Vygotsky's Hamlet: The dialectic method and personality psychology

This article presents an analysis of Vygotsky's work on the psychology of art and his use of the image of Hamlet in the psychological analysis of personality. It also describes the capabilities of the dialectic method for assessing psychological problems. Reference to three dialectical oppositions-of the story and the plot, of the main character's spinelessness and his insanity, and of subject and personality-allows the development of a theoretical analysis of the psychology of personality in its relationship to culture. Culture is defined as the system of normative situations. © Lomonosov Moscow State University, 2013 ©Russian Psychological Society, 2013