The History and Theory of the Zagorsk Experiment

Abstract

This paper is the first of a series of articles dealing with the history and theory of the Zagorsk experiment. A number of philosophers and psychologists have realized the importance of rearing and educating deaf-blind children in the Soviet Union as they believe it reveals the secret of the origin of the human personality. This paper also examines the Zagorsk experiment’s “canonical version,” the Marxist philosophical and psychological interpretations of educating deaf-blind children, and raises the question of whether the facts fit these interpretations. It contends that the Zagorsk experiment expressed the spirit and metaphysics of the Soviet epoch.