The action theoretical framework of cultural psychology as discussed here recognizes in every action and situation a symbolic part of the total varience of meaning. This aspect of the theory, although central, is often disregarded. Three of its implications are discussed here: the steps of reasoning leading to the concept of a pervasively symbolic action; its usefulness in cultural psychology; and, its relation to a philosophical idea of the human being.
Carlos Cornejo's book review on my Von Kunst bis Terror led me to the need to chart out a number of central issues in contemporary psychology that cultural psychology is in a position to resolve. Human subjectivity in all of its richness remains the core of investigation for all psychology, and cultural psychology has a central role to play in innovating psychology's research practices.
The following autobiographical essay traces three topics: firstly, the particular individual circumstances which led to me becoming a cultural psychologist under the difficult conditions of postwar Germany; secondly, the main culture-psychological research work we carried out at the University of the Saarland; and thirdly, the theoretical rationale on which this work was based.
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