The dissemination and popularization of special knowledge has a long but very short history. In the USSR, until the mid-1930s, the enlightenment system was complex: both medical representatives and psycho-pedagogical workers (in those days, pedologists) actually carried out this work in interaction [2]. The distinction took place after the middle of 1936. In the following years, the dissemination and popularization of medical and psychological knowledge in the USSR among the population were divorced by the departments. Psychological enlightenment actually disappeared. Therefore, this was reflected in the very psychological enlightenment and its characteristics in the following years and now.

Issue on psychological enlightenment only arose in the last decade of the 20th century, after the beginning of the emergence of the psychological service in education and other spheres of social activity in the USSR and later in Russia. With the deployment of the Internet information system, the old means, methods and types of psychological enlightenment actually copied from medicine began to undergo qualitative changes.

At the same time, against the background of the development of the psychological service and the development of practical psychology, the organizational and regulatory miscalculations became visible, which affected the specifics of psychological enlightenment as well. If in medicine the enlightenment and dissemination of special knowledge are subordinated to tasks and are an integral part of the preventive work of a physician, then in the practical psychology, only a few realize that the place of psychological enlightenment is precisely in this division of the specialist's activity [3; 9].

In fact, in psychology there are two options for enlightenment and dissemination of special knowledge: as usual informing and increasing the psychological culture of the population (knowledge for the sake of knowledge), and enlightenment as part of the psychological-preventive work of the psychologist.

Naturally, specialists who have freed themselves from the tasks of psychological prevention (or even ignore them altogether) begin to process the mass consciousness with psychological knowledge and their ersatz variants (socionics, Orthodox psychology, Christian psychology, the spread of counterfeit psychodiagnostic tools, etc.). A similar situation develops in the popularization of psychological knowledge abroad, in particular, in Bulgaria [8]. According to Plato, the Greek philosopher Socrates warned of such a negative "nourishment for the soul" (in the Dialogue "Protagoras") [4].

The wide development of the Internet and IT, as well as the possibility of rapid publication of electronic versions of newspapers, magazines and books, has also generated new directions in the popularization and dissemination of knowledge. In addition to traditional lectures, conversations, radio and television broadcasts, electronic resources have become available to the public [6; 7].

Among the problems that the popularization of special knowledge faces there is the absence of serious sociological studies of the effectiveness and needs of the population in the psychological enlightenment and dissemination of special knowledge. Existing studies, such as the authors from Krasnoyarsk, are so far single [1].

A serious study of technology and the effectiveness of popularization of knowledge among the population is the immediate task that the researchers face in the fields of medicine, psychology, sociology and education.

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1. Alikin I.A., Alikin M.I., Luk'janchenko N.V. Issledovanie predstavlenij naselenija o vozmozhnostjah psihologicheskogo prosveshhenija // Gumanitarnye osnovanija social'nogo progressa: Rossija i sovremennost' sbornik statej Mezhdunarodnoj nauchno-prakticheskoj konferencii. Ministerstvo obrazovanija i nauki RF; Moskovskij gosudarstvennyj universitet dizajna i tehnologii. 2016. S. 131-138.

2. Berger I.A. K metodike psihosanitarnogo prosveshhenija // Psihogigienicheskie i nevrologicheskie issledovanija. – Tom II, vyp. I. Psihogigiena / Pod red. L.M. Rozenshtejn. – Moskva: Izd. GNINPP, 1930. – S. 239-156.

3. Kostrigin A.A. Aktual'nye voprosy rasprostranenija special'nyh znanij iz oblasti pedagogiki, psihologii, mediciny i sociologii sredi naselenija: novye vyzovy / A.A. Kostrigin, T.M. Husjainov, L.F. Chuprov // Nauka. Mysl'. – 2015. – №5. – S. 17-24.

4. Platon. Dialogi. M.: Mysl', 1986. - 607 s.

5. Chuprov L.F. Chuprov L.F. Psihologicheskoe prosveshhenie v sisteme psihoprofilakticheskoj raboty psihologa: osnovy teorii i metodika //PEM: Psychology. Educology. Medicine. 2013. № 1-2. S. 164-241.

6. Chuprov L.F. Princip «Primumnonnocere» v psihologicheskom i sanitarnom prosveshhenii i Internet / L.F. Chuprov, A.S. Shhukin // Vestnik po pedagogike i psihologii Juzhnoj Sibiri. – №1-2. – 2013. – S. 161-168.

7. Shhukin A.S. Retial'naja kommunikacija i informacionnye tehnologii v psihologicheskoj praktike / A.S. Shhukin, L.F. Chuprov // Vestnik po pedagogike i psihologii Juzhnoj Sibiri. – 2014. – №3. – S. 51-59.

8. Janakieva E.K., Patarchanova E.N. Chto takoe psevdonauchnaja shkola - povelika (privituha) i na kakoj srede ona voznikaet? (Redakcionnaja kolonka) // Nauka. Mysl'. 2016. № 4. S. 5-10.

9. Berlov A.V., Chuprov L.F., Kostrigin A.A., Urusova E.A., Khusyainov T.M., Schukin A.S. Ethical-philosophical aspects of contemporary psychological practice in Russia // International Journal of Applied and Fundamental Research. 2016. № 2. С. 95.