Dean Larisa Tsvetkova Aleksandrova’s opening speech

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Aktovy hall of St. Petersburg State University to celebrate the opening of the chair of Ontopsychology in this University’s Department of Psychology, with this official ceremony.
I am delighted to see the presence of all our students, Italian, Brazilian, from the Baltic Republics and from Moscow; teachers from the Department of Psychology; representatives of the administration of the Department and the University; the Chancellor of our University and the leader of Ontopsychology, Prof. Antonio Meneghetti.
The event that we are celebrating today embodies a long history and is the result of the work of many.
In the middle of the last century, the first Dean of the Department of Psychology of the University of St. Petersburg (who would later become the Director of the Institute of Psychology) and representative of Russian psychology in Europe, Professor Lomov Boris Fedorovich met Professor Meneghetti.
They were already contemplating the future of all of psychology. Later, the Dean of the Department of Psychology, who also founded the entire school of Psychology in Leningrad, Ananjev, wrote about “how the science of Ontopsychology is able to approach people in a holistic way within their lives, from their existential growth and everything that the person can somehow ask of the future”.
At the end of the last century, all the professors in the Department had the chance to start studying Ontopsychology and to therefore understand, through the seminars held by Prof. Antonio Meneghetti, how Ontopsychology addresses the person and his creative potential. I would like to give a hearty thanks to the then Dean of the Department of Psychology: Albert Aleksandrovich Krylov.
Decades passed and by organizing this educational process, the preparation of psychologists specialized in Ontopsychology began. Now more than a hundred students are involved.
Of course, many of you will still remember the grand event of the conferment of the first degrees specialized in Ontopsychology at the Capitoline in Rome on September 3, 2001, given directly by the Chancellor of the University and which of course gave the opportunity for our students to receive recognition of their talent.
A second ceremony for conferring Ontopsychology degrees was organized on November 8, 2003 and was international in its scope. Italian, Russian and Brazilian students received their degree again directly from the hands of Chancellor Liudmila Verbitskaja.
In this hall, on the day of the discussion about opening the chair of Ontopsychology, all of the Deans of all of the University departments were present.
In this same hall, the study “Contemporary direction on the soul” was started and also here, right now, we are focusing on human existence in its everyday flow, in the realm of pedagogy, politics and economy.
This entire approach is realized within Ontopsychology, becoming the basis for dialogue between scientists of various nations. Again in this place the union is made between classic psychology and contemporary trends in European psychology.
This enables dialogue throughout the University’s administrations through the important figure of Chancellor Liudmila Alekseevna Verbitskaja.
Furthermore, this day of celebration is dedicated to the founding of the city of St. Petersburg, a city conceived, designed and built by Peter the Great as a center of development of the entire culture.
Hearty thanks is given to the Chancellor, who on April 5, 2004 signed the edict, which on the basis of the instructions of the records from the Scientific Board of the University on March 29, 2004 ordered the founding of the chair of Ontopsychology at the Department of Psychology of St. Petersburg State University.