Ivan Mikhaylovich Sechenov (1829–1905) was a Russian physiologist, founder of the Russian school of physiology and of the natural-science approach in psychology, and an honorary member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1904). He was born on August 13, 1829, in the selo (a larger village) of Teply Stan in Kurmyshsky Uyezd, Simbirsk Governorate — now the selo of Sechenovo in Nizhny Novgorod Region, which took its name from him.[2] Sechenovsky District, the only district in Nizhny Novgorod Region named after a native son, was named precisely in his honor.[2]

Origins and Early Years

Ivan Mikhaylovich was the eighth and youngest child in the family of the nobleman Mikhail Alekseyevich Sechenov, a retired officer who had served in the Preobrazhensky Regiment under Catherine II and rose to the rank of second major.[1] His mother came from peasants who had been freed from serfdom.[2] The family was not wealthy; after the early death of his father, plans to send the boy to the Kazan Gymnasium fell through.[4] In 1843, at the insistence of his older brother, Sechenov entered the Main Engineering (Military Engineering) School in the Mikhailovsky Castle in Saint Petersburg, where he developed a particular passion for physics, chemistry, and mathematics; his mathematics teacher was Academician M. V. Ostrogradsky.[1] In 1848, having failed the examinations for the upper officer class, he was graduated as an ensign and assigned to the 2nd Reserve Sapper Battalion in Kyiv.[1] In 1850 he resigned his commission and enrolled as an auditor in the medical faculty of the Imperial Moscow University.[1]

Scientific Career

After graduating from Moscow University in 1856, Sechenov went to Germany for further training, where he worked in Berlin, Leipzig, and Vienna.[3] The result of this training was his doctoral dissertation, "Materials for a Future Physiology of Alcoholic Intoxication."[1] In 1860 he took over the Department of Physiology at the Medical-Surgical Academy in Saint Petersburg and established there one of the first physiological laboratories in Russia.[3] In 1863 his major work, "Reflexes of the Brain," was published, in which he argued that all acts of conscious and unconscious life are reflexive in their mechanism.[3] His experimental study of the brain led Sechenov to the discovery of central inhibition — the "restraining" influence of the thalamic region on the body's responses, later named after him.[3]

From 1871 to 1876, Sechenov headed the Department of Physiology at Novorossiysk University in Odessa, where he took part in establishing the department of human and animal physiology.[1] In 1876 he returned to Saint Petersburg and until 1888 taught at Saint Petersburg University, where he likewise founded a physiological laboratory and took part in creating the Bestuzhev Higher Courses for Women.[3] From 1889 he worked at Moscow University — first as a privatdozent, and from 1891 as professor of physiology.[3] He retired in 1901 but continued his experimental work, and in 1903–1904 gave lectures at the Prechistenka Courses for workers.[3] He died on November 15, 1905, in Moscow.[4]

Alongside his theory of reflexes, in his work "Who Is to Develop Psychology, and How?" (1873) Sechenov was the first to establish the objective method in the study of mental processes and developed a psychological concept directed against dualistic views of the psyche as a closed inner world.[3] His ideas anticipated the notion of feedback as a factor in the self-regulation of neuropsychic activity.[3]

Recognition and Legacy

In 1869 he was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and in 1904 its honorary academician.[3] In 1896 he received the title of Honored Professor.[4] Ilya Repin painted Sechenov's portrait in 1889; the painting is held in the Tretyakov Gallery.[4]

The scientist's native village, Tyoply Stan, was renamed Sechenovo; Sechenovsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Region is the only district in the region to bear the name of its famous native son.[2] The village has a museum dedicated to the scientist.[2]

Links

Sources

  1. ysmu.ru — YaGMU, Yaroslavl State Medical University
  2. map.welcome-mir.ru — Sechenov (archive)
  3. biobib.gnpbu.ru — Sechenov, Ivan Mikhaylovich
  4. cyclowiki.org — Ivan Mikhaylovich Sechenov — Cyclopedia (archive)