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This book ("The Sociocultural Turn in Psychology. The
Contextual Emergence of Mind and Self," edited by Suzanne R.
Kirschner and Jack Martin) arrived from Amazon today. I have
been just far to busy to read the whole book at the moment,
but I did take the opportunity to read the last article, by
Natalia Gajdamaschko and Mike Cole.
It was a good read, summing up a series of problems about
formal schooling, social change, context and situation and
the differing diachronic and synchronic interpretations of
cultural and historical difference, particularly between
Russian and American Vygotskyists.
I think I had read a lot of it elsewhere, but this is a very
recent and concise recapitulation of the issues. It may well
be that our Russian friends interpret "social situation of
development" exlusively in the context of a single series of
non-overlapping stages of development, but I really think
this is not only independent of the concept of situation
(as opposed to 'context'), but really antithetical to it.
Am I right, Mike, that you were intentionally recruiting
Vygotsky in the service of richer interpreation? I would.
I also noted the observation that some people more easily
remember (and presumably conceptualise in some way) an idea
which is presented to them in a story, rather than as a
collection of attributes in an hierarchical taxonomy. I
personally think that there is nothing "primitive" about
thinking in narratives. In fact, if someone wants to arrange
ways of thinking in a hierarchy, I would put narratives at
the top. I remember asking an old friend from the 60s why we
who got politicised in the late 60s/70s, liked folk music in
the 50s/early 60s, while all those who went off and got jobs
liked rock music. What was the connection? She said: folk
music had stories, whilst rock music was just "Baby baby, do
you love my shoes?" or whatever.
Andy
mike cole wrote:
Looks to be an interesting book. There is a rumor that at some point in the future contributing authors will see a copy! :-)mikeOn Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 7:53 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:Understood Larry. That's why I used the word "also", except I mistyped and it came out "lso"! :) andy Larry Purss wrote: Andy my comments were in the spirit of emphasizing the tradition of psychoanalysis AS A SOCIOCULTURAL PRODUCT AND REFLECTION of the times in which it was written. Through an historical lens Kirschner narrates the roots of the tradition and therefore is contributing to the developing reactions and critiques of psychoanalysis as an historical product influential in the 20th century. The questioning and challenging of its presuppositions in the human sciences has generated deeper reflections on psychology as a tradition. Kirschner's history of psychoanalysis [as an historically constituted product of its time] is an historical sociocultural narrative. I mentioned her previous writing to put in "context" Kirschner's background. I found it interesting that her current book synthesizing sociocultural accounts was written by an author with her previous interests. Moscovici, in explicating his theory of social represention also has written a book on the emergence and dissemination of psychoanalyis as an historical sociocultural phenomena. These historical reflections are in a similar spirit of exploring the notions of Western religion and how the moral themes of Western religious traditions can continue to emerge in contemporary human science narratives. Larry On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 5:40 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net> <mailto:ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>>> wrote: I've never been very much interested in psychoanalysis (too unscientific for me) but Eli Zaretsky's "Secrets of the Soul" (a history of psychoanalysis) I really enjoyed, lso emphasising psychoanalysis as a product and reflection of the times rather than as a viable theory of mind. Andy Larry Purss wrote: PS, Andy,for the historian in you, Suzanne Kirschner has written another fascinating book on the cultural historical roots of psychoanalysis that is an historical developmental account of how Freud's theory is a continuation of our Western religious heritage. A concrete example of how our "traditions that constitute us as persons" emerge from specific concrete historical circumstances. She has an interesting intellectual background from which to co-author this new book on the sociocultural turn in psychology. Larry _______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu> <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------*Andy Blunden* Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/ <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/> Videos: http://vimeo.com/user3478333/videos Book: http://www.brill.nl/scss _______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
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