THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE:

VYGOTSKY’S DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS REVISITED BY PSYCHOANALYSIS

Abstract

This essay retrieves the Vygotskian ideas presented in “The genetic roots of thought and language” (Vigotsky, 2009[1934]) from the criticism reported by Bronckart (2006[1997]) in “Action, discourse and rationalization: Vygotsky’s developmental hypothesis revisited”. He therefore resumes the Bronckartian appreciation of Vygotsky’s developmental hypothesis, taking a fresh look at the genesis of language and human thought based on Winnicott’s psychoanalysis (1975, 1983, 1990, 2000, 2011, 2012). The results suggest a reconfiguration that privileges, in a more complete and explicit way, social interactions and environmental provisions in the ontogenesis of thought and language, rejecting the Vygotskian hypothesis of disjunct roots and its “Y” development scheme.