Re: new book

Peter Smagorinsky (smago who-is-at peachnet.campus.mci.net)
Tue, 24 Nov 1998 05:34:12 -0500

hooboy. This book is not easy to reduce to a one-screen synopsis. But
fortunately Valsiner has explicated his goals on p. 2:

1. To outline a sociogenetic theory of personality that is constructed on
an explicitly sociogenetic basis, with an emphasis on the semiogenetic
(sign-constructing and sign-using) nature of human psychological processes).

2. To demonstrate this theory's historical and intellectual continuities
and discontinuities with classic approaches to personality (esp. those of
Stern and Allport).

3. To provide selective empirical case histories to illustrate the
theoretical systems.

4. To outline some directions for a developmental methodology that is
adequate for a sociogenetic approach to personality.

Essentially, he tackles one of the great dilemmas of cultural psychology,
to synthesize individualistic psychologies with those that emphasize
culture and context. In introducing his task, he says, "The person
simultaneously *is* and maintains his or her autonomy relative to the given
social context, and *has become* the way he or she is through the history
of such relations."

I'm a little rusty on the specifics since I read the manuscript a few years
ago as a reviewer for HUP. But that's his project in a nutshell.

At 10:29 AM 11/24/98 +1100, you wrote:
>Peter,
>
>can you give us a quick synopsis of Valsiner's thesis please?
>
>I'm most interested in what factors Valsiner thinks guides the mind.
>
>Phil
>a teleological sceptic
>
>At 16:23 23-11-98 -0500, you wrote:
>>I just got my copy of a great new book, Jaan Valsiner's The Guided Mind: A
>>Sociogenetic Approach to Personality (Harvard UP, 1998). Complete with
>>cover blurbs by Mike C. and me. It's on the dense side, but should be a
>>major contribution to cultural psychology, I think. I recommend it for the
>>MCA book reviews and also for general (though not lite) reading.
>>
>>Peter
>>
>>
>>
>Phil Graham
>pw.graham who-is-at student.qut.edu.au
>http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/8314/index.html
>
>