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RE: [xmca] Emotions and culture

Hi, Larry.
 
Just for the records, I am really not interested in relational gestalt theory neither psychoanalisis. I will not change that in my thesis, much less at this stage. I define myself as a Gestalt psychotherapist, because I have a paper that says so, and it is the way in which I make (or theoreticallycan make) a living. I use art (but I do not have a paper that says that I am an art-therapist or an artist :).
 
Theoretically speaking, and that is how I understand what happens in my practice, and in all the other practices of which I participate, what I know a bit is Vygotsky. Just cause, I do not like those other labels, sorry.
 
Cheers,
Mabel



> Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 22:07:07 -0800
> From: lpurss@shaw.ca
> Subject: Re: [xmca] Emotions and culture
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> 
> Hi Jay
> Yes, your summary of emotions at different time scales seems to be in "sympathy" with my perspective. I've welcomed the opportunity from the CHAT community to find out what I "think" and "feel". 
> Mabel
> Your interst in relational psychoanlysis and Gestalt theory is shared by others.
> I googled "relational gestalt theory" and found many references to Gestalt theorists who are bringing relational theory into their practice. 
> 
> A general question for the CHAT community on the contrasts between "genetic" and "stage" theories of development. If genetic implies emergence and greater complexity whereas stages imply transcendence from one epistemology to a radically "other" stage why is Piaget's "genetic epistemology" theory describe various stages?
> This contrast in perspectives seems to have profound implications to how we view development.
> 
> Larry
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jay Lemke <jaylemke@umich.edu>
> Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009 8:31 pm
> Subject: Re: [xmca] Emotions and culture
> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> 
> > 
> > Mabel and Larry focus on what I think is a key issue in 
> > understanding 
> > emotion. First, that emotions are generated in time, as a 
> > process. It 
> > is a process in which we ourselves are ACTIVE, and not, as in 
> > some 
> > folk theories taken over into psychological models, merely 
> > reacting to 
> > external events and conditions. Second, its genesis takes place 
> > over 
> > multiple timescales. There is the very short term, moment-to-
> > moment, 
> > rise and fall of various feelings, their layering onto one 
> > another, 
> > the transitions from one to another. Then there is a longer-
> > term 
> > tendency, closer to the mood of the "moment" (which is a much 
> > longer 
> > moment than the first timescale), which may define a trend in 
> > the 
> > progression of our feelings. And this in turn is coupled more 
> > into the 
> > situation and setting, who else is there, what is going on, what 
> > is 
> > the activity and the goals that we are engaged with. Then 
> > further, 
> > there are still longer term scales, over months or years of our 
> > lives, 
> > which merge more into social processes and the expectations of 
> > the 
> > culture and subcultures, the communities we operate within.
> > 
> > I very much like the idea of ethnographic neuroscience, and I 
> > wish 
> > there were more neuroscientists who did! but they are not 
> > trained in 
> > this way, and it requires a collaboration at least. It is so 
> > much 
> > easier for them to study only short-term, isolated, laboratory- 
> > controlled events as they appear in their neuro-
> > physiological 
> > correlates, which makes sense if they imagine that they are 
> > looking at 
> > universal processes, which occur in the same way every time.
> > 
> > But of course they don't, and how they appear is very 
> > context 
> > dependent. At least we know this is the case in terms of how 
> > they feel 
> > to us, and how they emerge over the shorter and longer 
> > timescales of 
> > relevance. It would be very interesting to know what is the same 
> > and 
> > what is different across cases and events, in different 
> > situations and 
> > settings, for "the same" emotional response. This will, I think, 
> > be on 
> > the agenda of the neuroscience of a decade or two from now.
> > 
> > JAY.
> > 
> > 
> > Jay Lemke
> > Professor (Adjunct, 2009-2010)
> > Educational Studies
> > University of Michigan
> > Ann Arbor, MI 48109
> > www.umich.edu/~jaylemke
> > 
> > Visiting Scholar
> > Laboratory for Comparative Human Communication
> > University of California -- San Diego
> > La Jolla, CA
> > USA 92093
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On Dec 1, 2009, at 1:58 PM, Mabel Encinas wrote:
> > 
> > >
> > > Hi, Larry and all.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Thank you very much Larry, for having introduced Stern. I am 
> > not 
> > > into psychoanalysis. I am a Gestalt psychotherapist, and 
> > maybe 
> > > because this perspective emphasizes the 'here and now', I 
> > realised 
> > > that I had to discuss the present moment, and the 
> > performative 
> > > making sense of the situation when I faced the challenge to 
> > analyse 
> > > my videos about classroom interaction. Also, I discuss 
> > the 
> > > difference of actions that seem intentionally loaded, with 
> > others in 
> > > which intentionality is quite contestable. My research is 
> > based in 
> > > microanalysis. For being able to study emotions, I decided to 
> > study 
> > > Vygotsy's understanding of emotions. Also I found in this 
> > analysis 
> > > of video (I did not interview neither the teachers or the 
> > students 
> > > about their emotional experience, although I did had 
> > long 
> > > conversations with the teachers), that in order to 
> > understand 
> > > videos, there was important to find 'whole' situations in 
> > which 
> > > emotions were first of all 'evident'. The segments then were 
> > from 
> > > about 1 to 4 minutes long, and I then describe them in 
> > depth, 
> > > including drawings of the interactions. I study this excerpts 
> > as 
> > > developmental in terms of emotions. I already said that the 
> > metaphor 
> > > I use is that I study certain threads without taking them away 
> > from 
> > > the tissue. In my descriptions, I present the richness of the 
> > tissue 
> > > and I relay in the concept of context that weave together 
> > (Cole, 
> > > 1996). I discuss how emotions emerge and impact the situation, 
> > and 
> > > how this impact 'informes' in turn the sense that individuals 
> > keep 
> > > making of the situation instant after instant.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > My conclusions are more about the way in which emotions can 
> > be 
> > > studied, and I pose questions to neuroscience, as I see Stern 
> > does! 
> > > I suggest to do 'ethnographic nueroscience'. Stern (2004) says:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > " Two kinds of data are needed. First, accurate timing of 
> > brain 
> > > activity correlated with phenomenal experiences. Second, the 
> > timing 
> > > of th analogic shifts in intensity or magnitude of neural 
> > firing 
> > > during the same phenomenal expereinces".
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I have to read more about Stern, I would like to understand 
> > what are 
> > > the similarities and differences with Vygotsky's thought, and 
> > the 
> > > usefulness of Stern's contribution. So far, so good :)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Best wishes,
> > >
> > > Mabel
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >> Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 12:45:44 -0800
> > >> From: lpurss@shaw.ca
> > >> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > >> Subject: [xmca] Emotions and culture
> > >>
> > >> Hi everyone
> > >> I wanted to look at another level of the discourse on 
> > emotions. 
> > >> This is to add to the recognition of the other levels such 
> > as 
> > >> institutionally and historically contexts of emotion. This in 
> > no 
> > >> way minimizes the critical importance of these levels of 
> > process 
> > >> for understanding emotion.
> > >> But, in the same spirit of discourse analysis which loos at 
> > the 
> > >> micro level of conversation I believe we expand our horizon 
> > of 
> > >> understanding by exploring the microgenesis of emotions as 
> > the 
> > >> interface between biology and culture. I have posted before 
> > on the 
> > >> position of Daniel Stern and the moment by moment generation 
> > of 
> > >> emotion. Today I want to summarize the thoughts of a DONNEL 
> > B. 
> > >> Stern to this discussion in his book "Unformulated Experience"
> > >>
> > >> (p.43)When we talk about content or structure or experience 
> > it is 
> > >> not a THING at all, but a PROCESS, one that has CONTINUITY 
> > OVER 
> > >> TIME. Some processes have more continuity (organization) some 
> > less. 
> > >> We act AS IF these discrete abstractions which our folk 
> > psychologhy 
> > >> labels thoughts, memories, feelings, are REAL but they are 
> > socially 
> > >> mediated constructions that locates experience in PARTICULAR 
> > stable 
> > >> ways. Psychoanalysis is interested in how these processes 
> > keep 
> > >> reproducing experience in similar shapes or patterns 
> > through 
> > >> interpretive organizing ACTIVITY.
> > >> Stern discusses a psychoanalyst "ROY SCHAFER" who attempts 
> > to 
> > >> translate all psychological events and language games into 
> > ACTION 
> > >> LANGUAGE to recognize these psychological events as 
> > ACTIVITY. 
> > >> Schafer chooses not to take this approach because 
> > communication 
> > >> becomes awkward.
> > >>
> > >> However he does elaborate the processes of REFLECTIVE 
> > EXPERIENCE 
> > >> (where we stand back from and observe our 
> > phenomicological 
> > >> processes. Folk psychology (common sense) leaves the 
> > impression 
> > >> that thoughts and emotions just arrive or leap into 
> > existence 
> > >> without the DEVELOPMENT of the thought or emotion. In reality 
> > each 
> > >> moment of experience is a process of emergence (MICROGENESIS) 
> > a 
> > >> sequence of necessary steps that must occur as experience 
> > UNFOLDS. 
> > >> Microgenesis, applied to thought and emotion develops from 
> > moment 
> > >> to moment in a process Donnel Stern calls FORMULATIND 
> > THE 
> > >> UNFORMULATED. The microgenetic lens emphasizes the 
> > developmental 
> > >> life (Dewey's "arc") of each present moment OUT OF the 
> > experience 
> > >> of the recently formulated experience. Conscious, 
> > explicit, 
> > >> liquistically articulated experience (formulated)emerges 
> > from 
> > >> activity (verbal and nonverbal) that took place in the 
> > preceding 
> > >> (sociocultural) moments. This emergence of experience 
> > INCLUDING 
> > >> THAT PART THAT ARRIVES IN AWARENESS is ORGANIC and CULTURAL 
> > and is 
> > >> a continuous dynamic process. Sometimes AFTER THE FACT the 
> > way one 
> > >> moment developed from the PREVIOUS one COMES TO OUR ATTENTION 
> > but 
> > >> more often it does not.
> > >> Donnel Stern uses the terms thought and emotion as 
> > heuristic 
> > >> devices and stress that he sees these processes as a single 
> > process 
> > >> of COGNITION (which for him is emotional-thought or 
> > thoughtful- 
> > >> emotion) Cognition is formulated as a process of emergence 
> > within 
> > >> sociocultural activity.
> > >> William Blake's metaphor "seeing the world in a grain of 
> > sand" 
> > >> captures the spirit of this inquiry at the microgenetic 
> > level. If 
> > >> this is seen as the unit of analysis it posits 
> > identity, 
> > >> subjectivity, and self-ing as emergent in moment to 
> > moment 
> > >> enactments which become organized into cultural patterns.
> > >>
> > >> I hope this captures the spirit of the relational frame 
> > emerging in 
> > >> psychoanalytic discourse. They also are elaborating how the 
> > micro, 
> > >> meso, and macro levels of process develop in particulat 
> > historical 
> > >> contexts.
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> > > 
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