Ivan Sechenov | |
|---|---|
| Ива́н Миха́йлович Се́ченов | |
 Portrait of Ivan Sechenov by Ilya Repin. | |
| Born | August 13, 1829 |
| Died | November 15, 1905 (aged 76) Moscow, Russian Empire |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Education | St. Petersburg Main Military Engineering School |
| Alma mater | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
Doctor Ivan Mikhaylovich Sechenov (Russian: Ива́н Миха́йлович Се́ченов; August 13 [O.S. August 1] 1829 – November 15 [O.S. November 2] 1905),[1] was a Russian psychologist, physiologist, and medical scientist.
The very famous Russian scientist of human reflexes Pavlov referred to him as the "Father of Russian physiology and scientific psychology" at his time, but today we rather consider Sechenov as scientist in medical physiology, and father of Russian physiology and also researcher in psychology, but also in relation to it in neurological physiology. Sechenov is also considered one of the originators of objective psychology [2] as an attempt to introduce objectiveness in the rather wide Russian psychology field and the many developments in it.
Sechenov was born in the village of Tepli Stan, which is now known as Sechenov, Gorky Oblast.[3] He was a son of a nobleman and a peasant. Sechenov was first taught by private tutors and he had mastered German and French at an early age.[4] By the age of 14, he was admitted to the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School.[4] After his military training, he became interested with medicine so he studied medicine at Moscow University, completing an M.D. degree in 1856.[5] He received the best of Russian education both in basic and clinical sciences.[3] He then pursued higher medical education abroad[5] and was mentored and influenced by European scientists that included Johannes Müller, Emil DuBois-Reymond, Hermann von Helmholtz, Carl F. W. Ludwig, Robert W. Bunsen, and Heinrich Magnus.[4] Sechenov worked as a professor at the Medical Surgery Academy until 1870.[6]
Sechenov's major interest was neurophysiology (the structure of the brain). He showed that brain activity is linked to electric currents and developed an interest in electrophysiology. Among his discoveries was the cerebral inhibition of spinal reflexes. He also maintained that chemical factors in the environment of the cell are of great importance.
From 1856–1862 Sechenov studied and worked in Europe in laboratories of Mueller, du Bois-Reymond, von Helmholtz (Berlin), Felix Hoppe-Seyler (Leipzig), Ludwig (Vienna), and Claude Bernard (Paris).
Like several other Russian scientists of the period Sechenov was often in conflict with the tsarist government and conservative colleagues, but he did not emigrate. In 1866, the censorship committee in St. Petersburg attempted judicial procedures accusing Sechenov of spreading materialism and of "debasing of Christian morality".
Sechenov's work laid the foundations for the study of physiology, reflexes, neurology, animal and human behaviour, and neuroscience. He also was noticed by Russian psychologists for his essays in psychology and the need of objectivist approach. Sechenov influenced Pavlov, many Russian physiologists and Vladimir Nikolayevich Myasishchev, when the Institute of Brain and Psychic Activity was set up in 1918.
For some he was influential to Bekhterev but this may be argued as many schools in psychology and physiology date Bekhterev as a Russian scientist much earlier than Pavlov and Sechenov.
Sechenov also authored the Russian classic, Reflexes of the Brain,[8] which introduced electrophysiology to neurophysiology at laboratories and in medical education.
