Symbolic Transformation: The Mind in Movement

This book brings together scholars from around the world to address the question of how culture and mind are related through symbols: it is through the mediation of symbols that we think, act, imagine, feel, dream and remember. Thus, to understand the structure, function and development of symbols is to understand what it means to be human.Part I of the book constructs a theoretical foundation in semiotics for thinking about symbols, and analyzes their place in speech, images, affect and evolution. Part II explores how our experience is transformed through symbols: why we are moved by a movie or political speech, how bread and wine can taste like Christ's body and blood, and why our memories are forever changing. Part III focuses on symbols in the human life-course, particularly in connection with play, language and art. And lastly, Part IV explores how identities, such as being a sex-worker or HIV-positive, are constituted in social relationships through society's symbols.This broad interdisciplinary synthesis on the problem of symbols is an essential resource for anyone studying culture in mind, including advanced students in psychology, semiotics, anthropology, communications and philosophy.

List of contributors	p. xi
Series Editor's introduction	p. xiii
Preface	p. xvii
Introduction: What is a symbol?
Semiotic foundations	p. 17
introduction	p. 19
The intersubjective nature of symbols	p. 23
Here comes the semiotic species: Reflections on the semiotic turn in the cognitive sciences	p. 38
The unconscious as symbol generator: A psychodynamic-semiotic approach to meaning-making	p. 59
Commentary on Part I. Are we connected to the Matrix machine? Cognition and experience figuring out what reality is	p. 75
Transformations of experience	p. 87
introduction	p. 89
Experiencing symbols	p. 93
Deep motivation and the work of culture in Christian penitential ecstasy	p. 120
Remembering with others: The veracity of an experience in the symbol-formation process	p. 142
Commentary on Part II. Imagination and the movement of meaning	p. 159
Transformations through the life course	p. 167
introduction	p. 169
How does an object become symbolic? Rooting semiotic artifacts in dynamic shared experiences	p. 173
Developing symbolic abilities	p. 193
Scribble: The development of children's mark-making	p. 209
Commentary on Part III. Some reflections on the development of symbolic activity	p. 232
Transformations of identity	p. 241
introduction	p. 243
Symbolic group-play and social identity	p. 249
Symbolic worlds in time/spaces of practice: Identities and transformations	p. 269
From "stigma" and "coping" to social repositioning: A new perspective on HIV/AIDS, identity, and human rights	p. 284
Diversity in sex workers' strategies for the protection of social identity: Content, context and contradiction	p. 302
Commentary on Part IV. Identity and social reality: Formations and transformations	p. 323
Conclusion: Opening and closing symbolic transformation	p. 330
Index	p. 334
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Symbolic Transformation: The Mind in Movement Through Culture and Society

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