[Xmca-l] Re: Rogers day

[Charles Bazerman]

Annalisa,

In 2001 I published an article in MCA

Anxiety in Action: Sullivan’s Interpersonal Psychiatry as a Supplement to
Vygotskian Psychology

MIND, CULTURE, AND ACTIVITY, 8(2), 174–186
In it I discuss Sulllivan's theory of the formation of the self-system,
with its varius protective systems and the role of anxiety in the
maintenance of the self-system.
Here is the abstract.

Psychiatric issues such as the formation of intimate bonds, personality,
anxiety, and antisocial behavior

tend to have little place in Vygotskian and neo-Vygotskian studies, giving
the impression that all

humans are competent and cooperative participants in social interaction.
Nonetheless, Vygotsky himself

was interested in psychiatric issues and contributed to psychiatric
practice. Harry Stack Sullivan’s

interpersonal psychiatry is compatible with and adds to socio-historical
psychology an account of the

origins and consequences of anxiety and the anxiety system. Sullivan
provided a Vygotsky-like account

of a person trying to grow into the social world he or she is born into and
trying to satisfy needs

with available people, themselves already socialized, enculturated, and
formed as selves. Anthony B.

Gabriele’s little-known practical elaborations of interpersonal psychiatry,
further, are consistent with

situated micro-analytical approaches to learning within social contexts.

I have published on Sullivan and his psychiatric project elsewhere,
including

Practically human: The pragmatist project of the interdisciplinary journal
Psychiatry
Linguistics and Human Sciences  vol 1.1 2005: 15–38
In which I discuss Vygotsky's earliest publications in English in this
journal.

All these publications are available on my home page
http://bazerman.education.ucsb.edu

Chuck
----
History will judge.


On Sat, Aug 4, 2018 at 1:15 PM Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:

> Hello fellow Xmcars and venerable others,
>
>
> It was a curious day yesterday, a day that I will call Rogers day.
>
>
> I saw the documentary on Fred Rogers of Misteroger's Neighborhood fame (a
> public television children's show first produced in the 1960s, and I was
> the first-gen to imbibe my eyes and ears upon the greeting song, "Won't You
> Be My Neighbor?", sweaters, tennis shoes, and fish feeding).
>
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers
>
>
> It put me in a good mood, that gentle voice of his still resonates even
> though he left the earth in 2003, that's 15 years now! He is likely the
> only tolerable Republican that ever lived.
>
>
> Then I learned (in Jungian fashion) about Carl Rogers and I read the wiki
> page on him here:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers
>
>
> I was surprised to learn he lived in La Jolla and did a lot of
> international work. But I had wondered if anyone on this list might discuss
> his theories of self, hidden personality, and positive regard and how these
> compare to Vygotskian theories (i.e, CHAT).
>
>
> The theory about self seems to be heavily phenomenological. I could detect
> some overlap with Vygotskian theory, but what interested me had to do with
> the discussion of threat of self and protection of self as a concept about
> structure, that the self has a structure and I'm assuming this is the
> personality, and that as experiences and perceptions are internalized how
> they are integrated into the existing structure depends upon whether there
> is an existing threat or not to the self. I may not have read this
> correctly, but my question to the list would be:
>
>
> How does Vygostkian theory account for the unconscious, and also threats
> to self (as an internalized structure)?
>
>
> I get that experiences coming from culture, language, environment, etc are
> perceptually received from the "outside" and then internalized but I
> realized there isn't really a discussion of "threat to self" in my readings
> by Vygotsky. There is conflict and struggle, but no thorough discussion of
> threat to self.
>
>
> Perhaps I am being dull and just not remembering correctly. So please
> edify me as long as your name doesn't conjure up cereal... I would like
> some fresh voices, that's all. 😊 Cabbages might be OK.
>
>
> Is it possible that Vygotsky never got far enough to discuss
> threat-to-self because he didn't live long enough to evaluate adult minds?
> While I wrote that I considered that children's lives are full of threats,
> and it is a miracle that they can thrive despite them. Does Vygotsky
> discuss existential threats in the child? Forgive me that nothing is
> arising in my memory right now.
>
>
> Carl Rogers indicates 19 propositions that inform his theory. In regard to
> #6 ("The organism has one basic tendency and striving—to actualize,
> maintain and enhance the experiencing organism.") echos Spinoza and also
> Darwin. There are others that resonate with CHAT.
>
>
> There is also his concept of incongruence/congruence as a measure of
> self-actualization, whereby congruence is achieved when the real self and
> the ideal self are one and the same, and incongruence is the difference
> (and manifest tension) between real and ideal self. I can see that the
> notion of ideal self coming from social expectations being similar to the
> ideal as presented in Vygotskian theory (I'm wrangling with the notion of
> "ideal" right now).
>
>
> Mr Fred Rogers seemed to be an adult who had positive regard to children
> and advocated for self-acceptance ("I like you just the way you are.") We
> see him doing it every time he is interacting with a child. I think he
> would call this advocacy for self-acceptance, nothing else but love. In the
> documentary he says (I paraphrase): "Children should feel special without
> the pressure of doing something sensational." Which some critics lambasted
> for creating attitudes of entitlement in children. I wondered about all
> this in contrast to the concept of perezhivanie.
>
>
> Does Vygotsky discuss concepts of love?
>
>
> OK, so that was my Rogers day, neighbor.
>
>
> Kind regards,
>
>
> Annalisa
>
>
>
>
>
>
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