Raffaele De Luca Picione

Catalysis and Morphogenesis: The Contextual Semiotic Configuration of Form, Function, and Fields of Experience

In this work, the catalytic process is discussed as a semiotic process of transformation of the field. This is the precondition that allows the realization of semiotic processes of signification and action (semiotic function of pertinentization). Catalysis is seen as process of field which acts in temporal terms (mediating between continuity and discontinuity) and spatial terms (the relationship between the parts and the whole, and between the inside and the outside). Catalysis in psychological terms is understood as a process of contextual pertinentization triggered and organized by emotional/perceptual relationship of a subject with his relational environment. In this work, we define emotion as a psychophysical process of semiotic activation (symbolopoiesis) and organization of relations according to specific operating modalities (symmetry and generalization), believing that it always works in interaction with the perceptual processes (aimed at identification of differences and asymmetries). Catalysis, in our point of view, creates a contextual activation of a morphogenetic field of semiosis, which regulates the relationship between the parts and the whole (between the signs and their organization) and the development over time of the process of meaning making (in terms of continuity and discontinuity/rupture).

Borders and Modal Articulations. Semiotic Constructs of Sensemaking Processes Enabling a Fecund Dialogue Between Cultural Psychology and Clinical Psychology.

The notion of the border is an interesting advancement in research on the processes of meaning making within the cultural psychology. The development of this notion in semiotic key allows to handle with adequate complexity construction, transformation, stability and the breakup of the relationship between person/world/otherness. These semiotic implications have already been widely discussed and exposed by authors such Valsiner (2007, 2014), Neuman (2003, 2008), Simão (Culture & Psychology, 9, 449–459, 2003, Theory & Psychology, 15, 549–574, 2005, 2015), with respect to issues of identity/relatedness, inside/outside, stability/change in the irreversible flow of the time. In this work, after showing some of the basics of such semiotic notion of border, we discuss the processes of construction and transformation of borders through the modal articulation, defined as the contextual positioning that the person assumes with respect to the establishment of a boundary in terms of necessity, obligation, willingness, possibility, permission, ability. This modal subjective positioning acquires considerable interest from the clinical point of view since its degree of plasticity vs that of rigidity is the basis of processes of development or stiffening of relations between person/world/otherness.

The Idiographic Approach in Psychological Research. The Challenge of Overcoming Old Distinctions Without Risking to Homogenize

In this paper I discuss the relevance of the single-case approach in psychological research. Based upon work by Hurtado-Parrado and López-López (Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 2015), who outlined the possibility that Single-Case Methods (SCMs) could be a valid alternative to Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST), I introduce the idiographic approach (Salvatore and Valsiner Theory & Psychology, 20(6), 817–833, 2010; Valsiner Cultural & Psychology, 20(2), 147–159, 2014; Salvatore Culture & Psychology, 20(4), 477–500, 2014) based on the logic of abductive generalization, rather than the logic of inductive generalization. I present the theoretical, epistemological and methodological assumptions that this approach proposes; in particular, I discuss the re-conceptualization of some now obsolete rigid opposition, the inconsistency of sample use in psychological research, the relationship between uniqueness and general, the relationship between theory and phenomena, and finally the validation process.

Possible use in psychology of threshold concept in order to study sensemaking processes

Manifold forms of sensemaking processes and their simultaneity pose many questions about their integration and also on their development. Human beings mean their own experience and activity in the world by forms of symbolic meaning but also by several forms of embodied meaning, in an endo-semiotic and exo-semiotic key, such as the construction of artifacts, instruments, monuments, stories, myths. The culture in this perspective is not considered a repository of information and become an intersubjective process that develops over time and is rooted deeply in various embodied forms. Authors discuss the notion of threshold through two possible paths. The first one allows us to demarcate the boundaries of the domain of semiotic research and at the same time to reflect on the specificity of the different processes of sensemaking, from biological processes (vegetative and animal) to typically psychological processes, characteristic of human beings and of cultural dynamics. The second one deals with dynamics of transformation of the processes of sensemaking, claiming that the relationship between an organism and its environment has a gestaltic quality, whose form is constantly changing. The notion of threshold is developed in reference to the changes and transformations that mark discontinuous passages and developments within phases of stability.

The processes of meaning making, starting from the morphogenetic theories of René Thom

Each process of meaning making can be seen as a field of semiotic organization that shows a variety of continuities and discontinuities, rather than as a linear trajectory of accumulated signs, progressively articulated through syntagmatic chains. In this work, we address the idea that the sign is a discontinuous form within a field; it emerges where there are different trajectories of meaning, different epistemic positions, and different subjective or affective ways of experiencing a phenomenon. The central aspect of the paper is based on the idea that the sign is a form within a semiotic relational system that allows its emergence towards a “morphogenetic field of semiosis”. The starting point for this discussion is the philosophical, mathematical and semiotic work of Rène Thom, which addressed the relationship between continuity and discontinuity in natural human, social, and linguistic phenomena.Each process of meaning making can be seen as a field of semiotic organization that shows a variety of continuities and discontinuities, rather than as a linear trajectory of accumulated signs, pro...

Understanding Cancer Patients’ Narratives: Meaning-Making Process, Temporality, and Modal Articulation

Temporality is a fundamental dimension of each narrative process of meaning making. In fact, the narration constructs and organizes temporal frames that connect ones own experiences. From this point of view, oncological illness is experienced as a traumatic experience that interrupts the sense of continuity of ones own life, resulting in the configuration of different temporal frames, which are not always able to support the processes of elaboration of this experience. The aim of this article is to explore the way the modal verbal predicates (must, can, will, know) are organized and work in relation to the representation of time in narrations of cancer patients. The modal verbal predicates—introducing the meanings of possibility, knowledge, will, desire, duty, need, or ability—allow us to organize the relationship between the subject, action, and context. Six narrations of cancer experience were analyzed—one for each time frame (linear, circular, fragmentary, static, cyclic, and spiral) proposed by Brockmeier (2000)—by means of quali-quantitative analysis of the use of modal verbs. Narrations show specific modal positioning: dispersion, plasticity, focusing, rigidity, and poverty. It is possible organize them along a continuum from plasticity to rigidity. The modal plasticity is the capacity to reconfigure a new temporal relation between subject and context, whereas modal rigidity shows a repetition of a specific and same modality in connecting subject and context. This preliminary research allows us to reflect about some possible clinical implications to support and foster processes of meaning making of cancer conditions.

Modal articulation: The psychological and semiotic functions of modalities in the sensemaking process

Within a semiotic and psychodynamic frame, we present and discuss the psychological construct of modal articulation. By modality, we mean the way a subject organizes the meaning of his/her own experience according to categories of necessity, possibility, opportunity, will, knowledge, permission, and duty. Modality is a relevant topic in some branches of philosophy, logics, linguistics, and semiotics, but there is no systematic discourse about it in psychology. The proposal of this work is to deal with some interesting and promising features of modal categories in the sensemaking process of subjective experience. Modalization is presented as a relevant semiotic organization in each contextual and dynamic sensemaking process in order to perform three functions: (a) connection between affective matrix and subjective experience, (b) mediation between subjective positioning in intersubjective context, and (c) vectorialization of action, namely orienting subjective agency in becoming temporal. Theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications are discussed.

Psychological Functions of Semiotic Borders in Sense-Making: Liminality of Narrative Processes

In this paper we discuss the semiotic functions of the psychological borders that structure the flow of narrative processes. Each narration is always a contextual, situated and contingent process of sensemaking, made possible by the creation of borders, such as dynamic semiotic devices that are capable of connecting the past and the future, the inside and the outside, and the me with the non-me. Borders enable us to narratively construct one’s own experiences using three inherent processes: contextualization, intersubjective positioning and setting of pertinence. The narrative process – as a subjective articulation of signs in a contingent social context – involves several functions of semiotic borders: separation, differentiation, distinction-making, connection, articulation and relation-enabling. The relevant psychological aspect highlighted here is that a border is a semiotic device which is required for both maintaining stability and inducing transformation at the same time. The peculiar dynamics and the semiotic structure of borders generate a liminal space, which is characterized by instability, by a blurred space-time distinction and by ambiguities in the semantic and syntactic processes of sensemaking. The psychological processes that occur in liminal space are strongly affectively loaded, yet it is exactly the setting and activation of liminality processes that lead to novelty and creativity and enable the creation of new narrative forms.

La ferita del confine: la condizione di liminalità del corpo e della psiche

The process of meaning-making of personal experience is realized through the development of borders. They represent dynamic semiotic devices that allow us simultaneous processes of distinction and connection, separation and integration, individuation and belonging. In a semiotic and psychodynamic perspective, the skin is the first and fundamental boundary process that makes possible the development of identity, the intersubjective dimension and sharing within life contexts. The illness appears as a life discontinuity constituting a laceration of personal somatic, psychic, social borders. From this wound, the victim of an illness may find his/herself in a state of liminality. This concept, originally anthropological, is of current interest in the psychological context as the main feature is the feeling of disorientation, isolation, fragmentation, exclusion from the world of others. In clinical terms, the elaboration of the liminal experience can occur through the construction of new border systems that can construct new meaning to the many aspects of life.

Hereditary angiooedema and psychological stress: an exploratory study.

Hereditary Angiooedema (HAE) is characterized by a deficit or by a malfunctioning of C1- 1nh; its symptoms vary greatly from one individual to another. Some studies suggest that some of the attacks of HAE may be triggered or affected by stress and emotional states (Zotter et al., 2014), however this link has never been examined in depth. Moreover, recent research has highlighted the influence of the neurological correlatives of stress in the activation of the compliment cascade, a system already compromised in those suffering from HAE [1][2].