xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
Dot scrobe:
>Dear Friends,
and i then read with avidity - and some unease - wondering if our
community will carefully work its way into this emotionally fraught
discussion - we seem most at ease with disembodied discussions about
theory - though not without its resistance.
still...
>
>V. Zinchenko speaks of a "delta position," meaning that anything we say
>is open to misinterpretation, and he states that it is normal, we should
>expect it.
>
>1) The easiest aspect, and the one least discussed: really putting
>various Russian psychological theories into practice within a
>functional-relational aspect (right where we are). I would also like to
>know what people are actually doing with the theory.
although several people have put forth examples - nothing has been
taken up by other correspondants -
>
>
>2) Trying to understand deeper theoretical/historical connections that
>help in reflections today. I don't mean the level of stereotypes at all.
>In fact, that is the exact opposite of what I am interested in, and
>would like to prevent.
which i think we're doing - though i'm find myself taken aback when
Leont've comments on laws of personality, and i'm caught in a
post-modernist stance. hmmmm.... i wonder .... what to think?
>
>
>3) Emotional-experiential background ties to political
>ideologies/systems:
yes - and having sat at a dinner party sunday in which democrats and
republicans (& Nader me) had practically no social skills in discussing
political differences without wielding the fish knives - i wonder about
our skills - do with have the cultural tools of discourse to speak
openly and tolerantly and accept differences? i have a hard time with
that myself .....
> Even
>though a foreigner to it all, I felt a community and warmth I have truly
>never felt in the West, and still feel that today very strongly.
>Something, on a very different level, was totally right, from what I can
>perceive, and I don't think it can be captured in words.
when i'm in france, i have the same feelings - but then again there are
no north africans at the dinner table. here in the states i often have a
deep sense of community and warmth - but again, with bits and pieces of
resistance, i'm surrounded by middle-class college educated folks - no
destitute folks are at the table. and when i'm in Latvia, i'm in a place
that the Russia political system brutalized horribly - imagine being
sent to the gulag for reading an encyclopedia in a private reading party.
so i know all too well that while every culture practices community and
warmth (and I'm sorry you've never felt such strong similarities in your
own present social setting - it must be very isolating) we also know
that all cultures brutalize others.
still:
>
>For me the functional-relational goals are to bring (1) theory into
>practice, and to connect that with (2) deeper levels of understanding
>via topical discussions that are to the point. And, with that (3) I am
>trying to connect these points with what remains in Russia of an
>atmosphere that I truly love (being aware of the problems involved in
>history and currently). It seems important to connect CHAT psychologists
>in Russia with people in the West so that they can get to know each
>other, learn from each other, and struggle with the differences to come
>closer to the similarities (and it is a real struggle).
and....
>
> This type of open discussion is not easy, but surely we are
>learning more by combining different levels of communication, even when
>they remain open to misinterpretation. I have a feeling that the
>discussion will be slowed down now, but hope not.
and i deeply agree with this -
but silence is often a powerful tool used by groups, but ambiguous in
meaning - trying walking through a rail yard where box cars once sat
filled with human misery and the city surrounding it continued to work in
silence.
it is hard to talk about our embodied lives ..... which is really what
is being asked of us here.
phillip
* * * * * * * *
* *
The English noun "identity" comes, ultimately, from the
Latin adverb "identidem", which means "repeatedly."
The Latin has exactly the same rhythm as the English,
buh-BUM-buh-BUM - a simple iamb, repeated; and
"identidem" is, in fact, nothing more than a
reduplication of the word "idem", "the same":
"idem(et)idem". "Same(and) same". The same,
repeated. It is a word that does exactly what
it means.
from "The Elusive Embrace" by Daniel
Mendelsohn.
phillip white
third grade teacher
doctoral student http://ceo.cudenver.edu/~hacms_lab/index.htm
scrambling a dissertation
denver, colorado
phillip_white@ceo.cudenver.edu
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