Bluma Zeigarnik

Bluma Wulfovna Zeigarnik (Russian: Блю́ма Ву́льфовна Зейга́рник; 9 November 1901 – 24 February 1988) was a Soviet psychologist and psychiatrist, a member of the Berlin School of experimental psychology and Vygotsky Circle. She discovered the Zeigarnik effect and contributed to the establishment of experimental psychopathology as a separate discipline in the Soviet Union in the post-World War II period.
In the 1920s she conducted a study on memory, in which she compared memory in relation to incomplete and complete tasks. She had found that incomplete tasks are easier to remember than successful ones. This is now known as the Zeigarnik effect. She later began working at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity,this was where she would meet her next big influence Vygowski, and become a part of his circle of scientists. It was also there that Ziegarnik founded the Department of Psychology. During that time, Ziegarnik received the Lewin Memorial Award in 1983 for her psychological research.

Zeigarnik was born and raised as Bluma Gerstein. She was born in Prenai, Lithuania to Volf and Ronya Gerstein, as their first and only child.Although her parents spoke some Yiddish, their primary language was Russian, as was hers. From a very young age Zeigarnik had a high regard for education. This showed in Zeigarnik's interest in wanting to continued her education Zeigarnik was one of the first Russian women to go to a university. She spent many hours in the library studying for University classes, it was there that she met her husband, Albert Zeigarnik and later married in 1919. In 1922 her husband Albert and herself left for Berlin, where he studied at Polytechnic Institute of Berlin and she began studies at the University of Berlin. It was here that she met Kurt Lewin, Zegarnik assisted him during her time of study at the University of Berlin. She then graduate from the University in 1925 and received a Doctoral degree from the university in 1927.

Born into a Lithuanian Jewish family in Prienai, Suwałki Governorate, Zeigarnik matriculated from the Berlin University in 1927. She described the Zeigarnik effect in a diploma prepared under the supervision of Kurt Lewin. In the 1930s, she worked with Lev Vygotsky at the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine (AUIEM, aka VIEM). During World War II, she assisted Alexander Luria in repairing head injuries. She was a co-founder of the Moscow State University Department of Psychology and the All-Russian Seminars in Psychopathology. She died in Moscow at the age of 86.

In 1931, Zeigarnik and her husband moved to Moscow, where she began a career at the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine (AUIEM). In 1940, a major event happened in Zeigarnik's life; her husband Albert was arrested on suspicion of spying for Germany. By this time, they had two children together, one six years old born in 1934 and the other less than a year old born the previous year in 1939; she was left to take care of the two by herself. Throughout the year, she continued to visit her husband where he was being held in Lubyanka and waited to learn what his punishment and fate were to be. In 1943, Zeigarnik returned to Moscow and began her work again at AUIEM and had worked there until 1950. Shortly after, she lost her job because of anti-Semitism. In 1983, Zeigarnik was awarded the Lewin Memorial Award for her psychological research. Although she was awarded due to the strict rules of the Russian government, the award was reviewed and approved but she was unable to retrieve and February 1998 Zeigarnik passed before ever gaining that right.

One of Zeigarnik's first influences was Kurt Lewin. Zeigarnik met Lewin during her first year at the Humboldt University of Berlin. During this time, Lewin was a teacher and a researcher, and one of the first to let females into his lab. Zeigarnik liked his progressive views and started her scientific career within his research group. It was with Lewin that she developed her well-known theory: the Zeigarnik effect. Not only was Lewin the main influence in Zeigarnik life, but he was also a good friend. Another Influence of Zeigarnik was L.S Vygotsky. Zeigarnik met and started working with Vygotsky, as well as A.R Luria and A.N Leontyev in the 1930s. Together they studied topics involving mental structures and general psychology. Their research also allowed Zeigarnik to create and name her own field of psychology.

In the 1920s, Zeigarnik continued her study under Vygotsky's supervision and was able to conduct a study on memory which she then compared memory in relation to incomplete and complete tasks and found that it is easier for people that incomplete tasks are much easy to complete and remember than those that are complete. After her findings, she later called this "The Zeigarnik Effect". Shortly after her finding of the Zeigarnik Effect, she stayed in to peruse her degree at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity. At this Institute, Zeigarnik was also influenced by another Psychologist named Vygotsky and became a part of his science research. Zeigarnik work provided great service and work ethics to the country and as a Pathophysiology interest, she established her work to be used in Medical Care specifically in Clinical work. Zeigarnik had a lot of experience that helped her present the stages of development of Russian Psychology. A lot of her worked was concerned to be clinically focused which helped Psychiatric Health disturb their attention more on mental health. In addition, she continued to teach and adopted most of the knowledge to focus on the importance of mental health and include that in the Clinical practice. Later, Zeigarnik concluded that the importance of taking personality assessment of the patient's psychological state and general understanding of their defect structure. Zeigarnik stated in her own words that, "Any problem suggested by psychiatric practice, whether it concerns the examination of disability, or the study of the structure of remission, or the effectiveness of treatment - the data of psychological study comes useful only at once, when and where they suggest a qualification of the whole personality rather than a certain mental process". Zeigarnik continued to inspire many people.

In psychology, the Zeigarnik effect states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks (this effect should not be confused with the Ovsiankina effect). In Gestalt psychology, the Zeigarnik effect has been used to demonstrate the general presence of Gestalt phenomena: not just appearing as perceptual effects, but also present in cognition.

Zeigarnik was nominated for the Lewin Memorial Award in 1983 for her work regarding neuropsychology. This award was named after the professor Kurt Lewin, and is commonly rewarded to those who help to expand and develop psychological research. Being that Zeigarnik herself had made many contributions in this area of research: creating her own theory, developing Pathophysiology, and working with mental structures, she had been granted the Lewin award in Leipzig at the International Congress of Psychology. Although officially acknowledged at the congress, Zeigarnik did not ever physically receive the award. This was due to the strict policies Russia had at the time; especially regarding political bans between East and West Russia. Although eventually the award had been reviewed and approved, Zeigarnik could not gain the right to go out of the country and retrieve the award, and in 1988, 5 years after being nominated, she died before ever receiving it.

• 1927: Das Behalten erledigter und unerledigter Handlungen. Psychologische Forschung 9, 1-85.
• 1965: The pathology of thinking. New York: Consultants Bureau Enterprises.
• 1972: Experimental Abnormal Psychology. New York: Plenum Press.
• 1984: Kurt Lewin and Soviet psychology. Journal of Social Issues 40, 193.