[Xmca-l] Re: "cultivating Minds

[Larry Purss]

Mike,
I will follow further in Simmels and Urs Furher's footsteps as this
theme also brings in Ernst Boesch's theory of "symbolic action" which was
developed as a notion that all phenomena [including action] have both
objective and symbolic "aspects". Boesch wrote:

"This 'pervasiveness' of symbolism may be easy to grasp for a psychologist
with psychoanalytic experience or with strong artistic tastes; in my case,
however, although I believe myself to have a bit of both, this insight had
much more 'rational' roots. ... I trace its inception back to the 1963
article 'Raum und Zeit als Valenzsysteme', in which I formulated, for the
first time, the close *interrelatedness of 'valence' *[LP- worth/value ]
and 'structure': the conceptual structuring of space depends, I said, upon
the location of valences [worth/values] - it was the *'wish to return' *which
led to the specification and stability of *places.*"  [cited in "reasons
For a Symbolic Concept of Action" in Culture and Psychology 1997
Volume 3(3): pages 423-431]

I am suggesting that Simmel, Urs Furher, and Ernst Boesch were all
following in the footsteps of the concept of "polyvalence" [multiple worths
and  values] as symbolic actions.

Larry

On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 3:23 PM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:

> Amazing "coincidence" Larry--- I just wrote to Urs who I have not
> corresponded with for years as a result of going through his book on
> cultivating minds. It has a chapter on behavior
> settings as media for promoting children's development that has me
> re-thinking a number of issues. Among other things, there is a very
> interesting discussion of Roger Barker's research program. Very worth while
>
> I could not open that file you sent, but I found the link to the journal
> article. Its here:
>
> http://lchc.ucsd.edu/Histarch/ja93v15n1.PDF
>
> There are a number of other interesting/relevant articles there. "The sound
> of the violin" is a favorite.
>
> Thanks for reminding us of Simmel.
> Today, March 1, was his birthday!
> Coincidence?
> mike
>
> On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 3:01 PM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Mike,
> > I continued to explore Urs Furher's book that you mentioned on Simmel
> that
> > would be potentially beneficial to follow. In my explorations I came
> across
> > this article on the metaphor of "traces" or "footprints" in the XMCA
> > archives. It was written in 1993 and is an interesting perspective on the
> > metaphor of cultivation AS FOOTPRINTS.  It is the third article in the
> > newsletter.
> > Urs is pointing to the reciprocal processes of "internalizing" and
> > "externalizing" the inner "affective sense" of "place" through attachment
> > to "home" and "vehicle" as concrete ways to form one's identity through
> > attachment/security needs and  autonomy needs.
> > Larry
> >
>
>
>
> --
> It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an object
> that creates history. Ernst Boesch.
>