Open AccessSigns as borders and borders as signs
Author(s) -
Luca Tateo,
Giuseppina Marsico
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
theory and psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.658
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1461-7447
pISSN - 0959-3543
DOI - 10.1177/0959354320964865
Subject(s) - semiotics , externalization , semiosis , action (physics) , sign (mathematics) , everyday life , perspective (graphical) , epistemology , psychology , biosemiotics , interpretation (philosophy) , psychic , sociology , social psychology , cognitive science , linguistics , medicine , mathematical analysis , philosophy , physics , alternative medicine , mathematics , pathology , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science
This article focuses on bordering as a fundamental semiotic process of human psychological functioning. First, we discuss similarities between semiosis and bordering and explore their relationships. In the perspective of cultural psychology of semiotic dynamics, psychic life is a process of purposeful production and interpretation of signs, carried out through cycles of culturally guided, selective internalization and externalization. Signs and borders are not only entities “out there”: they emerge in the purposeful movement of the organism in the course of future-oriented action in everyday life. Second, we discuss borders in mind and society as particular types of signs, through which humans regulate their own and others’ conduct. Finally, we propose a general genetic law of bordering development: borders are first conceived as tools created and established by humans as interpsychic activities. Later, the sign is internalized and begins to regulate psychological functioning. It also becomes a psychological tool for dealing with other humans and with the environment.