Cabra, Martina

2022-5-31, Zadeh, Sophie, Zittoun, Tania, Marková, Ivana, Coultas, Claire, Cabra, Martina

The Life of the Mind is an intriguing unfinished book written by Hannah Arendt, known as a political philosopher, at the very end of her life in 1975. We devote this Special Issue of Culture & Psychology to this work, because we are convinced that it raises interesting and important questions for social and cultural psychology today. In this Introduction to the Special Issue, we first explain why we believe that this book deserves closer attention. Second, we present the context of its publication, and a short biography of Arendt, to show its position in her life. Published posthumously, the book was her last project, yet it is based on some of her lifelong concerns. Third, we summarise Arendt’s ideas about the psyche, and the main three faculties of mind – thinking, willing and judging – with which the book is concerned. We then address three difficulties the book raises for psychologists reading her work. Finally, we explain the context in which we developed this Special Issue, and summarise the topics that will be addressed in the papers assembled here.

2019-11-21, Zadeh, Sophie, Cabra, Martina

In this article, we develop the concept of ‘dialogical exemplars’ as communicative tools for scholars who wish to ‘resituate knowledge’ from dialogical single case studies. Exemplars are typological representatives that try to convey typicality in non-taxonomic terms, yet in the existing literature, they are defined in terms of their relationship to a population, class or sample. We suggest instead that ‘dialogical exemplars’, as specific instances that have the self-other at their core, can be used to convey the ‘wholeness’ of cases to various audiences. To support this proposition, we draw upon two single case studies, built 30 years apart, that are concerned with children’s daily lives and experiences. Specifically, we develop a dialogue with and between examples from each case of children's play, not only to make the case for ‘dialogical exemplars’, but also to evidence the process through which we arrived at this concept. We highlight that this process is one that researchers often go through, but, rather curiously, rarely document. In conclusion, we suggest that ‘resituating knowledge’ might be best thought of as several, non-linear, stages in the process of dialogical research that involve, and invite further dialogue.