Self as an Aesthetic Effect

Abstract

Mainstream psychology has assumed a notion of the self that seems to rest on a substantialist notion of the psyche that became predominant despite important critical theories about the self. Although cultural psychology has recognized the diverse, dialogical, historical, narrative, and performative nature of self, as opposed to the idea of self as entity, it is not clear how it accounts for the phenomenological experience of self as a unified image. In this paper, we offer a theoretical contribution to developing the implications of a genetic approach to self in cultural psychology, taking into account an otherwise overlooked dimension: art and aesthetics. We draw on the work of classical authors relevant to cultural psychology, who, although geopolitically and theoretically diverse, are concerted in understanding human psychological life as part of a living process of becoming: James, Mead, Dewey, Vygotsky, Bakhtin, and Vološinov. Overall, the hypothesis developed throughout the paper is that self is produced within psychological individuation as an effect of the aesthetic activity involved in everyday discursive life. We deepen the ideas that self is not an entity but a process of open becoming and that cultural life entails a radical experience of alterity, but we recognize the psychological importance of the sense of unity and closure generated in this process. We argue that self entails not only the process of becoming but also an aesthetical effect of unity in becoming. Self as an aesthetic effect emphasizes the self as a discursive and technical process of production, involving a product that, despite not being a finished entity, is felt as unitary and as mine by virtue of a specific transformation of experience. We thus propose to define self, on one level, as an epistemological category that points to the paradoxes of identity and agency in psychological individuation, and, on a different level, as a twofold operation that makes possible the subjective experience of a constitutive effort as much as a transient but experienced identity or agency.

Dialogic borders: Interculturality from Vološinov and Bakhtin

“…To sustain this, we will first follow the basic concepts of Marxism and the Philosophy of Language (Vološinov, 1929/1973) and then we point out selectively some specific aesthetic, historical, and epistemological developments by Bakhtin in different works. The interpretation of most of this dialogical theory of discourse, self, and culture has been substantiated elsewhere (Haye et al, 2011; Haye & Larraín, 2011, 2013, 2018; Larraín & Haye, 2019). Overall, we suggest that it is possible to interpret a border-focused theory of culture in Vološinov and Bakhtin that departs from the tradition of associating culture with wholeness and unity, giving priority to intercultural relations over the formation of unitary cultures.…”

The dialogical and political nature of emotions: A reading of Vygotsky’s The Psychology of Art

“…Art can be conceived, in consonance with our interpretation, as a special type of cultural activity, of discursive performance, or of speech genres, which intensifies or amplifies something that is part of everyday life: the coexistence of multiplicity of worldviews and emotional evaluations. Vygotsky (1925/1971) and Bakhtin (1934–1935/1981) converge at this point (see Bandlamudi, 2015; Larrain & Haye, 2019): art juxtaposes different worldviews artistically representing the essence of social life (contradiction and difference) in spatial and temporal simultaneity. In the case of Vygotsky, art juxtaposes contradictory emotions, creating scenarios in which affections and coaffections are at-work in the same stream of life.…”

Aesthetic/affective norms of femininity: An obstacle to women’s performance of exercise

“…We do it as a way to identify and diversify from others. These are artistic productions that have the aesthetic effect of creating self (Larrain and Haye, 2019: 19).…”