Talk:Bluma Zeigarnik

Jewish rather than Lithuanian-Soviet
"Lithuanian-Soviet psychologist": well, she was Jewish. What are the rules about defining someone as a Jew? I noticed that Freud is Austrian and Einstein is German. But would Bluma have been happy about defining her here as Lithuanian? I don't think so. SuzieMillen (talk) 04:54, 20 September 2021 (UTC)


 * My grandmother never considered herself a Jewish scientist. Neither did she consider herself a Lithuanian scientist. A considerable amount of her research during the "Berlin period" was done in Lithuanian, but after she relocated to Moscow, she did all of her research in Soviet Russia. Overall, it would be most accurate to say that she was a Soviet psychologist with Lithuanian roots born to a Jewish family. Zeigarnik-Israel (talk) 21:27, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
 * @Zeigarnik-Israel Thank you for the clarification. SuzieMillen (talk) 11:01, 22 January 2024 (UTC)
 * @Zeigarnik-Israel Many thanks for the info, which there is no reason to doubt. Unfortunately, Talk page comments by grandchildren and not considered WP:RS. I wonder is "Soviet psychologist with Lithuanian roots born to a Jewish family", or anything similar, contained in any publication? Regards. Martinevans123 (talk) 11:23, 22 January 2024 (UTC)
 * @Martinevans123 I don't see why my statement has to be proven. There's her birth certificate available for any FamilySearch user (for free) proving that she was born to a Jewish family in Kovno. This is justification for her Lithuanian origin and birth to a Jewish family. After graduation (this is the time when people start to work in science), she moved to the Soviet Union, where she lived and worked for the rest of her life, as substantiated by links that are already available. So her work was done when she was affiliated with the Berlin University in Germany (before 1931) or various Soviet institution (after 1931). What is specifically Lithuanian or Jewish in this scientific career? Zeigarnik-Israel (talk) 11:39, 22 January 2024 (UTC)
 * We can't use birth-certificates as they are WP:PRIMARY. If there are existing inks which support "Soviet psychologist with Lithuanian roots born to a Jewish family", that's fine. I'm not arguing ether way about "what is specifically Lithuanian or Jewish in this scientific career". I was just wary of adding anything new (or removing anything) in the article, based purely on this discussion. Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 11:48, 22 January 2024 (UTC)
 * OK, if birth certificates do not work, then this information is copied in the article, which is cited as [1] (Zeigarnik, Andrey (2007). "Bluma Zeigarnik: A Memoir." Gestalt Theory. 29 (3): 256–268.) The rest is just pure logic. Zeigarnik-Israel (talk) 11:57, 22 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Many thanks for confirming the source. Martinevans123 (talk) 12:02, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

Untitled
RE: "this effect should not be confused with the Ovsiankina effect [1: Maria Ovsiankina was a colleague of Bluma Zeigarnik who investigated the effect of task interruption on the tendency to resume the task at the next opportunity]" -- what do you think? Non Sequitar? What has it to do, really, with Zeigarnik's Effect?

Per quick Google, Ovsiankina studied the impact of interruption on the ability of schizophrenics to complete a task. We do not have a copy of Zeigarnik's dissertation (can we fix that? An English translation would be super!), but everything I have read on the subject focused on semantic memory, not episodic memory -- much less compulsion.

The better strategy would be to create a record in Wikipedia for Maria Ovsiankina -- lots of material at feministvoices.com, for starters -- especially if you happen to be from the school that believes quizzing and testing are counterproductive. Fb2ts (talk) 17:47, 26 February 2016 (UTC)