Symbolic Transformations: The Mind in Movement Through Culture and Society

ISBN-13: 9780415488488 / Angielski / Twarda / 2009 / 360 str.

Brady Wagoner

Opis

This book brings together scholars in the social sciences from around the world, to address the question of how mind and culture are related through symbols. Through symbols we feel, perceive, imagine, think, dream and remember; to understand the structure, function and development of symbols is to understand what it means to be human.

Symbolic Transformation explores symbols through a number of theoretical lenses including semiotics, sociocultural psychology, psychoanalysis and social representations as well as through different levels of explanation: microgenetic, ontogenetic, sociogenetic and phylogenetic. Part I of the book constructs a theoretical foundation in semiotics for thinking about symbols. Part II explores how experience is transformed through symbols -- why we are moved by a particular political speech or movie, how bread and wine can taste like body and blood, and how our memories are forever changing. Part III focuses on symbols in ontogeny – in particular, in their relationship to play, language and art. And finally, Part IV looks at identity and how it is constituted in social relationships through society’s symbols.

This broad interdisciplinary synthesis on the problem of symbols is an essential resource for anyone studying culture and mind from a dynamic perspective, including advanced students in psychology,  the social sciences and semiotics, anthropology, communications and philosophy.

Spis treści

J. Valsiner, Series Editor’s Introduction. B. Wagoner, Introduction: What is a Symbol? Part 1. Semiotic Foundations. A. Gillespie, The Intersubjective Nature of Symbols. G. Sonesson, Here Comes the Semiotic Species: Reflections on the Semiotic Turn in the Cognitive Sciences. S. Salvatore, C. Venuleo, The Unconscious as Symbol Generator: A Psychodynamic-Semiotic Approach to Meaning Making. A. Rosa, Commentary on Part 1: Are We Connected to the Matrix Machine? Cognition and Experience Figuring out What Reality is. Part 2. Transformations of Experience. B. Bradley, Experiencing Symbols. G. Obeyesekere, Deep Motivation and the Work of Culture in Christian Penitential Ecstasy. N. Mori, Remembering with Others: The Veracity of an Experience in the Symbol Formation Process. E. Abbey, Commentary on Part 2: Imagination and the Movement of Meaning. Part 3. Transformations through the Life Course. T. Zittoun, How Does an Object Become Symbolic? Rooting Semiotic Artifacts in Dynamic Shared Experiences. L. McCune, Developing Symbolic Abilities. J. Matthews, Scribble: The Development of Children’s Mark Making. U. Müller, J. Carpendale, Commentary on Part 3: Some Reflections on the Development of Symbolic Abilities. Part 4. Transformations of Identity. D. Winther-Lindqvist, Symbolic Group Play and Social Identity. D. Holland, Symbolic Worlds in Time/Spaces of Practice: Identities and Transformations. S. Arrigg Koh, From Stigma and Coping to Social Repositioning: A New Perspective on HIV/AIDS, Identity and Human Rights. E. Aveling, F. Cornish, J. Oldmeadow, Diversity in Sex Workers’ Strategies for the Protection of Social Identity: Content, Context and Contradiction. I. Kadianaki, H. Mahmoud, Commentary on Part 4: Identity and Social Reality: Formations and Transformations. B. Wagoner, Conclusion: Opening and Closing Symbolic Transformation.

O autorze

Brady Wagoner is a cultural psychologist interested in constructive memory, communication, existentialism, pragmatism and the history and philosophy of psychology. He is on the editorial board of Culture and Psychology, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science and the International Journal of Dialogical Science. In addition, he is the co-founding editor of Psychology and Society and co-creator of the F. C. Bartlett Internet Archive.