The Thorny Path of Psychology towards "Man with Soul"

Sosnovsky Boris Alekseevich ORCID: 0000-0002-8215-9132 Doctor of Psychology Professor, Department of Labor Economics and Personnel Management, Ural State University of Economics 620144, Russia, Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, ul. 8 Marta, 62, office 455 sosnovsk@list.ru

Kashirsky Dmitry Valerievich ORCID: 0000-0002-8251-2653 Doctor of Psychology Professor of the Department of Psychology, Conflictology and Behavior Studies, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Russian State Social University; Professor of the Department of Psychology and Human Capital Development, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. 129226, Russia, Moscow, Wilhelm Peak str., 4, p. 1 psymath@mail.ru Other publications by this author

It is axiomatic that all materialistic areas of psychology (physiological, behavioral, reflexological, reactological, Marxist, etc.) deliberately refused to study the human Soul, the interpretation of which was reduced to an international and not convincingly formulated concept of the Psyche. A living human soul does not fit into the existing interpretations of the psyche. Although the existence of three types of soul (plant, animal and supernatural - human) was recognized even by Aristotle – the acknowledged father of scientific materialism and encyclopedic knowledge. The soul was described in one way or another by all classical philosophers, because without this concept it is impossible to build a more or less adequate picture of the World and human existence in it. The phenomenon of the Soul seems to have been lost in the conceptual constructions of modern materialistic psychology. Of course, this statement is not true for all previous and modern psychologists, scientific schools and directions. For a century and a half of its "official" formation (V. Wundt, Leipzig, 1879) current psychology has accumulated a large number of facts and even patterns that cannot be explained in the terminology of a simplified "psyche". The daily practice of real psychological work convincingly proves that the psychologist is not dealing with some individual mental processes, states or properties (perception, memory, attention, thinking, emotions, speech, etc.), but with an indivisibly integral education - with a living Person and his Soul, which has innumerable convincing, although and so-called "supernatural" manifestations.

The exclusion of the Soul from the subject space of scientific psychology automatically means the rejection of the study of the integral phenomenon of Man as Homo sapiens – "Reasonable Man", and the main object of psychological research becomes the omnipresent Personality.

Detailed and acute discussions on the interpretation of the term "personality" ^{[2, 4, 6, 8]} they have remained in the recent past, but conceptual problems have also remained open. For example, according to S.L. Rubinstein, "the whole psychology of man is the psychology of personality" ^[10]. But this does not imply the identity of the concepts of man and personality, which the same author fundamentally divorced, believing that not all mental qualities are actually personal. In this seemingly logical contradiction, purely methodological issues are actualized. It turns out that every person is a person, every person is a person, but not everything human is personal. The reason for this paradox can be considered a stale rhetorical question about the relationship in a person and his psyche of biological and social. At the philosophical level, this issue has long been resolved: man is a biosocial being, so numerous theoretical and empirical attempts to study these factors in isolation have been and remain methodologically flawed.

So, from the theoretical concepts and models of classical psychology, the categories of Life, Soul (I.V. Goethe), and hence the real Person himself as a "reasonable" being, are deliberately excluded at first. This loss is obvious, habitual and inevitable. After all, "reason" by definition is a criterion for such behavior that corresponds to the objective and subjective conditions of existence of a living being. But such a correspondence is impossible without the work of the human Mind and Soul. Therefore, the term "psyche", which has become international, exists as if independently of the word "Soul" preserved in languages. That is why, for classical materialistic science, all the bright and multidimensional space of human subjectivity, subjectivity, animation, soulfulness and spirituality has been deliberately and undeservedly lost ^{[2, 7]}. It is also good that this remains an unformulated subject of all kinds of art.

The widespread interpretation of psychic "reflection" as an exclusively reactive, responsive (or philosophically "secondary") "reproduction" of the objective or material World is obviously simplified from the point of view of tacit denial of the category of "spirituality". The undeniable reality of the Image of the subjective World is presented in the individual consciousness by the living, omnipresent human Soul. Everything psychic exists in active spiritual organization and integrity. The soul is not only a response "reaction", but first of all it is an independent spiritual "action".

It is not the brain that thinks, not thinking, but a certain "I". The world is subjectively recreated not by sensory organs, not by physiological "traces" of external influences. They remember, remember and remember not neurons, not metabolic and biochemical processes. Everything subjective "creates" and carries within itself a living and animate subject ^{[1, 8]}.

According to many definitions, the concept of "personality" (as a "supersensible reality", a "non-existent entity") actually acts as a kind of comprehensive, as if "explanatory" category, philosophically similar to Plato's Idea, to Hegel's World Spirit, to the theological Holy Spirit. Not an abstract personality, but the human Soul should be the subject of psychology. The soul creates an indissoluble unity of the physical, social and spiritual, and the destruction of such integrity is possible only in abstract scientific constructions.   All manifestations of the human psyche are united by an integral Soul, and not by a multifaceted and abstract Personality. Therefore, any study of the human psyche should be "soulful": from sensory perception to emotional, needful and other subjective states, from cognition of the World to indisputably set and experienced phenomena of consciousness and self-consciousness of a person.

According to the terminology of A.V. Petrovsky ^[5], three subsystems of the existence and description of the psyche can be distinguished: intraindividual (internal organization), interindividual (interaction and communication), meta-individual (spiritual continuation in the psyche of other people). However, the separation of the intra-, inter- and meta-individual in a truly holistic soul is almost impossible. Although it should be noted that the recognition of the meta-individual (not bodily) existence of an individual can be considered a certain conceptual step in the thorny direction of animating a real person.

According to the authoritative opinion of V.A. Ponomarenko ^[7], spirituality is a manifestation of the peak of professionalism of a person who finds himself in some extreme conditions of existence. The long-term research of Professor V.A. Ponomarenko in the field of aviation and space psychology became (de facto) the first scientific breakthrough of psychology of the Soviet period in the sphere of human spirituality. But the living soul has many ordinary and obligatory manifestations that remain, as a rule and out of habit, without due attention of researchers.

Let's list some of the most common of such emotional manifestations and their losses.

For example, the well-known Marxist division of society into irreconcilably opposing "classes" only on the basis of people's attitude to private property is obviously narrowed and has lost a living person. This applies in fact to many different versions of other theories and speculative concepts of social and psychological typologies and gradations.

In the philosophical works of A.N. Leontiev, a promising methodological triad "activity – consciousness – personality" is formulated ^[4]. In the components of this triad, one should not look for cause-and-effect relationships, because here the existence of mutual connections and primordial unity is postulated. But what is really the basis of unification, the condition for the integral and inseparable existence of three, in fact, ideological concepts: activity, consciousness and personality?

It is obvious that the components of this triad conceptually lack a system-forming or "governing body". If this is the "psyche", then it is present everywhere: in activity, in consciousness and in personality. But at the same time, it seems to be falling apart and would not be able to "work" for the real "unity" of the triad, being deprived of the primordial integrity and living human spirituality ^[11].

Moreover, it should be emphasized that in the ideological dialectic of the general psychological concept of A.N. Leontiev there is no scholastic and one-sided dialectical-materialistic dogmatism. Therefore, many of his ideas and ideas clearly indicate possible moves to animate the human psyche and are waiting for their adequate theoretical development and applied implementation.

It is indisputable that the subject of psychology should be precisely "internal" (mental) activity, non-linearly coupled with consciousness (as the "highest" form of the human psyche) and with the entire integral human psyche, which is the living human Soul, traditionally broken into smaller and smaller "pieces". An involuntary consequence of such an "analysis" is the actual loss of the actual mental, more precisely, mental and spiritual. A living Soul "does not add up" arithmetically from a great variety of elements and manifestations of the "psyche", because the main thing is missing in the resulting "sum" – Spirituality, which is deliberately excluded from the methodology of materialistic "scientific and psychological" research. In this sense, the general methodology of modern scientific psychology can be called "microscopic", which does not allow to see and understand the big and integral - a Person and a living human Soul ^[11].

All living things in Nature are multifactorial and non-additive, therefore, the postulate of unity, integrity, but not identity of the constituent elements of human psychology is fundamental ^[10]. It is clear that the construction of a universal and exhaustive psychological model of the human Soul is practically unattainable. This article proposes a working functional model of a person's mental appearance ^{[9; 12]}, consisting of seven interrelated components (substructures): general orientation, consciousness and self-awareness, abilities and inclinations, temperament, character, features of mental processes and states, mental experience of a person.

None of these conditional or functional components is the main or, on the contrary, secondary. All of them are equally necessary and organized in the form of a holistic and dynamic hierarchy, which is built and functions in accordance with available or suprasituative factors (objective and subjective). Multidimensional is not only the model of a person's mental appearance, but also each of its conditional subsystems. Moreover, for every mental property and for the entire "structure" of the Soul, there is a certain "optimal" measure of expression, an individually favorable and harmonious relationship with other properties and substructures. For example, the strengthening of the sense-forming motive to the level of super-desire, "super-motivation" has a destructive effect not only on the effectiveness of activity, but also on the structure and content of individual consciousness, leading to complex phenomena of "emotive shock" (Yerkes-Dodson law), to diverse phenomena of stress, fatigue, psychological defenses, emotional, personal and professional "burnout."

Based on the above model, we will list the most common conceptual simplifications that lead to the inevitable loss of spirituality and spirituality of numerous psychic phenomena.

The general orientation of the human Soul has three main manifestations:

a) a subordinate system of needs, motives, goals, tasks, meanings and other expressions of aspirations, desires and subjective values,

b) a hierarchical system of activities and basic lines of behavior,

c) the functional structure of mental activity, the specifics of the structure of consciousness and self-consciousness, the peculiarities of all human relations to the World and with the World (worldview, moral and moral principles).

With a specific psychological study of these purely mental manifestations, it is possible to actually lose not only the "personality", but also the "psyche" itself, and even more so the Soul as subjects of research.

This, for example, is by no means a rare terminological identification of "need" (subjective state) and objective "need", characteristic not only of the ideology of orthodox behaviorism. This is also a well-known "transformation" of the psychological problem of needs into the problem of motives (A.N. Leontiev), as a result of which the "passive" state of need itself, "translated" into the motivational language of motives, actually falls out of the conceptual arsenal of psychology ^[12].

Not every actual need "finds itself in motives", and therefore does not necessarily "express itself" in specific activities, but therefore does not cease to exist psychically, manifesting itself in the corresponding need-semantic, emotional, tentative-search and other human states. The need, which has already "found itself", therefore does not dry up, does not evaporate from the Soul, does not lose its mental significance. Therefore, the orientation of a person is not reducible to the direction of his activity.

The motive (as an object of need) does not always psychologically coincide with the subject of activity (what it is aimed at). Psychology should investigate not "external", but only "internal", that is, really acting motives, because the motive does not belong to any particular activity, namely the integral Soul. The motive is psychologically important not only because of its generally recognized function of energy motivation, but also by active participation in the multi-layered processes of meaning formation and structuring of human consciousness, values and behavior. Not all motives lead to a pronounced external activity, which is also always polymotivated and psychologically contains a certain hierarchical system of subjective personal meanings, experiences and values ^[12]. Needs, motives, goals, tasks, values and meanings exist in the Soul and function as something integral, alive and changeable, as diverse, hierarchically organized mental formations (subjective constructs).

Significant losses of "spirituality" are caused by simplistically mechanistic interpretations of the psychological structure of activity developed by A.N. Leontiev. Activity is not equal to the sum of the actions implementing it, as well as the addition of motives does not give the proper psychological content of the category "need". This is a dynamic functional (not morphological) model of activity, but not external objective, but precisely "living" mental activity, which is impossible without the direct participation of consciousness, subjective meanings, doubts and experiences, that is, the incessant work of the entire human soul.

Consciousness and self-consciousness of the individual as a higher, two-plane "reflection" (a mental "vision" created by the Soul), in no way reducible to the sum of all mental processes, properties and states. Almost the entire human psyche (perception, memory, thinking, attention, emotions, speech, needs) is concentrated in the functional structure of consciousness. But the specificity of individual consciousness is determined by the relationship of objective meaning and personal meaning. This is how the mental separation of two Worlds takes place: the objective and the subjective, the separation of the World and my own Self, my attitude to the World and to Myself. It is the acceptance, presentation or "discovery" of the World and Oneself in it. This is a kind of spiritual "illumination", a subjective "stop" of human existence during an objectively continuous and infinite time. Consciousness allows a person to mentally immerse himself "simultaneously" in the subjectively necessary past, in the dimensionless present and in the expected future.

Meaning is the result of learning and of a person's entire experience. Subjective meaning cannot be taught. He is "brought up" by a person in the unity of being and consciousness, in an independent, active and selective "scooping" of meaning from an expanded system of meanings. However, the pedagogically widespread "formation" of consciousness (for example, ecological) is actually reduced to teaching knowledge or behavior, and as a result, not only the soul, but also the real psyche, and the living person himself is missing in such "education". Consciousness is a necessary condition for true cognition, the basis for the existence and functioning of reflection. This is a necessary spiritual guarantee for the formation of numerous "I" and "selves" of a person and his always working Soul (self-knowledge, independence, self-attitude, self-esteem, self-regulation, self-actualization, etc.). A person is aware of what is connected with the subject of his attention. The author's interpretation of the functions of attention expanded by P.Ya. Galperin ^[3] actually describes the work of the entire psyche as a whole, which can and should be called the deeds of the human Soul. In this regard, the "roll call" of times and dissimilar scientific ideologies is interesting and indicative: long before the creation of conceptual constructions in Russia, the so-called "Soviet" or dialectical-materialistic psychology, the outstanding physiologist and extraordinary philosopher A.A. Ukhtomsky clearly called attention one of the "dominants of the soul" ^[2]. This is also one of the possible psychological directions of movement towards an animated Person.

Human abilities have at least a dual interpretation in modern Russian psychology:

a) as individual psychological characteristics that ensure the speed and ease of acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities (B.M. Teplov),

b) as the available level of knowledge, skills and abilities (capabilities) of the individual (V.A. Krutetsky).

However, with any interpretation of abilities, their subjective, spiritual belonging is easily and irretrievably lost if abilities are studied and diagnosed exclusively in unity with activity and knowledge, in actual separation from the integral psyche or the Soul actually involved: needs and motives, character and emotions, consciousness and self-awareness, multidimensional "readiness" of a person. Innate anatomical and physiological features (makings) are the necessary background, prerequisites for abilities, which, however, are "a function not of makings, but of development" (B.M. Teplov). Therefore, compensations of abilities are necessary and possible in life practice. The expressive phenomenology of higher or spiritual abilities, manifested not only in extreme conditions, but also in everyday interaction and communication of people, goes far beyond the traditional ideas about the human psyche. At the same time, ethical, intrinsically moral and moral problems are actualized. Without a systematic study of these eternal ethical problems, scientific psychology will remain powerless before the "element" of the human Soul and its rich spiritual life.

Temperament is a multidimensional system of indicators that characterize dynamic (speed, strength, pace, rhythm) features of the psyche and behavior of the individual. The structure of the properties of temperament includes general mental activity, all motor skills, the dynamics of emotions (impressionability, impulsivity, lability). All of them are not subject to unambiguous quantitative assessment, and like everything in the human psyche, they have some kind of optimal personal, purely qualitative combination. Therefore, with a constructive approach to psychological analysis, temperament and its properties are not "bad" or "good".

According to the unique psychophysiological evidence existing in Russian science since the 50s of the twentieth century (B.M. Teplov, V.D. Nebylitsyn), the properties (or manifestations) of temperament are due to the properties of the nervous system, and therefore are innate and unchangeable. As noted, the ratio of innate and acquired in the psyche is the subject of ongoing discussions. For example, the division of reflexes into unconditional and conditional (I.P. Pavlov) can be considered an initial simplification of reality. Back in the middle of the last century, it was experimentally proved, in particular, that "unitary reactions" in birds are an inevitable fusion of innate and acquired (L.V. Krushinsky).

Temperament manifests itself only in certain extraordinary conditions of existence. A person can hide or strengthen some behavioral manifestations of his temperament due to the work of consciousness, character, will, that is, the Soul. Then the researcher faces the difficult task of separating and diagnosing the temperament itself and the human character formed on its basis, which form an inseparable spiritual unity.

The gradation of temperament types is a special, difficult and eternally urgent task, for which a clear and objective identification of the goals and criteria of typologization is initially necessary. It is unacceptable, for example, an eclectic mix of incompatible theoretical views and diagnostic approaches to the gradation of temperament types, in particular, the fundamentally dissimilar positions of I.P. Pavlov, B.M. Teplov, G.Y. Aizenka, etc. The concept of "strength" of the nervous system has nothing to do with the physical strength of a person or the strength of his character. Strength (as efficiency) and sensitivity of the human nervous system correlate negatively, therefore they do not carry a universal assessment (positive or negative). Various circumstances or professions may place increased demands on the strength or sensitivity of the human nervous system.

A person's character is a coherent set of traits, a relatively stable and hierarchical system of expressions of her diverse relationships to the World and with the World, to herself. These behavioral and emotional expressions are merged. Character is an integral, unified education, but variable and not monotonous, in which the general and individual, typical and unique coexist in a balanced way. In the structure of the character, certain subordinate, concentrated groups of traits (symptom complexes) are distinguished, describing the specifics of a person's relationship to various objects and phenomena of the inexhaustible World: to the universe, nature, society, to things, to work and work, to teaching, to other people, to oneself, art, religion, politics, etc. Therefore, the description of the character is in many ways a description of the manifestations of the integral soul. Over the past decades, the diagnosis of "character accentuations" (K. Leonhard, A.E. Lichko) has become quite widespread, that is, the test identification (measurement) of traits that have the greatest personal expression. Such an accentuation fixes not so much character traits as sets a certain typology of the personality as a whole. Moderate accentuation is not a pathology at all, but a person's belonging to a certain "type" of the psyche. However, excessive, over- "borderline" accentuations can lead to the development of various variants of psychopathies (P.B. Gannushkin).

Psychologically, a special place belongs to moral and moral character traits, which act as the only internal regulators of all interpersonal relationships and interactions. Such, for example, qualities as honor, integrity, conscience, loyalty, sincerity can be considered mandatory manifestations of a healthy and bright human Soul. People certainly have sharply negative character traits, for example, deceitfulness, immorality, betrayal, venality, etc. It should be recognized that in modern scientific psychology, an objective diagnosis of moral and moral qualities of the Soul has not yet been developed, although they are the leading vital and subjective "yardstick" for a qualitative "assessment" of a person. It is obvious that an immoral person (regardless of his education, intelligence, will, profession, activity, determination, social status, etc.) is potentially dangerous not only for people around him, but also for himself.

Features of mental processes and states, which include the properties of all cognitive processes: sensorics, perception, memory, thinking, imagination and creativity, general assessment of intelligence; specificity of selectivity, properties and functioning of attention. This includes the types, forms and characteristics of communication; personal (lexical and semantic) features of speech.

It should be emphasized that speech is not just the main means of communication, acquisition and transfer of experience, but internally equips, mediates the entire human psyche, transferring it to a qualitatively new level. Speech is speech behavior, a form of the psyche that uses language as its external tool. Speech and other objective signs act as a universal means of functioning and external expression of the psyche. The human Soul, sometimes, needs to take shape, self-define, "pour out", and it persistently, often not easily searches for this or that language means. Therefore, the wealth or poverty of speech is the wealth or underdevelopment of the entire human psyche and the Soul itself. The unification of speech and other language, including information or digital systems, leads to the involuntary loss of individuality and "depersonalization", to the "sterilization" of human thinking and the living Soul. In this regard, the possible costs of the global "digitalization" of human existence have not yet received proper psychological research.

 It is interesting that the living Soul manifests itself in many ways and clearly, for example, in the phenomenon of sensitization of sensitivity; in the known properties and illusions of perception; in the functions, types and properties of attention; in the psychological patterns of arbitrary and involuntary memory; in awareness (acceptance of the unknown) and in the search organization of thought processes; in the mysteries of creativity; in human planning in the psychological "mastery" of objective time; in the intense spiritual work of imagination, fantasy and dreams. The greatness of the human mind is, in particular, the indisputable understanding of one's own mortality and the triumph of the personal spirit, convinced of an unprovable belief in the immortality of the soul. For example, the lines of A.S. Pushkin: "No, I will not die all over. The soul in the cherished Lyre will survive my ashes."

Serious losses of "spirituality" in modern psychology are clearly manifested in the interpretation of human thinking, which is increasingly reduced to purely logical operations, which is psychologically deeply and fundamentally wrong. Classical philosophical logicism, armed with modern informatization and digitalization, actually identifies human thinking with the work of "thinking" super-powered computers, giving preference to the latter. But the gigantic memory, speed and combinatorial capabilities of the latest "computing machines" will not be able to fully replace the living, searching, "open", doubting human thinking, especially creative. A computer is a powerful, indifferent and thoughtless reproducer of the logic and knowledge of its creator and programmer, but nothing more. This is an effective technical means of arming human thinking, but not its robotic replacement. Solutions to pressing and burning social problems should be found and accepted (or rejected) only by a living, by definition "animated" and moral person.

Many-sided human experiences can be considered a direct and everyday manifestation of the work of the Soul. For example, S.L. Rubinstein called the experience exactly a mental event in the life of a person ^[10]. Emotions are not an appendage, not a "coloring" of the psyche, but its necessary attribute that performs its functions: emotional assessment, signaling of needs, regulation of behavior. For example, negative emotions are no less necessary for a person than positive and bright experiences. Emotions are not only a reaction, but an independent spiritual action. The emotional sphere of the psyche is extremely diverse and multidimensional: from temperamental dynamics to a system of qualitative properties. The wealth and culture of experiences is an indispensable condition for the development and wealth of the Soul.

 An obvious and widespread (from the research of Charles Darwin and the peripheral theory of emotions by James-Lange) loss of the desired "spirituality" is the reduction of human experiences to their objective expressions, to expression and to certain physiological substrates. For example, the objective production of adrenaline is not a cause, but a consequence of the corresponding subjective experience, that is, the "work" of the soul. There is, of course, a reverse movement: from physiology to psychology: alcohol, drugs, chronic bodily diseases. But in a living person, the "soul hurts" more often and more acutely than, for example, teeth or liver.

Effective interaction of people and live communication is impossible without establishing psychological contacts of a person with a person, without adequate correspondence of the souls involved in communication, and not only characters, knowledge, will, levels of professional readiness. Real motivation, subjective (often hidden) meanings and values, various experiences and relationships – all these are manifestations of the human soul. For example, with a conditional "equality" of motivation and knowledge of the subject of discussion, a person who has an adequate personal emotionality for the situation, less or more than the opponent, can "win" in a verbal "duel".

The mental experience of a person carries many components of all the considered substructures of mental appearance and can be described using a variety of complex parameters:

- psychological and biographical indicators (B.G. Ananyev), a system of habits (behavior, communication, experiences, values), psychology of the life path, psychological strategy of life (K.A. Abulkhanova);

 - the level and breadth of a person's general culture and education, his moral and moral experience, ideological preferences and values;

- the quality of professional and other knowledge and skills (level of assimilation, conceptuality, breadth, strength, effectiveness, flexibility, updatability);

- the overall effectiveness of professional activity, subjective attitude to existence, to ideas about one's own well-being, happiness or unhappiness.

Psychic experience is a kind of crystallized "precipitate" of the past, present and future Self. Like everything in the human soul, experience is relatively stable and at the same time dynamic. For example, increased subjective significance or acute actualization of a person's mental experience can manifest itself both in persistent purposefulness and in the rigidity of a person's thinking and behavior.

The space of the human Soul, in which everything psychic exists, that is, spiritual and spiritual, is multidimensional, not systematized, and psychology has to go beyond the multilingual circle of conceptual labyrinths and dead-end explanations of the often apparent "spontaneity" of real mental life.

Modern psychology consists of disparate and sometimes contradictory models of the real psyche or a deliberately reduced Soul. As the passage of time shows, the difficult approach of scientific psychology to the study of a living Soul cannot be a one-time act or the result of some one-time agreement. G. Ebbinghaus also noted that scientific psychology has a long past, but a short history. Evidentiary manifestations of the Soul and Spirituality, rather than a simplified and "soulless psyche", are becoming broader and more convincing ^{[2, 7, 8]}. However, the creation of a fundamentally new psychology will require not only a convinced recognition and belief in the presence of a Soul and Spirit. A major revision of the methodology of psychological research itself is required, the translation of the entire system of concepts into other semantic, ethical, spatial and temporal coordinates. It is necessary to critically comprehend and update the criteria (including statistical ones) of scientific evidence. It is necessary to laboriously build an adequate intersubject model of a Person and an indissolubly integral Universe.

 It seems that it is not for nothing that in ancient Greek mythology (in the presence of a host of specialized gods: love, fun and wine, art, wisdom, justice, home, family and loyalty, etc.) a special place and functions were assigned to the earthly beauty Princess Psyche, that fairy-tale heroine who was doomed to many hard trials and sufferings. She humbly endured cruel intrigues and insults, and therefore was deified, that is, elevated to the rank of an immortal carrier of the human Soul and Spirit. It is possible that this expressive myth contains a kind of cross-cultural comparison of the search for the human Soul and its vital significance from the value positions of dissimilar human civilizations, objectively separated in time by two and a half millennia.