Ivan Mikhaylovich Sechenov (‹See Tfd›Russian: Ива́н Миха́йлович Се́ченов; August 13 [O.S. August 1] 1829 – November 15 [O.S. November 2] 1905)[1] was a Russian psychologist, physiologist, and medical scientist.
Ivan Pavlov, the famous Russian neurologist and physiologist, referred to Sechenov as the "Father of Russian physiology and scientific psychology". Today Sechenov is more known for his contributions to medical physiology and neurology, in addition to his psychological work. Sechenov is also considered one of the originators of objective psychology,[2] through his attempts to introduce objective experimental methods to the wider field of Russian psychology.
Sechenov was born in the village of Tepli Stan, which is now known as Sechenov, Gorky Oblast.[3] He was the son of a nobleman and a peasant. Sechenov was first taught by private tutors, and had mastered both German and French at an early age.[4] By the age of 14, he was admitted to the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School.[4] After his military training, he became interested in medicine, and enrolled in Moscow University, completing his M.D. in 1856.[5] He received the best of Russian education both in basic and clinical sciences.[3] He then pursued higher medical education abroad[5] and was mentored and influenced by a wide variety of prominent European scientists of his day, including Johannes Müller, Emil DuBois-Reymond, Hermann von Helmholtz, Carl F. W. Ludwig, Robert W. Bunsen, and Heinrich Magnus.[4] Sechenov worked as a professor at the Medical Surgery Academy in Saint Petersburg until 1870.[6]
One of Sechenov's primary interests was neurophysiology (the structure of the brain). He demonstrated that brain activity is linked to electric currents, and developed an interest in electrophysiology. Among his discoveries was the cerebral inhibition of spinal reflexes. He also maintained that chemical factors in the environment of the cell are of great importance.
From 1856–1862 Sechenov studied and worked in Europe in the laboratories of Müller, Emil du Bois-Reymond, Hermann von Helmholtz in Berlin, Felix Hoppe-Seyler in Leipzig, Ludwig in Vienna, and Claude Bernard in Paris.
Like several other Russian scientists of the period, Sechenov often came into conflict with the tsarist government and conservative colleagues, but he did not emigrate. In 1866, the censorship committee in Saint Petersburg attempted judicial procedures, accusing Sechenov of spreading materialism and of "debasing of Christian morality".
Sechenov's work was foundational across many fields, including physiology, reflexes, neurology, animal and human behaviour, and neuroscience. He also was noticed by Russian psychologists for his essays in support of an objectivist approach to psychology. Sechenov influenced Pavlov, many Russian physiologists and Vladimir Nikolayevich Myasishchev, when the Institute of Brain and Psychic Activity was set up in 1918.
For some he was influential to Bekhterev but this may be argued as many schools in psychology and physiology date Bekhterev as a Russian scientist much earlier than Pavlov and Sechenov.
Sechenov also authored the Russian classic, Reflexes of the Brain,[8] which introduced electrophysiology to neurophysiology at laboratories and in medical education.
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