Dimitri Uznadze (1886-1950)

Professional Life
Dimitri (Dmitry Nikolaevich) Uznadze was born on December 2, 1886 in Kutaisi, a province in Western Georgia. After being expelled for rebellious acts during high school, Uznadze fled to Germany and enrolled in the University of Wittenberg. He received his Ph.D. in 1910 and returned to Kutaisi to teach history in his home town. Uznadze worked with other Georgian scientists and philosophers to found the Tbilisi State University (TSU). For more than four decades until his death, Uznadze headed the psychology department at TSU. Uznadze was also a founding member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences and was the Director of the Institute of Psychology there for nearly nine years. He was awarded the Meritorious Science Worker of Georgia title in 1946 for his achievements in the field of science.

Uznadze continued to provide learning opportunities when he founded the school of the psychology of pedagogics in Georgia. He shared his knowledge and theories in several books, including:

• Theory of Attitude and Set
• The Psychology of Set
• Psychological Investigations

Contribution to Psychology
Uznadze was a philosopher and psychologist who influenced not only Georgian and Russian philosophy, but European and American philosophy as well. He studied the regulation of behavior and explored the psychological unconscious, leading the way for research and innovations into mental processing. His work and theories were heavily influenced by religion, idealism, and metaphysics. His humanistic approach delved into the question of purpose and meaning. Uznadze embraced that question throughout his career and most of his published works address social philosophy and the ultimate meaning of one’s life relative to society. Uznadze believed that to achieve happiness and life satisfaction, an individual had to pursue a cultural existence and dedicate their life to a higher purpose in order to live a life of significance.

In addition to his exploration of mental processes, Uznadze influenced the field of education through his psychological research. While teaching in Tbilisi, he developed theories of educational philosophy that were founded on the belief that wisdom was derived from the highest level of intellectual and spiritual awareness through minimum data. He studied how age influenced thinking mechanisms and how various psychological characteristics were directly affected by those mechanisms. Uznadze was a firm believer in providing a creative and open forum in which children could approach the art of learning.