Reflexivity, or learning from living

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.