Pleromatization: Bringing Cultural Psychology Closer to Human Experience

Along with an impressive academic career, Jaan Valsiner has revitalized and developed an abundance of scientific notions that stand at the basis of theorization in psychology. Most of them have had great impact on several scholars all over the world. In this paper, we would like to focus on just one of these notions: “pleromatization.” According to Valsiner (The overwhelming world: Functions of pleromatization in creating diversity in cultural and natural constructions. International Summer School of Semiotic and Structural Studies, Imatra, June 12, 2006), pleromatization stands in opposition to schematization, although the two notions are regarded as appearing in a semiotic symbiosis with each other. Us humans make meaning of our experiences, and our existence is a result of a combination of an overwhelming impression and a delineated generalization. Those two extremes constitute a dynamic movement in which the emotional nuances of our experiences and intellectual meaning merge.