Showing papers by "Jaan Valsiner published in 2020"

Where Occidental Science Went Wrong: Failing to See Systemic Unity in Diversity:

Abstract: I find the conceptual field where Oriental and Occidental perspectives in psychology meet in the analysis of borders within systems—looking at the specific mechanisms under which these borders can ...

From Clay Feet to New Psychology: Starting the Move.

Abstract: This Special Issue sets the stage for constructive integration of psychology with relevant phenomena it needs to study, and with its interdisciplinary collaboration possibilities. Based on a regular submission of an analysis of the conceptual network of psychology (Zagaria et al. 2020) an international constructive discussion ensued, with charting out three potential future pathways to psychology as science: (1) theoretical elaboration of the person-centered and idiographic approaches and move from “evidence-based” to experience-based research; (2) advancement of general developmental science perspective beyond the traditions of evolutionary psychology along the lines of the genetic logic of James Mark Baldwin, and (3) building interdisciplinary synthesis between psychology and semiotics in the domain of cultural psychology. The progress in contemporary biology (epigenetics) and qualitative mathematics can provide the epistemological support for this move.

Dialectics of Influence: How Agency Works

Abstract: Dialectical perspectives have had an ambiguous history in European thought in the past two centuries. Having become established in the late eighteenth century by J. G. Fichte and G. W. Hegel as a philosophical system, the dialectical perspective episodically entered into other sciences (psychology, sociology) while being “politically kidnapped” in the Soviet Union in the 1920s–1980s. The result has been uneven development of basic ideas of change and development in the conceptual repertoires of the biological, social, and human sciences. It is time to bring back this venerable tradition of thought to the center of the construction efforts of new perspectives in the social sciences of the twenty-first century. In this article, we outline the core of the dialectical ideas as these are centrally relevant for a new synthesis of developmental psychology and traditionally systemic but non-developmental theoretical domains such as psychoanalysis. We use one of the concepts from psychoanalysis that has proven to be productive in all of human psychology—the notion of ego-defense mechanisms—and re-conceptualize them as self-construction mechanisms. We thus make a basic psychoanalytic concept developmental—self-construction is a process where the Ego uses its agentive power in different dynamic and dialectical transformation of the various societal influences. It creates a synthetic set of personal-cultural tools for anticipatory actions towards future challenges when these occur. The human agency functions in pre-defending the Ego in relation to undesired influences and dialectical self-construction mechanism occupy a central place in this eternal fight for feeling oneself as a meaningfully whole person in the middle of constantly new life-course experiences.

Sensuality In-Between: Dialogical Negotiation of Feeling Fields

Abstract: Sensuality—feeling into the Umwelt in subjectively appreciative ways—is present in human lives of many ordinary situations In this chapter, I use Dutch genre paintings of seventeenth century to analyze the hyper-generalized meaning fields of sensuality A woman is knitting some garment in a warm home setting when a hunter comes and gives her a present The act of giving a present may be just that—a present—which could be viewed sensually (“what nice poulet you bring us as a gift! We will enjoy our dinner!”) or as a part of sensual beginning of a sexual solicitation (“you bring me a bird but I know what you really want”) which could be accepted, neutralized, or actively rebuked A painting carries a double message—unity of what is depicted and what is being implied (AS-IF) The viewer of the painting—or a person relating with another person in everyday life—is constantly navigating the dynamic movement between the AS-IS and AS-IF domains within the general field of sensuality That movement—happening in irreversible time—is inherently ambiguous I elaborate Vaihinger’s AS-IF domain by first positing its locus (in the future, in the structure of irreversible time that operates in PAST-PRESENT-FUTURE basis) and then creating a normative complement to further structure this domain The latter leads to an interesting recognition—because of human living within irreversible time all normative regulations of our feelings and conduct are projected into the not-yet-known future Thus the place where societal norms meet the actions that are targets of regulation is in the immediate future, and all discourses about normative nature of one or another action are hypothetical (in Vaihinger’s terms) The norms themselves, however, may be represented as dogmas

The Romantic Encounters

Abstract: In this chapter I look at the label romantic which seems to bring us to the realm of love poetry and serenades sung under the balconies of various beauties confined to their family fortresses Yet behind these images are psychological functions of the human mind to relate with their environment in imaginative, affectively overwhelming ways—in my terminology—using the pleromatic pathway of generalization (Chap 1) in its dominance over the schematizing pathway The main mechanism here is Einfuhlung—feeling-into the environment and thus feeling forward towards the future The romantic movements in nineteenth-century Europe and the Bhakti traditions in India provide a good example of the use of sensuality in the macro-social realms The feelings into one’s own body are guided towards anticipating the sublime, which in its turn leads to pleromatic signification of centrally relevant meanings (auspiciousness, patriotism, love) for human existence

Sensuality in Seeing Through

Abstract: Our world is filled with objects that we can see—among which there are some that purposefully invite us to see through the transparent primary surfaces that we can see as-these-are The dialogue—seeing X in relation to seeing through of X—is the location where the real and the imaginary become unified in the complex of potential reality The latter—seeing through of X—gives a new, distance-focused meaning to the X That distance is fluctuating—as we see through a transparent layer, we see far(ther), yet as we see that we are seeing through, we see closer Transparent layers of coverage are seductive—they create a possibility for the sublime Aesthetic phenomena are characterized by the personal “disinterested interest” It is a tensional state of dynamic kind—it can move into aesthetic (upward synthesis) or return to mundane (downward semiotic regulation of the ordinary life) The “divine beauty” of the stained glass windows in churches leads us to appreciate them even if we have no personal linkages with the religious scenes depicted in them The idea of breaking these windows would let ourselves shiver with horror—how could any human being even think of such attack on beauty! In contrast—if we convert to the ideology of some iconoclastic ideology—we not only accept the task of breaking these windows as our duty, but do it with full personal satisfaction of fighting the “wrong” ideas exemplified by these color images The distance from appreciation of beauty to its ideologized destruction is interestingly very short and fully dependent on the processes on the borders of the semiotic mediation system

Hierarchical Integration of Human Psychological Needs

Abstract: The notion of needs has been maintained in the Occidental psychology through the humanistic perspective of Abraham H Maslow (1908–1970) This perspective was an outgrowth of various social tensions in North American psychological scene in the 1950s–1960s which is a domineering example of indigenous psychologies of the world The topic of needs is of course universal—but psychological perspectives that create theories of needs are inevitably built on the social representations that dominate in the given society at the given time In the case of the United States of mid-twentieth century, it was the tension between the mechanistic behavioral science and the focus on individualistic moralizing within the society One of the results was the individual-centered humanistic psychology movement that benefitted from Maslow’s contributions Maslow’s theory of needs was a deeply individualistic perspective without any explicit social or cultural extensions

Theory of the Dynamic Sublime

Abstract: In the chapter the focus on the process of affective transcending of their mundane lives and—simultaneously—finding such self-constructed acts of invention affectively overwhelming, are viewed as the key features of sensuality This leads to the construction of the sublime that philosophers from eighteenth century onwards have tried to understand The dynamic moves between the mundane and the sublime do not necessarily cross the border to the post-sublime domain They remain episodic encounters with the awesome—turned into one or another form of hyper-generalization (grotesque, humor) for their returns to the mundane domain The zone of the sublime is where most solutions for problems in the everyday life are being contemplated Religious institutions of all varieties have skillfully set up specific places for support for these moves—in the forms of sacred rivers and forests, temples, synagogues, churches, and other shrines Our secularized societies add to these art museums, concert halls, movie theatres, tourist spots, restaurants, schools, psychotherapists’ offices, and saunas Persons are expected to navigate out of their everyday life contexts of home to encounter places that support their entrance into the zone of sublime—for subsequent return to the ordinary life In that process the pleromatic generalization pathway leads the schematization processes, with hyper-generalized affective meaning fields providing solutions for the mundane issues Not only are affective processes primary in the human mind, but their hierarchical integration leads us to understand the seemingly paradoxical unity of love and violence in any of our societies, and within the minds This chapter gives the historical and philosophical background to the rest of the book

Embodiment in Action: The Making of the Body

Abstract: The question—what is body—is central for this chapter It is needed for discussion of topics such as “embodiment”—and for the issue of sensuality in the present book At first glance this seems obvious—my body is the strange mass of fat, muscles, and interior organs that make my living possible Thus it is a biological question—our real body is the biological system of being that is fully bordered by our skin Our story does not end with such “biological sack” notion Our skin becomes the arena for human meaning construction (Semiotic Skin Theory) Personal meaning is executed on the skin—by cremes and tattoos applied to it—as well as through layers of clothing by which the human skin becomes covered Each and every part of the human body has been made to be a communicative device to maintain one’s own psyche and to regulate relationships with others The chapter includes elaboration of how the fused unity of being alone and being together leads to a new feeling of hyper-generalized kind The presence of catharsis can happen at any level of affective hierarchy In terms of the cultural psychology of semiotic dynamics, the phenomenon of catharsis is an example of a rapid momentary emergence of a hyper-generalized sign field Its empirical example is well documented by Lev Vygotsky in his analysis of the last sentence of Ivan Bunin’s short story The Gentle Breath where the author’s particular decision for the last point to the story makes a mundane description of events deeply philosophical Embodiment is made through signs