Re: reply on Werner

BPenuel who-is-at aol.com
Thu, 8 Feb 1996 17:48:53 -0500

David's comments on Werner's notion of the transition from emotional
"undifferentiated/unintegrated" modes of being to more 'rational'
"differentiated/hierarchically integrated" modes of being are important. In
fact, it is on the subject of the endpoint or _telos_ of development that the
comparison between Vygotsky and Werner has been made by both Mike Cole and
Jim Wertsch.

One point, I'd like to add, though about Werner. Werner emphasized that the
earlier, more emotive/undifferentiated modes of symbolizing did not disappear
in later development, but remain as modes of existence for actually most of
our daily lives. In dream states in particular, which he and Kaplan
investigated, earlier stages are the primary mode of processing experience.
Both he and Vygotsky, though, probably shared a view that at some level,
more decontextualized (Vygotsky) or "hierarchically integrated" (Werner)
modes of symbolizing were somehow higher forms of psychological functioning.
(Though Jim Wertsch points to other places in Vygotsky's work where he is
more ambivalent about the endpoint of development).

I know Jim has written a paper recently with Richard Sohmer on this topic,
but I don't have the exact reference for it. Perhaps someone else does?

Bill Penuel
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