Re: [xmca] neoformation

David Kellogg wrote:

"c) developmentally CATALYTIC (e.g. Rembrandt's attempt to paint a disaster
painting like Caravaggio's, which ended in a disaster but led him to
something much more interesting than disaster painting, namely the
psychological portrait). These are like LSV's critical neoformations
(autonomous speech at one, "negativism" at three) in that they completely
disappear but nevertheless "blaze a trail" for a more lasting neoformation.
Another example might be Richardson's epistolary novel "Pamela"; the genre
itself died the death almost immediately, but the plot of a poor but honest
maid who marries up in the world goes on and on and on and on...."

I do not believe it is within the parameters of LSV's theory of individual
development for the blazing of trails,nor disappearing neoformations; there
are fits and bursts of cognitive understanding and problem solving that
rely upon that which came before. It is not scaffolding as has been
mentioned by others but rather the progression and regression of these
newly formed intellectual functions in a spiraling double-helix with
cultural norms and expectations. ZPDs are present for the development of
higher mental functions and many times the context of the ZPD is how that
higher mental function is accessed and utilized by an individual. Think
how on the double helix of a DNA molecule, certain combinations elicit
certain genotypes. New context, that cognitive skill may need to be
readdressed by an individual. This is where I believe Valsiner's theory of
the Guided Mind comes into play.

what do you think?

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Received on Fri Feb 8 08:01 PST 2008