life path lines. The first line is the objective logic of life, as a sequence of external events. The second line is a change in the experiences of these events. The third line is the results of human activity. S. Bühler believed that in life a person is driven by the desire for self-fulfillment and creativity. She took the concept of “event” as the basis for explaining life, distinguishing external and internal.

Almost simultaneously with S. Buhler, P. Janet sought to define the life path as the evolution of the personality itself, as a sequence age stages her development, the stages of her biography.

The life path of an individual was deeply considered by S.L. Rubinstein. He believed that the concept of a person’s life path reflects the essence of the human personality, which finds its final expression in the fact that it not only develops like any organism, but also has its own history. A person is a person only insofar as he has his own history. In the course of this individual history, there are also “events” - key moments and turning points in an individual’s life path, when with the adoption of one or another decision, a person’s life path is determined for a more or less long period.

LIFE'S PATH

a very broad general scientific concept that describes the progress of individual human development from birth to death. It is often used as a synonym for the concepts “life time” and “life cycle”, but their content is different.

The term life time means the time interval between the birth and death of a person - the duration of life, regardless of its content.

The term life cycle implies repeating, relatively invariant aspects of development. These cycles are:

1) biological - successive stages of birth, growth, maturation, aging and death (-> ontogenesis);

2) social - the assimilation, fulfillment and, finally, loss of certain sets of labor, family and other social roles;

3) mixed, biosocial - a change in age generations, cohorts, where the biological laws of aging are complemented by social ones, due to which the younger ones first learn from the older ones, then act alongside them and then replace them.

In addition to the individual life cycle, they also say:

1) about cycles family life: marriage - birth of children - family with children of different ages - family from which adult children have already left, - etc.;

2) professional career - from choosing a profession to retirement, etc.

The concept of a life cycle presupposes a certain closure, completeness of the process, the center of which is in oneself, and the sequence of stages is strictly defined. However, the most important stages of human development are incomprehensible without taking into account the individual’s own efforts and his interaction with others, which cannot be described in cyclical terms.

Unlike the life cycle, the life path is characterized by multidimensionality and presupposes the presence of many autonomous trends, lines and development opportunities. Depending on the research tasks and style of thinking, natural and social sciences periodize the path of life in different ways. Biologists and psychophysiologists emphasize the importance of critical or sensitive periods, when the body is highly susceptible to certain external or internal factors, the impact of which precisely at this and no other point of development produces important irreversible changes in him. Sociologists talk about social transitions, turning points in development, which are often accompanied by special rituals (rites of passage) that radically change social status, status or structure of an individual’s activity: entering school, coming of age, getting married, etc.

Since critical periods and social transitions are usually accompanied by significant, sometimes painful mental restructuring, psychology uses the special concept of age-related or normative life crises to describe these processes, which are recognized as statistically normal, typical for a given age or stage of the life path (-> age crisis). Knowledge of these critical periods and life crises is important practically.

The life path of an individual, like the history of mankind, is the result of the cohesion of many individually unique characters and circumstances that cannot be described only in terms of impersonal structures and processes. Life events that interest a psychotherapist-biographer have not only an objective meaning, but also a subjective personal meaning, the decoding of which requires special sources and methods of cognition (-> biographical method).

Not a single life event can be understood without correlating it:

1) with the chronological age of the individual at the time of the event;

2) with his cohort affiliation;

3) with the historical era and date of the event;

4) with the personal meaning of this event for the subject.

The chronology and sequence of many of the most important life events and social transitions (for example, the age of physical maturation, the time of graduation from school, the start of work, etc.) depend on macrosocial conditions.

LIFE PATH

the broadest scientific concept that describes the progress of individual human development from birth to death. It is often used as a synonym for the concepts “lifetime” and “life cycle”, but their content is different. The concept of “lifetime” means the time interval between the birth and death of a person, the duration of life, regardless of its content. The term "life cycle" implies recurring, more or less invariant aspects of development. These cycles can be biological, social, or mixed. In contrast to the “life cycle,” the life path is characterized by multidimensionality and presupposes the presence of many autonomous trends, lines and development opportunities. Natural and social sciences periodize the life course in different ways (sensitive periods, social transitions, normative life crises).

Life path

the process of individual development of a person from birth to death. In contrast to the “life span”, which simply means the time interval from birth to death, regardless of its content, and the “life cycle”, which implies repeating, more or less invariant (biological, social and biosocial) aspects of development, life is characterized by multidimensionality and presupposes the presence of many autonomous trends, lines and development opportunities, the implementation of which depends largely on the subject’s own choice. The study of housing has always occupied an important place in the sciences of man and society. However, its biological, social, historical and personal parameters remained disconnected. For a very long time, developmental psychology has been constructing personality life patterns according to the model of biological ontogenesis, reducing development to a set of naturally repeating cycles. This is associated with the rigidity and dogmatism of many age periodizations. On the contrary, the biographical method of German “understanding psychology” (E. Spranger, S. Bühler) concentrated mainly on the analysis of subjective experiences and the development of self-awareness. A fundamentally new integrative direction in the interdisciplinary study of housing protection that emerged after World War II is based on a number of prerequisites and achievements: 1) the emergence of long-term longitudinal psychological research, covering significant periods of life, and ideally - all living space(life-span developmental psychology); 2) sociological structuring of housing. based on cohort and historical analysis(G.H. Elder), taking into account changes in family development cycles, socio-age criteria for maturation and the time of major social transitions; 3) the transformation of “developmental psychology” into developmental psychology, expanding its subject and conceptual boundaries using data from social gerontology and understanding the wide individual variability of all processes of change and development; 4) understanding of the need to study individual development in a changing world. Interdisciplinary research in Zh.p. have a strong influence on the psychology and sociology of personality, the theory of education and other sections of the human sciences. I. S. Kon

Life path is an individual history of a person. As noted by B.G. Ananyev “the subjective picture of the life path is constructed according to individual and social development, commensurate in biographical and historical dates.” The specificity of the life path lies in its historical nature, understood as the inclusion of a person’s life in the historical process. On this occasion S.L. Rubinstein writes: “Not only humanity, but also every person is to some extent a participant and subject of the history of mankind and in in a certain sense he writes the story himself."

And to understand his life path, a person must consider and answer the questions: “Who would I be? What have I done? Who have I become?”

As noted by S.L. Rubinstein, it would be wrong to think that in one’s deeds, in the products of one’s activity, one’s labor, a person only reveals himself, being ready before and apart from them and remaining after them the same as he was. A person who has done something significant becomes, in a certain sense, a different person. Of course, to do anything significant, you need to have the internal capabilities to do it. However, these opportunities and potentials stall and die if they are not realized; only to the extent that a person is objectively, objectively realized in the products of his labor, does he grow and be formed through them.

When we see how much of himself a person has put into something he has done, we feel that there is a person behind the matter whose personality is of interest. Thus, “in human activity, in his practical and theoretical affairs,” notes S.L. Rubinstein, mental, spiritual development of a person not only manifests itself, but also improves." This is the key to understanding the development of personality - how it is formed while making its way in life.

The first and largest in its theoretical potential was the formulation of the problem of the life path of S. Bühler, who made an attempt to integrate the biological, psychological and historical times life in a single coordinate system. She outlined three aspects of studying the life path of an individual:

study of objective living conditions, main life events and behavior in these conditions (biological-biographical aspect);

studying the history of the formation and change of values, experiences, evolution of the inner world of man (historical and psychological aspect);

study of the history of human creativity, products and results of his activities (psychological and social aspect).

The driving force of personality development, according to S. Buhler, is the innate desire for self-realization, self-fulfillment - the realization of “oneself.” The concept of self-realization is close in meaning to the concept of self-realization. But self-realization is only the beginning of self-realization.

The life path in the concept of S. Bühler is considered as a process consisting of five life cycles (phases of life). Each phase of life is based on the development of target personality structures - self-determination.

The first phase (from birth to 16-20 years) is considered the period preceding self-determination, and, as it were, is taken beyond the boundaries of the life path.

The second (from 16-20 to 25-30 years) is the period of human trials in different types activities, searching for a life partner, i.e. his attempt to self-determinate, to predict his future.

The third phase (from 25-30 to 45-50 years) is the period of maturity. During this period, his expectations from life are real, he soberly assesses his capabilities, his self-esteem reflects the results of his life’s journey as a whole, the first results of his life and his achievements.

The fourth phase (from 45-50 to 65-70 years) is the phase of the aging organism. Professional activity is ending or nearing completion. Adult children leave the family and biological decline sets in.

The tendency to dreams and memories increases, and the setting of long-term life goals disappears.

The fifth phase (65-70 years before death) is old age. Most people leave theirs professional activity, inner world Old people are turned to the past; they think about the future with anxiety, anticipating the approaching end.

All life cycles are interconnected. The fact of starting an activity is of fundamental importance for the life path of an individual. As noted by B.G. Ananyev, human development from birth to adulthood coincides with a change in upbringing, education and training of the emerging personality and is prospectively oriented towards preparing a person for independent life. In genetic terms, this preparatory phase is very important, since education is the main form social management the process of formation of personality, the subject of cognition and behavior. “During this period, a person’s readiness for independent work and self-government is also formed.”

The most detailed and recognized periodization of life cycles in psychology belongs to E. Erikson, who distinguishes eight stages in a person’s life path. Each stage is accompanied by a crisis, which is turning point in life, arising as a result of achieving a certain level of mental development and changing relationships with other people and the world. As a result, a person acquires something new, characteristic of a given cycle of personal development. These personal new formations themselves do not arise out of nowhere; their appearance is prepared at the previous stages of personality development.

As a personality develops, it acquires not only advantages, but also disadvantages. In his concept of personal development, E. Erikson describes only the extreme lines of personal development: normal and abnormal. In their pure form, they are rare, but they contain possible intermediate options for a person’s personal development.

In accordance with the theory of E. Erikson, the foundations of personal development are laid at the first stage (stage of trust - mistrust), which lasts from birth to 18 months. During this period, social interaction develops, the positive pole of which is trust, and the negative pole is distrust. The degree of trust depends on the care shown to the child, affection, attention to his needs, etc. Lack of loving care, proper attention and care develops mistrust, fearfulness and suspicion. The child carries this trust-distrust with him into other stages of development, and at subsequent stages the child may overcome the initial distrust, but may also lose trust in others.

The second stage (autonomy of shame) lasts from one and a half to three to four years. During this period, based on the development of motor and mental abilities, the child’s independence develops. He strives to do everything himself and is active. The main positive result of development at this stage is the achievement of a sense of independence. But life activity may not be perfect, as a result of which the child faces disapproval from others. Too strict or inconsistent external control makes the child doubt the significance of his personality, creating shyness, doubt in his abilities and a feeling of shame.

The third stage (initiative - guilt) begins at about four years of age (up to 6 years). During this period, the child has his first ideas about what kind of person he can become. The child’s cognitive activity and curiosity develop intensively. The plans that he constantly makes and which he is allowed to implement contribute to the development of initiative. But if the parents show the child that his initiative and curiosity are undesirable and harmful, the games are stupid, the questions are annoying, he begins to feel guilty and carries this feeling of guilt and humility into the next stages.

The fourth stage (industriousness or feelings of inferiority) lasts from approximately six to eleven years of age. During this period, the child is included in systematic organized activities which he carries out independently. During this period, the child tries to win recognition and earn approval by carrying out educational and work activities. He develops a hard work ethic. But if the child does not develop a hard work ethic, then the level of development of educational skills, labor activity lower than others, low status in collaborative situations contributes to feelings of inadequacy, incompetence, and inferiority.

Fifth stage (personal identification or role ambiguity). When moving to the fifth stage (12-18 years), the teenager matures physiologically and mentally, he develops new views of the world, a new approach to life and himself. There is an active search for oneself, playing various roles. In search of personal identity, a person decides what is important to him and develops norms for evaluating his own behavior and the behavior of other people. This process is associated with awareness of one’s own worth and competence, and the development of plans for the future. If a person successfully copes with the task of psychosocial identification, then he has a sense of who he is, where he is and where he is going. Failure to identify can lead to status uncertainty, role confusion, self-doubt, and problems in self-determination.

The sixth stage (intimacy-isolation) begins at 20 and ends by 45 years. By intimacy, E. Erickson understands not only physical closeness, but also the ability to care for another person, to establish trusting relationship, be in love. Success or failure at this stage depends on how successfully the person has completed the other stages. Social conditions can make it easier or more difficult to achieve intimacy. But if a person does not achieve intimacy, his lot becomes loneliness - a state of a person in which he has no one to share his life with, no one to care about.

Seventh stage (universal humanity - self-absorption). This stage covers the period from 45 to 60 years. E. Erikson calls universal humanity the ability of a person to be interested in other people, to think about the life of future generations. A person feels pride in his children, satisfaction with a full and varied life, he works creatively on himself. This period is characterized by high productivity in the most different areas. Those who have not developed a sense of belonging to humanity focus on themselves, and their main concern is satisfying their needs and their own comfort.

The eighth stage (fullness of life-despair) is experienced during aging, after 60 years. This is the stage when a person achieves integrity, feels the fullness and usefulness of the life he has lived, and realizes that life was not in vain. Death is inevitable, but not terrible.

If a person is not satisfied with the life he has lived and realizes the meaninglessness of his existence, then he ends his life in fear of death and in despair.

B.G. Ananyev noted that the desire to express the milestones of a person’s life path in chronological dates is justified. Each phase of the life path: preparatory, start, culmination, finish - characterizes a change in the subject of activity, personality. However, the convention of average climax values ​​does not require proof. Reduced productivity of a scientist, artist, engineer, writer, etc. may be temporary, and after a decline or creative decline, a new rise, a new climax occurs. In addition, there is certain dependence the culmination comes from the start, and the start from the education of the individual. To the same extent, one can assume a connection between the climax and the finish.

The life periodization of a personality and its life structures depend on the personality itself, on its capabilities and the meaning of life. The meaning of life is a person’s generalization of his tasks, capabilities and place in life, i.e. human life concept.

The implementation by a person of his life plans and tasks is the self-actualization of the personality. Self-actualization is "full use of talents, abilities, opportunities, etc." - notes A. Maslow. He wrote: “I imagine a self-actualized person not as ordinary person, to whom something has been added, but as an ordinary person from whom nothing has been taken away." He names the characteristics of a self-actualized personality:

a more effective perception of reality and a more comfortable relationship with it;

acceptance of oneself, others, nature;

spontaneity, simplicity, naturalness;

task centeredness (as opposed to self centeredness);

autonomy, independence from culture and environment;

constant freshness of assessment;

a sense of belonging, unity with others;

deeper interpersonal relationships;

the difference between means and ends, good and evil;

a philosophical, non-hostile sense of humor;

democratic character structure.

Self-actualization, as A. Maslow notes, is not the absence of problems, but a movement from temporary and unreal problems to real problems.

Self-actualization plays a crucial role throughout the entire life path of an individual and at the same time determines it.

Many authors believe that a self-actualizing personality is a person who has the freedom to create himself and his life, turning the most routine activity into a holiday, into an exciting game. E. Fromm defined freedom as the ability to make conscious choices. One of the steps to freedom is the ability to love. Many people do not know, do not understand that we cannot love others until we love ourselves. And to love yourself is to accept yourself with all your weaknesses and shortcomings. The same attitude should be towards other people. We are subject to the illusion that we can love only for perfection, so love is replaced by power over a person, the desire to correct others.

Thus, a positive life path has a person striving for self-actualization, who is characterized by faith in himself, in his Self, adequate self-esteem their qualities, a high level of self-government over their actions and actions. The beginning of the path to self-actualization is the development of the ability to self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence.

As we have seen, a person is not born with a personality; he becomes a person. This formation of personality is significantly different from the development of the organism, which occurs in the process of simple organic maturation. The essence of the human personality finds its final expression in the fact that it not only develops like any organism, but also has its own history.

Unlike other living beings, humanity has a history, and not just repeating cycles of development, because human activity, changing reality, is objectified in the products of material and spiritual culture, which are passed on from generation to generation. Through them, a successive connection is created between generations, thanks to which subsequent generations do not repeat, but continue the work of the previous ones and rely on what their predecessors did, even when they enter into a struggle with them.

What applies to humanity as a whole cannot but apply, in a certain sense, to every person. Not only humanity, but every person is to some extent a participant and subject of human history and, in a certain sense, has a history himself. Every person has his own history, since the development of the individual is mediated by the result of his activity, just as the development of humanity is mediated by the products of social practice, through which the historical continuity of generations is established. Therefore, in order to understand the path of his development in its true human essence, a person must consider it in a certain aspect: what was I? - What I've done? - what have I become? It would be wrong to think that in one’s deeds, in the products of one’s activity, one’s labor, a person only reveals himself, being ready before and apart from them and remaining after them the same as he was. A person who has done something significant becomes, in a certain sense, a different person. Of course, it is also true that in order to do anything significant, you need to have some kind of internal capabilities for this. However, these possibilities and potentials of a person stall and die if they are not realized; only as the personality is objectively, objectively realized in the products of his labor, does he grow and be formed through them. There is a peculiar dialectic between a person and the products of her labor, between what she is and what she has done. It is not at all necessary that a person exhaust himself in the work that he has done; on the contrary, people in relation to whom we feel that they have exhausted themselves with what they have done usually lose purely personal interest for us. Then, when we see that, no matter how much of himself a person has invested in what he has done, he has not exhausted himself in what he has done, we feel that behind the deed there is a living person whose personality is of special interest. Such people have an internally freer attitude towards their work, towards the products of their activity; without exhausting themselves in them, they retain internal strength and opportunities for new achievements.

The point, then, is not to reduce history human life to a number of external affairs. Such a reduction is least acceptable for psychology, for which internal mental content and mental development personalities; but the essence of the matter is that the very mental development of a person is mediated by his practical and theoretical activities, his affairs. The line leading from what a man was at one stage of his history to what he became at the next passes through what he has done. In human activity, in his affairs, practical and theoretical, the mental, spiritual development of a person is not only manifested, but also accomplished.

This is the key to understanding personality development - how it is formed as it makes its way through life. Her psychic abilities are not only a prerequisite, but also the result of her actions and deeds. In them it is not only revealed, but also formed. The thought of a scientist is formed as he formulates it in his works, the thought of the public, politician- in his affairs. If his deeds are born from his thoughts, plans, intentions, then his thoughts themselves are generated by his deeds. The consciousness of a historical figure is formed and developed as an awareness of what is happening through him and with his participation, just as when a sculptor’s chisel carves a human image from a block of stone, it determines not only the features of the person depicted, but also the artistic face of the sculptor himself. An artist's style is an expression of his individuality, but his very individuality as an artist is formed in his work on the style of his works. A person's character is manifested in his actions, but it is also formed in his actions; the character of a person is both a prerequisite and a result of his real behavior in specific life situations; By determining his behavior, he also develops in behavior. A brave man acts bravely and a noble man behaves nobly; but, in order to become brave, you need to do bold things in your life, and in order to become truly noble, you need to commit actions that would put this stamp of nobility on a person. A disciplined person usually behaves in a disciplined manner, but how does he become disciplined? Only by subordinating your behavior day after day, hour after hour, to strict discipline.

In the same way, in order to master the heights of science and art, certain abilities are, of course, needed. But, being realized in some activity, abilities are not only revealed in it; they are formed and developed in it. There is a deep relationship and close interaction between a person’s abilities and the products of his activity, his labor. A person's abilities are developed and practiced by what he does. The practice of life provides at every step a wealth of factual material testifying to how people’s abilities are developed and developed at work, in study and work.

For a person, his biography, a kind of history of his “life path,” is not a random, external and psychologically indifferent circumstance. It is not without reason that a person’s biography includes, first of all, where and what he studied, where and how he worked, what he did, his works. This means that in the history of a person, which should characterize him, they include, first of all, what during his training he mastered from the results of the previous historical development humanity and what he himself did for its further advancement - how he became involved in the continuity of historical development.

In those cases when, being included in the history of mankind, an individual performs historical deeds, i.e. affairs that are included not only in his personal history, but also in the history of society - in the history of science itself, and not just scientific education and mental development this person, in the history of art, and not only aesthetic education and the development of a given personality, etc., - it becomes historical figure in the true sense of the word. But every person, every human personality has his own story. Every person has a history because he is included in the history of mankind. One can even say that a person is a person only insofar as he has his own history. In the course of this individual history, there are also “events” - key moments and turning points in an individual’s life path, when with the adoption of one or another decision, a person’s life path is determined for a more or less long period.

Moreover, everything that a person does is mediated by his relationship to other people and is therefore saturated with social human content. In this regard, the things that a person does usually outgrow him, since they are public affairs. But at the same time, man outgrows his work, since his consciousness is public consciousness. It is determined not only by a person’s attitude to the products of his own activity, it is formed by his attitude to all areas of historically developing human practice, human culture. Through the objective products of his labor and creativity, a person becomes a person, since through the products of his labor, through everything that he does, a person is always related to a person.

Behind every theory there is always, ultimately, some kind of ideology; Behind every psychological theory there is some general concept of man, which receives a more or less specialized refraction in it. Thus, a certain concept of human personality stood behind traditional, purely contemplative, intellectualized psychology, in particular associative psychology, which depicted mental life as a smooth flow of ideas, as a process occurring entirely on one plane, regulated by the coupling of associations like a smoothly working machine in which all parts adjusted to each other; and in the same way, its own concept of man as a machine, or rather an appendage to a machine, lies at the basis of behavioral psychology.

There is also a concept of human personality behind all the constructs of our psychology. This is a real living person of flesh and blood; he is not alien to internal contradictions, he has not only sensations, ideas, thoughts, but also needs and drives; There are conflicts in his life. But the sphere and real significance of the higher levels of consciousness for him are ever expanding and strengthening. These higher levels conscious life are not built externally above the lower ones; they penetrate deeper and deeper into them and rebuild them; human needs are increasingly becoming truly human needs; without losing anything in their natural naturalness, they themselves, and not just the ideal manifestations of man built above them, are increasingly turning into manifestations of the historical, social, truly human essence of man.

This development of human consciousness, its growth and its rooting in him are accomplished in the process of real human activity. Human consciousness is inextricably linked with reality, and effectiveness with consciousness. Only due to the fact that a person, driven by his needs and interests, objectively generates more and more new and more perfect products of his labor, in which he objectifies himself, more and more new areas, all higher levels of consciousness are formed and developed in him. Through the products of one’s labor and one’s creativity, which are always products of social labor and social creativity, since man himself is a social being, a conscious personality develops, its conscious life expands and strengthens. This, in a condensed form, is also an integral psychological concept. Behind it, as its real prototype, emerges the image of a human creator, who, by changing nature and rebuilding society, changes his own nature, who, in his social practice, giving rise to new public relations and in collective work creating new culture, forges a new, truly human appearance of a person.