Re: [xmca] varying definitions of perezhivanie

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Good to have an expert involved, Michael.
What is your interpretation of the recent discussion of this issue?
mike

On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 3:27 PM, Michael Levykh <mlevykh@shaw.ca> wrote:

>  I hope the following paragraph from my 2008 PhD Theses might shed a bit
> more light on your discussion: ****
>
> ** **
>
> Vasilyuk (1984) writes in his annotation to *Psikhologia Perezhivaniya*(Psychology of Perezhivaniye), that in order to manage (perezhits)
> “situations of stress, frustration, inner conflict, and life crisis, quite
> often a painful inner work has to be done in re-establishing inner
> equilibrium and reconstructing a new meaningful life” (para. 1, my
> translation). For him, even a painful experience in the past can be
> recreated as a positive, pleasurable, meaningful future-oriented experience
> of personality. Hence, perezhivaniye is a future-oriented, conscious, and
> individual emotional experience of past events achieved in the
> “here-and-now” through reflection on the individual’s struggle within
> himself/herself (e.g., as if struggling between the dual consciousness of
> self and the character he/she portrays) and with the social environment
> (e.g., his/her audience). Although perezhivaniye connotes mostly negative
> (painful) experience of the past, its future-orientedness provides
> possibilities for positive outcomes. Such positive possibilities are also
> reflected in Vygotsky’s optimistic views on cultural development in general.
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> Michael Levykh****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
> Behalf Of mike cole
> Sent: October-01-11 2:53 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture,Activity
> Subject: [xmca] varying definitions of perezhivanie
>
> ** **
>
> Below are two snippets from Vasiliuk's book which have informed my,****
>
> still forming, understanding (s) of perezhivanie as used by Russians.****
>
> ** **
>
> Its from Vasiliuk's book, The psych of experiencing. There is a ton to the
> ****
>
> book of interest but****
>
> these citations bring out a feature of perezhivanie that is not evident in
> ****
>
> "lived through experience"****
>
> nor even in "a mixture of emotion and cognition" versions.****
>
> ** **
>
> This book is written within a dialogue with activity theory. perezhivanie
> is****
>
> translated as experiencing.****
>
> ** **
>
> mike****
>
> ---------------****
>
> ** **
>
> But in this real world, in life, situations exist where the main problem**
> **
>
> cannot be solved either by practical activity, even the best-equipped, or
> by****
>
> the most highly accurate reflection of that problem in the mind. If a
> person****
>
> is threatened by danger he can try to save himself by running away, but as
> ****
>
> R. Peters writes, “if a man is overcome by grief because his wife is dead,
> ****
>
> what can be done of a specific sort to remedy *that *situation?”****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> … when we speak of “generating meaning” what we have in mind is a****
>
> special *activity****
>
> on the part of the individual*. 7****
>
> ** **
>
> The specifics of this activity are determined by the peculiarities of the*
> ***
>
> situations which put the individual under the necessity of experiencing. We
> ****
>
> shall refer to these as critical situations. If one had to use one word
> only****
>
> to define the nature of such situations one would have to say that they are
> ****
>
> situations of impossibility. Impossibility of what? Impossibility of
> living,****
>
> of realising the internal necessities of life.****
>
> The struggle against that impossibility, the struggle to realise internal*
> ***
>
> necessities — that is experiencing. Experiencing is the repair of a****
>
> “disruption” of life, a work of restoration, proceed-ing as it were at
> right****
>
> angles to the line of actualisation of life.****
>
> __________________________________________****
>
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>
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu****
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