Self-Strengthening of the trend towards Psychologization of Law in Modern Legal Discourse

Introduction. The authors consider the methodological problem of the fundamental dualism of law and psychology, which is expressed in the psychologization of law and the legalization of psychology. Materials and Discussion. The article contains an attempt to conceptualize the main mechanisms of psychologization and legalization, which constitute the internal source of self-promotion and self-determination of the subject of legal psychology, and is aimed at overcoming the methodological antinomy in lawyers’ and psychologists’ views concerning the methods and boundaries of mutual scientific synthesis. Under analysis is the mutual influence of law, which outlines the outer contour of antinomy in the form of spiritual, sociocultural dominants, and psychophysiological dominants of the psyche, which are the result of a long evolution and gradual complication, self-organization of simpler forms of social behavior into more complex ones. The process of including psychic phenomena into social and legal phenomena is described, which at the same time forms their psychological component and determines the psychological state and behaviour of the individual. Conclusions. The current state of methodology in psychology and law is characterized by the breadth of strategies, the presence of competing research programs, theoretical ideas, methods of conceptualization oriented towards domestic traditional schools or postmodern trends in science.