Contribution short abstract:

In different historical moments, different aspects of the relationship between psyche and world have been emphasized. What aspect of this relationship do we want to explore and emphasize now, and why?

Contribution long abstract:

Given the abstract of this roundtable, I will be very interested to explore with participants what “psychic life” might entail, and how such a phenomenon differs or not from other related concepts, such as “self,” “subjectivity,” “ego,” etc. Historically, psychological anthropologists have explored various aspects of psychic or subjective life and experience, and have noted how these aspects are affected by not only by developmental experiences, but also by culture, power, gender, class, and colonial or postcolonial status. In different historical moments, different aspects of the relationship between psyche and world have been emphasized. What aspect of this relationship do we want to explore and emphasize now, and why? Is Nancy Chodorow (2020) right to argue that the time has come to rediscover the interiority of psychic life and its significance for social theory, or do other questions come to the fore in this historical moment?