Bridging: Some Personal Reflections

This contribution to Jaan Valsiner’s Festschrift is a summary of impressions and discussions the author has had rather continuously since 2013 in the context of cultural psychology, including dialogues with Jaan. On one hand, they are an acknowledgment of the integrative ambitions of cultural psychology. On the other hand, they express a concern that cultural psychology is defining a conceptual basis which, contrary to the ambitions, is isolating it from other necessary theoretical approaches, from important parts of applied psychology, and finally from psychology’s critical obligations in contemporary society. At the same time, however, the extensive dialogues with Jaan have had a broader, deeper, and more general focus than cultural psychology, drawing on Jaan’s immense knowledge and insight in the history of psychology and other fields of study. For the present author, much overshadowing the above problems, Jaan has been inspiring, supportive, and, in fact, midwife for most of my publications the last 7 years.