Bruner and Beyond: a Commentary

Abstract

The philosophy of Bruner transcends traditional boundaries in the study of the human mind with a new kind of psychology, one that frees the thinking mind from its opposition to feelings and also from the limitations of being considered an ‘inside-the-head’ phenomenon. It is with active engagement with the outside world that a child develops its understanding. In this engagement with the outside world, the developmental construction of thought is actively created through the use of symbols. The cultural context, images, and languages a person experiences are thus considered to be formative in thinking. Opposing the notion of readiness, Bruner believed children to be capable of complex thought, and the dynamics of these developments were guided by meaning-making. The significance of meaning in Psychology was resurrected in his writing. Furthermore, the notion of narrative as constructive in facilitating the organisation and management of mental processes is invaluable. In this article, we bring a commentary on two articles, one that relates to the study of scaffolding of emotion regulation by parents of adolescents and the other on the narrative understanding of selfhood of individuals with autism.