The Challenges of Cultural Psychology: Historical Legacies and Future Responsibilities

Description

This book considers cultural psychology from historical, theoretical, and epistemological perspectives, building an understanding of cultural psychology as a human science and moving beyond the nature-culture dichotomy. The unique collection of chapters seeks to advance the field of cultural psychology by reviving its historical legacies and arguing for its social responsibility in future historical developments. It considers European legacies for cultural psychology as developed by leading figures such as Giambattista Vico, Wilhelm Wundt, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Ernst Cassirer in order to provide insights into a long tradition of thinking from a cultural psychology perspective. The book discusses historical pathways in the rise and repression of cultural psychology and its different historical forms, arguing for the necessity of decolonizing psychology, securing a place for culture in it, and developing an epistemology suited to humankind’s meaning-making processes in mutual shaping of psyche and culture. It provides an integrative and historical understanding of the subject and uses the diversity and heterogeneity within the field to offer critical reflections on its achievements. The thoroughly international group of contributors brings diverse analyses of self, body, emotions, culture, and society and considers the future of cultural psychology. The volume is a stimulating read for scholars and students of cultural and theoretical psychology and related areas including philosophy, anthropology, and history. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of contents Notes on contributors Introduction Part 1 Cultural psychology as a human science 1 Cultural psychology as a human science Introduction Culture in psyche Signification Intentionality Life-world The culture of culture Culture Acknowledgment References 2 Natureculture in a transformative worldview: Moving beyond the “interactionist consensus” Introduction Moving beyond the false nature-nurture consensus: From a relational to transformative worldview Transformative worldview: Challenging the nature–culture duality In summary References Part 2 Reviving historical legacies for cultural psychology 3 Nature unveiling herself before science: The relationship between mind and culture in the perspective of Giambattista Vico Introduction The legacy of Giambattista Vico The passion for knowledge: metonymy Cultural psychology and the imaginary: The case of allegory Conclusion References 4 Völkerpsychologie as cultural psychology: The place of culture in Wundt’s psychological project Wundt’s conception of Völkerpsychologie Völkerpsychologie as cultural psychology Concluding remarks Acknowledgment Notes References 5 Wilhelm Dilthey’s conception of a descriptive and comprehensive psychology Notes References 6 Ernst Cassirer’s cultural theory: Culture as symbolical practice The object of cultural studies Symbol and symbolization The intersubjectivity of culture Perception of objects, perception of expression, cultural science Culture: Tragedy or liberation of men? On the contemporary relevance of Cassirer’s cultural theory Notes References Part 3 Vicissitudes of cultural psychology 7 Roots and rise of cultural psychology Is cultural psychology a once and future discipline? Crossroads between the disciplines Discovering the field of contemporary cultural psychology The end is the beginning: Is cultural psychology a once and future discipline? References 8 Culture and personality: A once and future research program? References 9 Bruner’s lectures: Cultural psychology in statu nascendi Psychology 148. Cognitive Processes – Jerome Bruner 9/27/65 10/1/65 10/8/65 11/12/65 11/19/65 11/22/65 [au: Patricia Fisher Greenfield lectures again] 12/17/65 Books assigned by Bruner in 1965 References 10 Ernst E. Boesch and his symbolic action theory Action theory and its problems Ecological action theory Symbolic action theory How do we develop valences and how do actions become over-determined? Fantasma and Mythos6 Beyond symbolic action theory Summary Notes References 11 The repression of cultural psychology in the history of psychology Introduction The repressed beginnings of cultural psychology Further reaches of repression of cultural psychology A revival of cultural psychology References Part 4 Epistemological challenges of cultural psychology 12 Contingent universals as the expression of a culture Some presuppositions of the intelligibility of discourse Existential presuppositions Absolute presuppositions Knowledge or belief? Some presuppositions of the efficacy or propriety of material practices contingent universals Tacit knowledge Wittgenstein’s hinges The content of On certainty Preliminaries The collapse of a hinge Contextual presuppositions Are presuppositions implicit rules? Has Kant already found the core of cultural identity? What this survey of ways of understanding routinely unexpressed norms reveals as methodologies Notes References 13 The place of culture in psychology: A social constructionist standpoint Culture in psychology: Routes and refutations From the universal to the culturally specific The social construction of knowledge The social origins of knowledge The centrality of language The politics of knowledge Reflective pragmatism Culturally inclusive psychology revisited Toward pluralism in orientations to culture The problem of communication revisited Cultures in transformation In conclusion References 14 Light through a cultural lens: Decolonizing the history of psychology and resilience Local knowledge meets cultural contact zones Contact zones as sites for indigenization/colonization Psychology in the postwar world: American ascendancy as neocolonialism Decolonizing American psychology: Cultural frame and example A health concept begun in oppression: Culture, health, and the development of the resilience concept White researchers, black communities: Resilience and histories of oppression Decolonizing American psychology and its history References 15 Narrative psychology as cultural psychology1 Narrative schematization Narrative socialization theory Narratives and the issue of self Dialogical self and psychotherapy Note References 16 Toward cultural (African) psychology: Links, challenges, and possibilities African psychology: A plural enterprise Western-centric psychology in Africa Psychological African studies Critical (African) psychology Cultural (African) psychology Africa in cultural psychology, cultural psychology in Africa Conclusion: cultural (African) psychology as another name for situated knowledge and practice References Part 5 Cultural psychology of self, body, culture and society 17 The self in Japanese culture from an embodied perspective Introduction The embodied self revisited The tradition of dichotomy The relationship dependent self in Japanese culture Consideration from an embodied perspective A further prospect: Beyond the cultural dichotomy Brief conclusion Notes References 18 The moving body Introducing the moving body Understanding the human body The living body Experiencing the aesthetic impact (1): Creating music moves the body Experiencing the aesthetic impact (2): Dancing to more than the sound of music Semiotic skin of the moving body Structure of the semiotic skin Experience and the state of flux: Moving in and out of the body General conclusion: Challenges of the moving body Notes References 19 Toward a Vygotskian analysis of emotions: Theoretical and methodological bases for a critical social psychology Emotion: In search of a concept Emotions: Crisis, drama, and development Limits and possibilities of generalizing Vygotskian concepts The complex regulation of emotions Contemporary directions in Vygotskian psychology Indignation on the right: Considerations for a cultural historical approach Notes References 20 Aesthetics and cultural psychology On the relation between psychology and aesthetics The nomothetic bias of cognitive psychology The psychophysical self-misunderstanding of psychological aesthetics An example for an interpretation of aesthetic phenomena on the base of cultural psychology: The symbolic action theory ... Other alternative approaches to aesthetics: The “semiotic-ecological circle” of Alfred Lang and the semiotic approach of ... The contribution of Wilhelm Salber’s “morphological psychology” to psychological aesthetics Looking for an integrative approach to psychological aesthetics Conclusions References 21 Let one person’s tears not be infectious: Efik proverbs as emotion regulation exemplars Introduction Proverbs in African studies The Efik people The Efik language Proverbs in contemporary Efik culture Conceptual framework: Emotions in social relationships Regulation of emotions in social context Methodology Participants Measures and instruments Procedure Analysis, results, and discussion Negative emotions in Efik proverbs Limitations and future directions Conclusion References 22 Cultural-historical hyperobjects Introduction Hyperobjects Challenges for cultural psychology Cultural psychology offer more than an answer to Verbeek’s call Toward transformative agency Conclusion Cultural psychology offer, in both older and the newer versions, a way out References 23 The genesis of macro cultural psychology’s culture theory from traditional cultural psychology How and why does all this occur? Traditional cultural psychology Internalizing and individualizing macro cultural psychology Macro cultural psychology’s conception of culture Macro culture and psychology Techniques of subjectification Notes References 24 The genesis of macro cultural psychology’s political orientation from other approaches to cultural psychology The psychology of oppression Indigenous Chinese cultural constructs Mystifying, oppressive, features of psychological interventions The paradoxical character of indigenous psychological constructs for scientific cultural psychology Indigenous psychology’s deficient politics and psychological science are interdependent MCP’s scientific and political differences with TCP II. Cross-cultural psychology (CCP) The politics of cross-cultural psychology Micro cultural psychology (MCP) Trends among the four approaches to cultural psychology, and the future of the discipline Notes References Part 6 Thinking with cultural psychology about the future 25 Thinking with cultural psychology about the future Reference Index