Emotion in Vygotsky’s work: a tribute to Luis Carlos Moll / La emoción en la obra de Vygotski: en recuerdo de Luis Carlos Moll

Abstract

Beginning with the comment with which I ended my review of Luis Moll’s book L. S. Vygotsky and Education, I present the parts of Vygotsky’s work in which he referred to the emotional aspects of human psychological functioning. First, I establish a starting point for the analysis of Vygotsky’s work, and situate the use of the term perezhivanie (lived experience) at that beginning. Then I comment, in chronological order, on the works in which Vygotsky refers to emotions, lived experiences or both. Based on the above and some material from his notebooks, I outline what would be a Vygotskian theory of emotions embedded within his body of work, and I discuss some ideas about its current relevance, especially for reflecting on the role of emotions in our educational systems. I conclude by alluding to the need to include the role of personal bonds in this potential theory, advocating for this through my own experience of bonding with Luis and with Vygotsky.