[xmca] V.P. Zinchenko's article: From Classical to Organic Activity

[Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>]

Mike, thanks for posting this fascinating historical perspective on VPZ's
perspective on the development of cultural historical theory. There are so
many interesting points he discusses but I want to draw attention to one
particular section on page 23.  Natalia mentioned that Piaget's emphasis on
the development of logic was a castrating move that destroyed a green
world.  VPZ, in a similar theme suggests that a preoccupation with the
artificial (civilization) as a reductive move may also lead to emptiness.
Page 22 opens with a discussion of how a childs operations are different
from operations in higher animals. With the help of speech a temporal field
emerges alongside the spatial.  The child becomes able to DIRECT her
attention to the future while acting in the present.  "The plan of future
actions become DIFFERENTIATED against all the possible actions and thus
become clear." Attention becomes differentiated from perception.  This gives
rise to the problem of choice (or volition) among many possible actions,
instruments, and objective means.

It is the next paragraph which I found myself interesting. VPZ writes,

'Let me put the problem in even more categorical terms.  What we value most
in a person is not his or her artificial or mediated dimensions, but the
capacity to be natural, direct, sincere, genuine, spontaneous, overt, and
ultimately, the capacity to be oneself. Is it really the case that all of
this is lost in the process of development and mediation? Do people really
develop in order to be turned into artifacts? ....
Fortunately, not all mediational means are artificial. The supreme mediator,
according to Vygotsky, is another human being.  This "other" human being is
actually not an artifact, according to Vygotsky, Feuerbach, Buber, and
Bakhtin.....  This is also reflected in the following aphorism by Bakhtin:
"Man is an equation of myself and the other"  In Vygotsky's theory, it is
not the "force of things" but the "connection among human beings" that
determines the development of higher mental functions and consciousness.

In the next paragraph be cites Prishvin who used an aphorism in a similar
way:  Culture is the connection of people," and "civilization is the power
of things"  He cites Jasper who wrote: "Perhaps, man hoped to find his own
being in his activity, but instead has found himself, to his fear, in front
of the emptiness he himself created"

Mike, page 22 of the article is expressing a theme which I believe is being
explored in current attachment theory as theorized by Fonagy in his concept
of mentalization [reflective function]  It is only by being recognized
[mediated or attuned] to a significant other which catalyzes the
developmental process of higher mental functions.

Larry
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