Zittoun, Tania

2016, Zittoun, Tania, Marsico, Giuseppina, Ruggero Andrisano, Ruggeri, Salvatore, Sergio

This chapter considers reflexivity as the process by which people can learn from their experience of living, and develop personal life philosophies. Within the theoretical frame of a semiotic, cultural psychology, I characterize reflexivity as process demanding: (1) distancing from an initial lived, relational experience; (2) an explorative loop; (3) and the enrichment of the initial experience. Social others, symbolic resources and ruptures might trigger or facilitate reflexivity; yet at times, reflexivity might be constrained socially and psychologically. The case study of the life-courses of two partners, Ivana and Vaclav, over 25 years, allows identifying modalities of reflexive loops, their social and personal limitations, and their various consequences for developmental trajectories.