Ukhtomsky's Doctrine of Dominance. Known and unknown A.A. Ukhtomsky

Creative search is always a change in both the external world and personality.

But the search, as a rule, is not facilitated by old dominants, manifested as stereotypes of thinking and behavior. Is it possible to purposefully form new ones? Modern psychophysiology does not give an exact answer to this question. One thing is certain: the dominant is not fatal; before teaching creativity, it is necessary to “clear the place” - at least, correct the previous dominants (they cannot be completely inhibited).

There are four main psychophysiological mechanisms for correcting old dominants.

2.1.1. SHARP WEAKENING OF DOMINANCE DUE TO ITS NATURAL RESOLUTION

Probably familiar to every reader: after the announcement of boarding the expected plane, all subsequent announcements by the announcer are perceived less intensely.

Another example: V. Goethe in his youth experienced deep love, which did not have, as they say in such cases, a happy outcome. The poet began to have thoughts of suicide. But, as Goethe writes, he “overcame these gloomy moods and decided to live. But in order to live calmly, I had to write a work where I would express the feelings, dreams, thoughts of that important period of my life.” The novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” became such a “lightning rod”. The hero of the novel definitely inherited the traits of the author and his unhappy love - in the novel Werther commits suicide...

Didn't such a weakening of the dominant save Goethe's life? (A similar mechanism is used in Japanese companies, where someone who is offended by their boss can beat up his inflatable effigy...)

Volitional control “head-on”, usually expressed by orders “you can’t!”, “don’t do it!”, is a method of traditional pedagogy. This is ineffective.

Long-term management of personality in this mode leads to a conflict between “I want” and “I can’t”, to the so-called “conflict of nervous processes” and neuroses.

2.1.3. TRANSLATING THE NECESSARY ACTIONS INTO AUTOMATION

Our Young Inventor laboratory has a number of rituals, such as greeting colleagues and the teacher at the beginning of class.

Such a ritual, “useful automatism,” is necessary to tune in to a lesson, to creative work, regardless of the weather, mood, events at school, etc. A “ritual” is also possible at a higher level.

For example, a TRIZ teacher does not allow himself to use other people’s examples and tasks in teaching practice - this forces him to continuously look for new material and develop himself...

2.1.4. INTERRUPTION OF THE FORMER DOMINANCE BY THE NEW

How to complete the task "Don't think about the white monkey, that nasty monkey, for 5 minutes!"? How can you not think about such an impressive image? It seems that the ban itself works for the dominant!

The most successful way here is, according to A.A. Ukhtomsky - the creation of a new dominant that inhibits the old one. That is, in order not to think about the white monkey, you should persistently think about... the red toothy crocodile! Indeed: it is not without reason that a smart mother does not forbid the baby to whine, but distracts him...

The mechanism of formation of new dominants is poorly understood, but for pedagogical practice it is enough to know that new dominants can arise from different levels of activity: Informational, Emotional and Physiological - see Fig. 1.

It is clear that the information impact, as a rule, is the weakest - it is not for nothing that the calls of the Ministry of Health “Smoking is dangerous for your health” do not work even among doctors...

Let us draw a conclusion (it will be useful to us later in the chapter “Leader to Activity”): all other things being equal, the formation of a new dominant that inhibits the old one is most appropriately carried out through a physiological mechanism, muscle actions.

No wonder the physiologist I.P. To relieve strong excitement, Pavlov recommended “driving passion into the muscles”: douse yourself in cold water, chop wood, go for a run. There are cases where a person with neurosis (that is, who had a pathological dominant) recovered when faced with a real physical threat. And yoga exercises and auto-training begin precisely with muscular actions: it is necessary to “open the door” to consciousness, to form the required dominants. After all, we know: strong-willed orders “directly”, be it demands to relax or not to smoke, do not work well... (For example, to relieve the fear of fire in children who survived a train accident near Ufa in 1989, a psychotherapist “helped” the child draw the fire, constantly reducing the size of the flame, made the flame very small, not scary, and then invited the little patient to blow out the real flame of a match or candle).

The training system for actors K.S. is built on this psychophysiological mechanism. Stanislavsky. Since forcing the student’s brain and feelings to work directly, by a strong-willed order, is an impossible task, he took a roundabout route: what if we let the actor feel the “nerve” of the role through physical action?

EXAMPLE
There was a case: a young actress could not play the feeling of confusion, fear in the forest at night... Persuasion, that is, working at the level of words that “it must be scary”, naturally, did not help. What is Stanislavsky doing? Follows his own method. He arranges chairs in disarray - this will be a forest - turns off the lights and asks the actors not to talk. “And you,” he turns to the student, “get to me “through the forest” - I will sit in the opposite corner of the hall.” The actress walked, but... slowly, gropingly, like walking through the forest. This is where the teacher should sit... He is not there! He fumbles in the dark with his hands... No! Lost direction? There is darkness and silence all around. The actress burst into tears. For real - just like in life. But this muscular action helped her find the “nerve” of the scene - for this Stanislavsky... specially left his place.

Why do TRIZ teachers need to know how to form dominants, the basics of the teachings of K.S. Stanislavsky? Probably, then, before engaging in actual creativity, both the student and the teacher need to rebuild, adjust their previous dominants (or, in other words, stereotypes of thinking and behavior).

It is not for nothing that in all religions, sects and even modern society, one way or another there is a procedure for “initiation”. In developed societies this is an exam, an interview, a probationary period, in non-industrial societies it is a system of actions with obvious support for physiological mechanisms. So, in one of the northern tribes, a candidate for shaman must spend a month (!) in an ice hut, preparing his body and consciousness for the upcoming shamanic activities... And the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, believed that before treating a patient, a psychoanalyst At a minimum, he must realize and overcome his own painful experiences (dominants, in the terminology of A.A. Ukhtomsky). In “The Life Strategy of a Creative Personality,” developed by G.S. Altshuller and I.M. Vertkin, based on an analysis of the biographies of creators, shows: often the initial impetus or reason for engaging in creativity was a vivid impression, a “meeting with a Miracle” (see: Collection “How to become a heretic”, (compiled by A.B. Selyutsky), Petrozavodsk, Karelia, 1991).

Above, in connection with the question of inhibition of the old dominant by the new one, we mentioned three levels of activity: PHYSIOLOGICAL, EMOTIONAL and INFORMATIONAL - and did not mention the METHODOLOGICAL level...

An instrumental, developed Methodology, be it the multiplication table or TRIZ, is an excellent, so to speak, “anti-dominant remedy.”

The method adsorbs, generalizes the experience of many people and, to a lesser extent than other forms of activity, depends on individual characteristics and moods of the individual... The methodological procedure can be implemented, including in the form of computer programs, and can increase the likelihood of solving certain classes of problems by an averagely gifted User .

Moreover, biochemist and Nobel laureate Albert Szent Györgyi even hypothesized that the human brain is not an organ of thinking at all, but... an organ of survival, like fangs or claws. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but there is no doubt: as creativity is taught, more and more time must be devoted to the METHODOLOGICAL level of the student’s activity...

Place of first publication: TRIZ Journal No. 2.2. 1991, p. 18-23.

Years, based on the works of N. E. Vvedensky and other physiologists; Moreover, the first observations pointing to the idea of ​​a dominant were made several years earlier.

The very first observation, which formed the basis of the concept of dominant, was made by Ukhtomsky in 2010:

It consisted in the fact that in a dog, during the period of preparation for defecation, electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex does not give the usual reactions in the limbs, but increases excitation in the defecation apparatus and promotes the onset of a resolving act in it. But as soon as defecation is completed, electrical stimulation of the cortex begins to cause normal movements of the limbs. [Ukhtomsky A. A., “Dominant and integral image”, ]

However, Ukhtomsky did not publish information about the dominant for more than a decade, until the year he gave a report on the dominant. In he publishes the work “Dominant as a working principle of nerve centers”; then the principle of dominance is discussed by him in many other, later works. Ukhtomsky borrowed the word “dominant” from the book “Critique of Pure Experience” by Richard Avenarius.

The principle of dominance

At all moments of life, conditions are created under which the performance of some function becomes more important than the performance of other functions. Executing this function suppresses other functions.

One of the striking examples of a dominant can be called the dominant of sexual arousal in a cat isolated from males during the period of estrus. Various stimuli (a call for a bowl of food, the clatter of plates on the table being set) in this case do not cause meowing and animated begging for food, but only an intensification of the estrus symptom complex. The administration of even large doses of bromide preparations is unable to erase this sexual dominance in the centers.

The doctrine of the dominant and constellation of nerve centers

Dominant According to Ukhtomsky, there is a complex of certain symptoms throughout the body - in the muscles, in secretory work, and in vascular activity. It appears not as a topographically single point of excitation in the central nervous system, but as a “definite constellation of centers with increased excitability in various levels of the brain and spinal cord, as well as in the autonomic system.” Constellation of nerve centers is the interaction of nerve centers with a constantly dynamically changing state.

The role of the nerve center can change significantly: from excitatory to inhibitory for the same devices, depending on the state experienced by the nerve center at the moment. In different situations, the nerve center can acquire different meanings in the physiology of the body. “Newly arriving waves of excitation in the centers will go in the direction of the now dominant focus of excitation.”

Ukhtomsky believed that the dominant is capable of transforming into any “individual mental content.” However, the dominant is not the prerogative of the cerebral cortex; it is a general property of the entire central nervous system. He saw the difference between “higher” and “lower” dominants. “Lower” dominants are physiological in nature, while “higher” ones - arising in the cerebral cortex - form the physiological basis of “the act of attention and objective thinking”.

Numerous studies conducted by Ukhtomsky, his colleagues and independent scientists have indicated that the dominant plays the role of a general operating principle of nerve centers.

For Ukhtomsky, the dominant was what determines the direction of human perception. The dominant served as the very factor that integrates sensations into the whole picture (here a parallel can be drawn with gestalt). Ukhtomsky believed that all branches of human experience, including science, are influenced by dominants, with the help of which impressions, images and beliefs are selected.

In order to master human experience, in order to master oneself and others, in order to direct the behavior and the very intimate life of people in a certain direction, one must master the physiological dominants in oneself and others. [Ukhtomsky A. A., “Dominant and integral image”, 1924]

Properties of the dominant center

• Increased excitability
• Summation ability
• Excitement is characterized by high persistence
• Excitation is characterized by high inertia

Bibliography

• Ukhtomsky A. A. Dominant. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2002. ISBN 5-318-00067-3

See also

• Nerve center

Links

• V. P. Zinchenko, “Hypothesis about the origin of A. A. Ukhtomsky’s teaching on the dominant”

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what the “Principle of Dominance” is in other dictionaries:

NERVOUS SYSTEM- NERVOUS SYSTEM. Contents: I. Embryogenesis, histogenesis and phylogeny N.s. . 518 II. Anatomy of N. p................. 524 III. Physiology N. p............. 525 IV. Pathology N.s................. 54? I. Embryogenesis, histogenesis and phylogeny N. e.... ... Great Medical Encyclopedia

Dominant is a stable focus of increased excitability of the nerve centers, in which excitations coming to the center serve to enhance excitation in the focus, while inhibition phenomena are widely observed in the rest of the nervous system.... ... Wikipedia

Dominant is a stable focus of increased excitability of the nerve centers, in which excitations coming to the center serve to enhance excitation in the focus, while inhibition phenomena are widely observed in the rest of the nervous system. Contents 1... ...Wikipedia

Alexey Alekseevich Ukhtomsky Physiologist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, creator of the doctrine of dominant Date of birth: July 13 (25), 1875 (18750725) Date of death: August 31, 1942 Scientific ... Wikipedia

Alexey Alekseevich Ukhtomsky Physiologist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, creator of the doctrine of dominant Date of birth: July 13 (25), 1875 (18750725) Date of death: August 31, 1942 Scientific ... Wikipedia

Alexey Alekseevich Ukhtomsky Physiologist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, creator of the doctrine of dominant Date of birth: July 13 (25), 1875 (18750725) Date of death: August 31, 1942 Scientific ... Wikipedia

dominant- This principle (dominant) explains to us where integrity and unity come from in human behavior. ... (principle of dominance according to Ukhtomsky): The normal functioning of an organ in the body is not predetermined, unchanged once and for all... ... Dictionary L.S. Vygotsky

Books

• Semantics of adversarial: experience of structural-semantic analysis. Monograph, Milovanova Maria Stanislavovna. The work defines the scope and content of the concept of adversarialness - the idea of ​​adversarialness as a phenomenon that is not only purely syntactic is expanded: adversarialism is semantics,...

History of issues and practical conclusions dominance theories.

The mechanism of functioning of the dominant was considered by many scientists even before Ukhtomsky. Among them were I.P. Pavlov, V.M. Bekhterev, I.M. Sechenov. Each of these scientists at one time noted that if there is a stable focus of excitation in the cortex, impulses from nearby areas will flock to it, thus generating a reverse process in these same areas, i.e. braking. This focus, which attracts impulses from nearby areas, is dominant. However, it was for the first time possible to develop in detail the concept of dominant and explain its psychological meaning.

The phenomenon of dominance was discovered by scientists in an initially seemingly unsuccessful experiment to study reflexes. As in other similar experiments of that time, it was expected that when the animal was stimulated, one or another motor response corresponding to a given reflex would be obtained. However, this did not happen...

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And the experiment looked like this. The dog, at the time of preparation for defecation, was subjected to irritation with an electric current in order to demonstrate a motor act, but this irritation did not lead to the expected behavior of the body, but only intensified the process of defecation and, accordingly, contributed to the completion of this act. When the process of defecation is over, repeated irritation of the same areas begins to cause the movements initially expected.

From here, the scientist makes a brilliant conclusion: the reaction of the nerve center is not its constantly given property, but is the result of its condition. This means that when one or another center in the cortex is stimulated, the stability of the connection between stimulus and response can only be observed under conditions of complete inaction of a living being, which can only be created artificially.

It turns out that a given stimulus can cause different reactions and, conversely, a given reaction can be produced in different nerve centers. This raises the question of the determinant of the reaction of the nerve center, and, accordingly, the determinant of behavior.

According to Ukhtomsky, such a determinant is the centers and areas close to the given one, and ultimately the whole organism. In each unit of time there is a center whose work is of greatest significance. This is called dominant.

The dominant appears to us as a set of various symptoms manifested in the muscles, the functioning of the endocrine system and other systems of the whole body. It does not act as a point of excitation in the nervous system, but as a certain configuration of centers of increased excitability at different levels of the nervous system.

From here the properties that determine the dominant are derived.

1. The dominant area attracts excitation from nearby areas, maintaining its activity.
2. With increasing excitation, the dominant area inhibits third-party reflexes that arise in the process of current activity.

The emergence of a dominant is associated with the task to which the current activity is aimed. As a result, if this or that activity becomes dominant, then outside influences are not able to interfere with it, but, on the contrary, they even reinforce it with their energy. An example is often given here when a soldier wounded during a battle does not feel pain while in the process of battle.

Properties of the dominant and its inertia

The transition of one or another center to a state called dominant is determined by its following properties.

1. Increased excitability. The excitability threshold of a given center must, at a minimum, be equal to the strength of the stimulus.
2. Excitation persistence. This parameter determines the duration of the excitation process; the longer it is, the greater the persistence of excitation.
3. Summation of excitations. This is an opportunity to summarize incoming excitations.
4. Inertia, suggesting that waves of external excitation manifest themselves in the stimulation of a dominant response to its final resolution.

The last quality turns out to be especially important. The dominant is inert; it tends to be preserved and repeated regardless of changes in the external environment. The dominant often remains an indelible imprint on the nervous system.

Thus, the scientist comes to one of his most important conclusions: that the states of the nerve center, which predetermine the body’s reaction, are in turn determined by the body’s experience, the totality of past connections and ways of responding.

Stages of dominant functioning

The scientist outlined a number of stages in the functioning of the dominant.

1. Stimulation. The emergence of a dominant is due to the presence of either external or internal (physiological) stimuli. The dominant begins to attract more and more diverse stimuli for nourishment.
2. Conditioned reflex. This stage is characterized by the formation of a conditioned reflex, when, from a huge number of incoming excitations, the dominant selects the group that is most significant for it.
3. Objectification. This stage is characterized by the creation of a strong connection between the dominant and the stimulus. Now this stimulus will evoke and reinforce it. At this stage, the entire external environment is divided into various objects to which the dominant will react and to which it will not.

We can add a fourth point to Ukhtomsky’s classification.

1. Resolution of dominant. Like any other reflex, the dominant presupposes implementation in a behavioral act. This is the main mechanism for resolving the dominant.

Dominant as a determinant of mental activity

The scientist came up with the idea that the dominant is capable of being transformed into any content of the psyche. But it is not just an attribute of the cerebral cortex, but acts as a general manifestation of the entire nervous system.

However, the scientist distinguished different levels of functioning of the dominant.

1. Lowest level. Such a dominant corresponds to the level of physiology.
2. Highest level. The dominant of this level arises in the cortex and is the physiological basis of the functions of attention and thinking.

For the scientist, the dominant was also a mechanism directing our perceptions. All aspects of our experience are under the control of dominants. With their help, we select impressions, images, ideas and beliefs from the external environment. As a result, the dominant predetermines the information that we let into our consciousness.

However, Ukhtomsky also considered the negative role of the dominant, arguing that it is precisely because of the dominants we have already formed that we mindlessly obey stereotypes and cannot understand other people. Due to the fact that as a result of past experience of interaction we have formed one or another dominant, our perception becomes stereotypical and we cannot perceive another person with an unclouded look.

Thus, not only our thoughts and ideas, but also beliefs can act as dominants, which are activated upon presentation of an already fixed stimulus and, further, determine our perception.

In connection with this problem, the scientist gave specific recommendations for resolving the dominant.

Methods for eliminating and resolving dominance

Scientists have identified a number of mechanisms for eliminating and transforming the dominant.

1. Natural resolution of the dominant. The essence of this mechanism is the implementation of an event or idea towards which the dominant is directed. Many people know that the anticipation of a fight is worse than the fight itself. Expectation creates a dominant, and, consequently, tension, but as soon as this very event occurs, the fear disappears, the dominant is resolved. It is possible to resolve the dominant through the behavioral implementation of intention. If a person is angry with someone, then he can only remove the aggression by implementing it in actions. But it’s not all bad and you don’t have the charm of hitting other people every time. Catharsis mechanisms can help you realize your feelings. You can write how much you hate your friend in poetry and calm down.
2. Direct ban. The scientist considered this method the most ineffective. Here we simply forbid ourselves to think or do something. However, long-term use of this technique can lead to a conflict between desire (“I want”) and demand (“I need”), i.e. to a phenomenon called a collision of nervous processes and, accordingly, to neuroses.
3. Automation of actions. This mechanism is often used in authoritarian structures, when a person is forced, for example, to automatically salute and obey. A running soldier develops “useful automatism” for the armed forces - the ability to carry out someone else’s will without thinking twice. The same applies to various student rituals. They help relieve stress and tune in to certain activities.
4. Replacing the dominant with a new one. This method is quite simple, and is often used in the humanistic direction and in positive psychology. It’s very easy not to think about the bad; all you have to do is think about the good. In order not to torment yourself with thoughts about the problem, you should think about the solution. It all comes down to where your attention is directed. You were sitting at the computer working, you had one dominant. You wanted to go to the toilet, another appeared. However, of course, such a particular dominant cannot change the more general worldview and deeper problems.

Ukhtomsky proposed these methods with the goal of ridding people of outdated dominants that do not allow us to adequately assess reality.

Creative search

The other side of stereotypical perception, A.A. Ukhtomsky called it a creative search, which involves mutual changes in the external environment and personality in their general interaction. Before implementing a creative search, it is necessary to correct the previous dominants (it is not possible to completely slow them down)

1. Acquisition of many different dominants, i.e. essentially the accumulation of various life experiences.
2. Awareness of your dominants, which allows them to be controlled. It is quite possible that the mechanism of psychoanalysis is based on this effect.
3. Feeding dominants associated with the creative process. You can dilute your main activity with additional stimuli that will fuel it. For example, you can influence yourself with the help of music while doing this or that job.

Application in hypnosis

Finally, we will touch on the importance of the dominant in the process of hypnotherapy. We have already identified one of the important properties of the dominant - the suppression and subordination of neighboring areas of the brain, and, consequently, the subordination of the psyche in accordance with the content of the dominant.

In the case of hypnosis, this content is determined by the information that the hypnotherapist conveys to the patient. Suggestion is understood in the same way. Suggestion is the same dominant towards the implementation of which the mental activity of the subject is directed.

But the dominant determines not only the essence of suggestion, but also the process of hypnotization itself. After all, hypnosis is one way or another based on fixating attention either on a super-strong stimulus or on a weak one. The hypnotist’s task is to attract the patient’s attention to something using any possible means: a glass ball, a loud sound, his own attractiveness, or the emotional state of the patient himself. Thus, the patient’s focus of attention narrows (a stable focus of excitation is formed against the background of general inhibition), and the hypnotist can freely make suggestions.

Hypnosis: a nurse's review of the treatment of claustrophobia, fear of tunnels, elevators.

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I’m sure that each of us knows the situation when an obsessive motive creeps into our heads, some kind of pop song, and there is no way to get rid of it.
But few people know that according to science this disgrace is called the Ukhtomsky dominant.
Here's what I dug up about this:

Up to 80% of French TV viewers do not get enough sleep because they cannot find the strength to turn off the TV until the end of the TV program. The letter department of the television studio is inundated with messages: “Because of this rubbish, you made us sit until midnight!”, “At least take a break for dinner!”, “Your disgusting program took so much time, and I have a lot of urgent work.” It would seem: adults are watching the program and there is nothing easier to pick up and turn the switch knob. But something prevented them from doing this...

But here is a more positive example: “If you imagine a person,” said the wife of the famous inventor Thomas Edison, “living in a state of continuous excitement, not seeing anything that is not directly related to the problem being solved, then you will have an accurate idea of ​​​​Edison during work." It's time to draw a conclusion from such contrasting examples. It is well known to psychophysiologists: human activity is largely determined by the dominant - a stable focus of increased excitability in the cortex and/or subcortex of the brain. This is the mysterious “something”. The dominant focus is able to pull together external stimuli (similar to how a sore tooth or finger responds to any push).

Let's evaluate: every normal person thinks all the time - even in his sleep. But about what? Where are the new thoughts? Alas, they are often absent: due to dominant foci, thoughts rarely stray from their circle... Although, it would seem, everyone is free to think what he wants, he is not always free to decide what he wants... No wonder Bernard Shaw wrote: " Not many people think more often than two or three times a year. I have achieved world fame thanks to the fact that I think once or twice a week...” Yes, a stagnation center, on the one hand, is the physiological basis of harmful stereotypes, inertia of thinking (let’s remember an example). with French television viewers), and on the other hand, the basis of creative “overshadowing”, “illumination”. Hence the stories about “insights” that are so popular in the creative community - Archimedes’ bath, Newton’s apple, Watt’s teapot, Mendeleev’s solitaire. Due to the constriction of external stimuli and the constant feeding of the dominant by them, even an accidental impression can evoke the desired solution in the inflamed brain. Or maybe it’s a false conclusion.

The dominant mechanism was most fully and consistently studied by Alexey Alekseevich Ukhtomsky (1875-1942).
Let us list the main properties of the dominant focus established by A.A. Ukhtomsky: increased excitability, inertia in time (the dominant exists, although the irritation is too high) and, most importantly, the ability to summarize external stimuli, to “self-feed on them.”

Ukhtomsky A.A. Dominant, "Science", M.-L., 1966

EXAMPLE
Here is an excerpt from a girl’s letter to a psychotherapist: “What upsets me most is my ears, I hate them for their shape and size. I think about them all the time. I even constantly imagine something about my ears - mine, of course. I listen, for example, to Vysotsky’s song “Save Ours.” souls,” I perceive as “Save my ears.” I’ve already turned to cosmetologists several times, but they say the same thing: they say that my ears are absolutely normal, and there’s no point in fooling around. If you don’t like it, go see a psychiatrist, he’ll brain you “In general, there was no sympathy or consolation anywhere. At first I thought that all the cosmetologists with whom I consulted were in agreement: no one wanted to listen to me seriously, but then I realized that there was no agreement.”

Buyanov M.I. A child from a dysfunctional family: notes of a child psychiatrist, M.: Education, 1988, p. 172.

The principle of dominance is the principle of the functioning of the body, and it turns out that there are no barriers between the inertia of thinking, ordinary and creative thinking.

“Do not enter into disputes and debates because, if a dominant has formed, it cannot be overcome with words and beliefs - it will only be fed and reinforced by them. This is because the dominant always justifies itself, and logic is its servant,” wrote A. A. Ukhtomsky.

Let us remember the self-justification: “At first I thought that all the cosmetologists with whom I consulted had agreed...” “And the tragedy is,” continues Ukhtomsky, “that a person himself actively confirms and strengthens in others what he thinks is in them: but it seems in others what you carry in yourself. Beauty and Purity pass by, but people see dirt, because they carry dirt in themselves. And there is only one way out: systematic distrust of oneself, one’s assessments and one’s understanding, readiness. to overcome oneself for the sake of another, the willingness to abandon one’s own for the sake of another.”

What does A.A. advise? Ukhtomsky?

Firstly, to have many dominants (remember the refreshing effect of new trips and meetings). Secondly, try to understand your dominants - to be not their victim, but a commander. (Probably, the effect of psychological conversations according to the method of Sigmund Freud is based on a similar mechanism of awareness of subcortical dominants). Thirdly, feed your dominants associated with the creative process. For example, the stimulating influence (feeding) of the dominant with the help of walking or music has been repeatedly noted. Thus, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, V. Goethe, P.I. liked to think about their problems on the go. Tchaikovsky, V.I. Lenin and others
(Unfortunately, the outstanding Russian physiologist A.A. Ukhtomsky, who belonged to the school of I.M. Sechenov rather than being a follower of I.P. Pavlov, is very little known among teachers and psychologists).

Probably familiar to every reader: after the announcement of boarding the expected plane, all subsequent announcements by the announcer are perceived less intensely.

Another example: V. Goethe in his youth experienced deep love, which did not have, as they say in such cases, a happy outcome. The poet began to have thoughts of suicide. But, as Goethe writes, he “overcame these gloomy moods and decided to live. But in order to live calmly, I had to write a work where I would express the feelings, dreams, thoughts of that important period of my life.” The novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” became such a “lightning rod”. The hero of the novel definitely inherited the traits of the author and his unhappy love - in the novel Werther commits suicide...

Didn't such a weakening of the dominant save Goethe's life? (A similar mechanism is used in Japanese companies, where someone who is offended by their boss can beat up his inflatable effigy...)

The most successful way here is, according to A.A. Ukhtomsky - the creation of a new dominant that inhibits the old one. That is, in order not to think about the white monkey, you should persistently think about... the red toothy crocodile! Indeed: it is not without reason that a smart mother does not forbid the baby to whine, but distracts him...

The mechanism of formation of new dominants is poorly understood, but for pedagogical practice it is enough to know that new dominants can arise from different levels of activity: Informational, Emotional and Physiological.

It is clear that the information impact, as a rule, is the weakest - it is not for nothing that the calls of the Ministry of Health “Smoking is dangerous for your health” do not work even among doctors...

Let us conclude: all other things being equal, the formation of a new dominant that inhibits the old one is most appropriately carried out through a physiological mechanism, muscle actions.

No wonder the physiologist I.P. To relieve strong excitement, Pavlov recommended “driving passion into the muscles”: douse yourself in cold water, chop wood, go for a run. There are cases where a person with neurosis (that is, who had a pathological dominant) recovered when faced with a real physical threat. And yoga exercises and auto-training begin precisely with muscular actions: it is necessary to “open the door” to consciousness, to form the required dominants. After all, we know: strong-willed orders “directly”, be it demands to relax or not to smoke, do not work well... (For example, to relieve the fear of fire in children who survived a train accident near Ufa in 1989, a psychotherapist “helped” the child draw the fire, constantly reducing the size of the flame, made the flame very small, not scary, and then invited the little patient to blow out the real flame of a match or candle).

The training system for actors K.S. is built on this psychophysiological mechanism. Stanislavsky. Since forcing the student’s brain and feelings to work directly, by a strong-willed order, is an impossible task, he took a roundabout route: what if we let the actor feel the “nerve” of the role through physical action?

EXAMPLE
There was a case: a young actress could not play the feeling of confusion, fear in the forest at night... Persuasion, that is, working at the level of words that “it must be scary”, naturally, did not help. What is Stanislavsky doing? Follows his own method. He arranges chairs in disarray - this will be a forest - turns off the lights and asks the actors not to talk. “And you,” he turns to the student, “get to me “through the forest” - I will sit in the opposite corner of the hall.” The actress walked, but... slowly, gropingly, like walking through the forest. This is where the teacher should sit... He is not there! He fumbles in the dark with his hands... No! Lost direction? There is darkness and silence all around. The actress burst into tears. For real - just like in life. But this muscular action helped her find the “nerve” of the scene - for this Stanislavsky... specially left his place.

Why do TRIZ teachers need to know how to form dominants, the basics of the teachings of K.S. Stanislavsky? Probably, then, before engaging in actual creativity, both the student and the teacher need to rebuild, adjust their previous dominants (or, in other words, stereotypes of thinking and behavior).

It is not for nothing that in all religions, sects and even modern society, one way or another there is a procedure for “initiation”. In developed societies this is an exam, an interview, a probationary period, in non-industrial societies it is a system of actions with obvious support for physiological mechanisms. So, in one of the northern tribes, a candidate for shaman must spend a month (!) in an ice hut, preparing his body and consciousness for the upcoming shamanic activities... And the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, believed that before treating a patient, a psychoanalyst At a minimum, he must realize and overcome his own painful experiences (dominants, in the terminology of A.A. Ukhtomsky). In “The Life Strategy of a Creative Personality,” developed by G.S. Altshuller and I.M. Vertkin, based on an analysis of the biographies of creators, shows: often the initial impetus or reason for engaging in creativity was a vivid impression, a “meeting with a Miracle.”

Russian physiologist Alexey Alekseevich Ukhtomsky introduced the concept of dominance into scientific use at the very beginning of the twentieth century (10s). Today, in a situation of interdisciplinary interaction, this teaching is accepted by both psychologists and physiologists, biologists, and neurologists. A. A. Ukhtomsky wanted to find a new scheme of physiological processes that would explain the idea of ​​the development of an organism, a description of its directed active behavior and ways of volitional regulation of these processes by a person (after all, a dominant is inherent in all living organisms, but only a person can take control of it). Considering the era of the triumph of reason that came in Russia in the 20s, the fashion for everything mechanistic and rationally controlled, these ideas of Ukhtomsky arose quite appropriately. It remains to be regretted that they did not find their adequate application in the pedagogy and psychology of that time.

Manifestation of dominance

This is a physiological process associated with the natural functions of the body. Initially, internal processes are activated (for example, the urge to urinate, puberty, etc.), which interact with external objects perceived as a potential means of achieving a goal. Of the totality of possible actions, the dominant places emphasis on one thing that is most relevant at the moment (due to an emerging need or concentration of internal sensations in a particular area). There is a choice of a stimulus that is “interesting” and significant for the emerging dominant (because its goal is to resolve naturally). The stimulus provides constant reinforcement, external objects are divided into actual stimuli and everything else. That is, the reaction is ensured not only by external influence, but also by the current state of the body, which, in turn, is “programmed” by a set of previous habitual reactions and established dominants.

According to A. A. Ukhtomsky, the main characteristics of the dominant focus are the following: activation of excitability, a tendency to self-preservation over a certain period, “collection” of external stimuli.

In fact, the dominant is a universal formation that unites not only physiological processes, but also thinking and perception. “Do not get into arguments and debates because if a dominant has formed, it cannot be overcome with words and beliefs - it will only be fed and reinforced by them. This is because the dominant always justifies itself, and logic is its servant,” notes A. A. Ukhtomsky. For example, if a teenager is in love, then this happens largely due to the period of puberty, when there is a mental and physiological readiness to fall in love, and then a certain object appears onto which the current state with all its attributes is projected. And if you convince an ardent young man that the girl is unworthy of him, give arguments against the feeling that has arisen, the completely opposite effect will appear. All literary classics are about this, starting with Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.

The nature of the dominant pushes a person to search and repeatedly confirm it (reinforcement) - a completely definite angle of view on what is happening is formed. Reinforcement comes from both positive and negative interactions.

How to cope with the authoritarian power of the dominant?

A. A. Ukhtomsky himself, being firmly convinced of the uselessness of a straightforward “struggle” with the dominant, believed that one of the possible ways to resolve the situation could be to expand the range of dominants (change of impressions, expansion of perception, introduction of a new stimulus according to the principle of “knocking out a wedge with a wedge” ). So, if a child whines and asks for a toy in the store, an effective technique would be to switch attention to something else - bright, unusual or unexpected.

An important condition that helps to cope with the authoritarian beginning of the dominant is tracking and awareness of it using the technique of “detachment”. You can stand as if above your own life and comprehend what motivates your thoughts, decisions, actions - study your dominant. Regularly reinforce creative, artistic dominants that contribute to the growth and self-realization of the individual. It is known that Honore de Balzac's creative process was fueled by a basin of hot water: he put his feet in it and began to write his novels. V. Mayakovsky and A. Bely “paced” and “danced” some of their works.

It is impossible to eliminate the dominant once it has arisen, but it is quite possible to correct, direct and soften it. It is important to understand that it weakens sharply when it resolves. This is the basis for a mechanism called sublimation by S. Freud - a change of vector, “translation of arrows” in order to ease physiological and mental tension.

A fairly effective means is to “inhibit” the dominant by developing a new one. For example, many desensitization techniques use this principle: a novice vegetarian, in order to free himself from the desire to taste meat, is often recommended to look at an appetizingly smelling dish, like a bloody carcass in the recent past, imagine the eyes of an animal, perceive the meat on a plate as a pile of bones and muscles , in which there was life until recently. The technique is really very effective.

However, it is important to consider: under other identical equal conditions, the creation of a new dominant, weakening the previous one, is best done through muscle tension, through physiology. Do you remember how the hero A. Celentano actively chopped wood in the film “The Taming of the Shrew” to release sexual tension? Let's not forget that A. A. Ukhtomsky studied, first of all, the physiology of the body.

From this point of view, neurosis acts as a pathological dominant, and then it is effectively weakened also through physical active actions. That's why yoga, fitness, and running are so popular now - muscle tension neutralizes the power of the dominant and produces a natural switch in the body.

Dominant in world culture

If the mechanism of dominance works at the level of an individual person (organism), then it is quite logical to assume that these laws also work at the macro level. This is confirmed by numerous similarities in cultures that lack close interaction. One of the powerful general cultural mechanisms is ritual (rite of initiation, dedication). These can be tests for a young man, a future man, preparing a girl for family life, ascetic renunciation from the world of a shaman or priest, tonsure in a monastery - anything, any test, a test of strength, which are often associated with an influence on physiological processes. And then the lack of initiation slows down the development of the individual, leaving it at the mercy of the previous dominants, which may not correspond to the real tasks, goals and even the age of the person and the entire nation.