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Re: RE: [xmca] Emotions and history
In Teaching with Emotion: A Postmodern Enactment, Michalinos Zembylas does an excellent job of discussing the social regulation of emotion, particularly the emotional labor of teachers.
His work is excellent.
Nancy
----- Original Message -----
From: Mabel Encinas <liliamabel@hotmail.com>
Date: Friday, December 4, 2009 1:35 am
Subject: RE: [xmca] Emotions and history
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>
> Hi, Jay and all.
>
>
> I think that the time dimensions you mention are very important
> for understanding emotions both as individual and social. I
> would add some other historic dimensions for the understanding
> of emotions. What about finding some clues in Vygotsky, as
> Scribner (in Vygotsky's uses of history, image in p. 141) and
> Cole (in Cultural Psychology, image in p. 185)? We would then
> have more elements for understanding emotions as cultural and
> historical. For example, at the micro-level, we could observe
> the way in which emotions emerge, and are performed; how
> emotions are socially regulated. And how they change. Over time,
> there seem to be an important role of consciousness, including
> volitional aspects in the regulation of emotions, as some others
> have pointed in this thread. Vygotsky indicated that emotions
> were linked to the central system; neuroscience, has presented
> the involvement of the brain, particularly the frontal lobe, in
> this process. The changes in emotions are not individual only.
> At the microlevel we can observe the social regulation of
> emotions, and in this way, how emotions are learned. At other
> historical levels, we can see that for example the expression of
> emotions changes in relation to gender, social class, and those,
> in relation to the particular culture. In the microanalysis that
> I do of secondary schools (junior high schools) in Mexico, not
> only the content, but also the way in which emotions emerge in
> the classroom seem to be important.
>
>
> Maybe, the historical understanding of emotions can help us to
> understand how it is possible that as adults still we can cry or
> blush, or feel anger even if we do not want. In Gestalt -the one
> that I use-, the approach to the here and now, allows that the
> person brings emotions to the consciousness. The idea behind, in
> my plain English version, is that the acceptation of an emotions
> helps in working through it.
>
>
> I think that the constant comparisons between the diverse time
> scales is an important aspect of understanding emotions, as well.
>
> And I agree with you, Jay, that we could work in teams with
> neuroscientists :)
>
> Sorry I have not yet developed this enough, but I have been
> trying to post, I got a second cold in the month, and... and I
> worry that the new article is there.
>
>
> Mabel
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > From: jaylemke@umich.edu
> > To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > Subject: Re: [xmca] Emotions and culture
> > Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 20:27:54 -0800
> >
> >
> > 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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> > >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> > >
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