IN response to Diane's and Paul's comments, I'd like to say that I was
primarily trying to raise certain weaknesses in the Soviet activity
theorists' work -- that they don't sufficiently relate psych. to concrete
social activities/conditions/systems/dynamics. I merely offered an opinion
about a possible cause of this weakness -- political persecution. I really
don't know if that is the reason. I think the main point is more impt. --
namely how to overcome the weakness and relate psych. to concrete social
activities. This is the direction that I am trying to take in order to
develop activity theory.
I think that we must carefully analyze the social organization of social
activities such as education, economics/work, politics, medicine, religion,
family and ascertain how their features are embodied in higher psych.
processes. This would illuminate psych., and it would contribute insight
into social activities which would be politically useful for humanizing
social life. Therefore I think that a genuine cultural psych. based on a.t.
would be very political while also being scientific. I'm astonished at how
little attention psychologists of all persuasions devote to the relation of
psych. phenomena to concrete social activities. In one way or another, the
concreteness of these activities is uncannily "disappeared" and psych.
appears unrelated to them. This occurs in totalitarian governments and also
"free-market" societies (no dichotomized thinking here, Anna).
Carl
-- Carl Ratner, Ph.D. cr2@humboldt1.com http://www.humboldt1.com/~cr2P.O.B. 1294 Trinidad, CA 95570 USA
> From: dhodges@ceo.cudenver.edu (Diane Hodges) > Reply-To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu > Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2000 08:09:13 -0700 > To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu > Subject: Re: sl0w sloW SLOW! > Resent-From: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu > Resent-Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2000 08:07:41 -0800 (PST) > > mike asks > Please, lets go very slow and circumstpectly with personal impressions. > They > are SO open to misinterpretation. For example, Carl wrote: > And I understood that Luria was > bitter about the CP and felt so politically threatened that he turned from > sociohistorical studies to medical studies to avoid any political > persecution. Is all that wrong? > > It would take the better part of a book to answer your question Carl. And > it would take ditto to clear up/confront/contest other stories about what > who felt when under what circumstances. > > actually, i've been discussing, elsewhere, Frederic Jameson's (1981) _The > political unconscious: Narrative as a socially symbolic act_ , > which asserts that when are reading texts, > we must account for historical frames that are part of the writing, > and that these histories are what produce the text, as an effect of its > history - > > i think Anna and Carl's thoughts on these histories as limitations are > essential for placing > historical writing in a context of political relations - > that there are _always_ systems of oppressions and dominance at work in > writing, what does not get written, what is assumed, displaced, denied, > or accepted, - these can't be *dismissed* as the effects of the writing - > these ARE the effects of the writing... > really, we can't legitimately be reading for interpretations, or seeking > the "meaning" - > but we can be active in recognizing the effects, > the text itself as a socially symbolic act - not written in lieu of its > historical constraints, > but rather as an activity within its historical constraints. > once we disregard the issues that Anna and Carl raise, i think we do a > disservice to the historical aspect of cultural-historical activity - > don't you think? > diane > > ********************************************************************** > :point where everything listens. > and i slow down, learning how to > enter - implicate and unspoken (still) heart-of-the-world. > > (Daphne Marlatt, "Coming to you") > *********************************************************************** > > diane celia hodges > > university of british columbia, centre for the study of curriculum and > instruction > ==================== ==================== ======================= > university of colorado, denver, school of education > > Diane_Hodges@ceo.cudenver.edu > > > >
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