 |
|
Volume 2 Number 1
Fall 2007
| Constructing
the Internal Infinity: Dialogic Structure of the
Internalization/Externalization Process – A Commentary on Susswein,
Bibok, and Carpendale’s “Reconceptualizing Internalization” Jaan Valsiner Clark University, USA |
pp. 207-221 |
 |
| ABSTRACT.
Susswein et al’s analysis of the existing discourse on internalization
in psychology continues the dialogue within the socio-cultural field on
the prioritization of person-centered (focusing on the
“inside”<>”outside” separation) or communion-centered
(emphasizing the core meanings of “participation”, “mastery”) tactics
for theory construction. Taking the latter axiomatic stand, Susswein et
al. decide not to build their account through the use of the
internalization concept, persuading their readers to accept the notions
of mastery and adaptation instead. In contrast, I start from the
axiomatic perspective within which internalization is necessarily the
central concept. My theoretical construction prioritizes subjective
experiencing as culturally mediated through the personal construction
of the self that coincides with re-construction of the cultural
(semiotic) mediating devices. The multi-layer model of
internalization/externalization guarantees the production of novelty
and openness to innovation together with selective buffering of the
intra-psychological affective and mental worlds through dialogical
processes at the always ambiguous quadratic boundary of the unity of
INSIDE/OUTSIDE and PAST/FUTURE functionally related opposites. Possible
forms of dialogical processes at the transfer loci are discussed. |
||
| Keywords: internalization/externalization, adaptation, axiomata in science, process models, boundary | ||