The Symbolic Action Perspective

This chapter presents the symbolic action perspective of Ernst E. Boesch and highlights its significance for cultural psychology. First, action itself is defined and distinguished from behavior. Subsequently, important concepts for Boesch’s theory and their origins are explained. Following this, I demonstrate, using the development of the child, how actions become symbolic actions. It is initially important to understand how signs become symbols and how these are then linked with actions. In play and in everyday practice, the meanings associated with an action gradually accumulate, so that they become overdetermined. They also accumulate with affective experiences, so that they become polyvalent. How these individual symbolic actions are linked with culture will be clarified using the concepts of phantasma and myth. Finally, I provide an example of the application of the symbolic action perspective in the sense of Boesch: reading as a cultural action.