[Xmca-l] Re: Experienced Thinkers and Perezhivanie

[Alfredo Jornet Gil]

Henry, thanks so much for sharing this with the list. This is very much appreciated. I am unsure about the word "trauma", which connects with wound... Callouses are also formed in the fingers when you play guitar for a long time, such that playing at greater paces and levels of complexity is accomplished seamlessly; old vintage guitar necks are also very much appreciated among players, and even re-produced by manufacturers that simulate long-term use in their new production models, for the playing experience becomes more fluent. The "marks" that Vera's life left on the people that so beautifully rendered tribute in the words they shared, may also be seen as such bodily adaptations, rather than as wounds that have left a scar that you may look at and be reminded of some past event, as forms of adapting to future situations in which your very ways of fitting (aptitude?, of actively adapting?) into future situations are shaped by the fact of having co-operated, or corresponded with a person. 

Thanks again for sharing this,
Alfredo
________________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com>
Sent: 12 December 2017 01:29
To: ablunden@mira.net; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Experienced Thinkers and Perezhivanie

Thanks to Robert for asking this question posed in this thread, and to Christopher Shank for Vera’s obituary.

I have been thinking about what constitutes trauma. A single traumatic event may be responded to in very different ways by different people. PTSD for some, much less harm for others. Also, a single event may not be traumatic for a given person, but over time, like water torture, similar events may take a big toll on that person. Consider domestic abuse and other kinds of bullying. Vygotsky’s example of the severity of effect on three children of having an alcoholic mother seems like this.

And how does teaching and learning play into resilience, both for big and small insults? And what part does teaching, in the broadest sense, not just in school, play in what comes from the expert, in the academic sense, and what comes from peers who have learned what they know “in the streets” so to speak? Of course a teacher can be both expert and peer, which may be the best support.

I am going to make a leap and share with the chat something that was posted by a colleague of mine at the University of New Mexico who attended Vera’s funeral. Vera was a private person, so might have been uncomfortable sharing this. But I think that the attached notes on things said of Vera at her funeral capture much better than my words what an experienced thinker in the academic sense could also be a person who has responded to trauma in a most courageous way. Someone who might help us deal with the trauma of everyday life.
Henry