On the Building of Each Psychologist`s Approach

Abstract

Abstract Psychology is divided in different systems, each a tradition with its own postulates, assumptions, methodology, themes and ethics. This division, not being purely theoretical, is built into the institutionalisation of psychology, shaping career paths and identities within this field. For the individual psychologist, positioning herself in relation to those dividing lines is a practical imposition. But the experience of what those divisions are, what they represent, and how such choices are made, varies greatly from one psychologist to another, and we are not fully self-conscious of the process. In this research, developed in the framework of semiotic cultural constructivism, we interviewed two acting psychologists on their own experiences, and, through the dialogue with what they and other authors brought, propose a few processes and dimensions to conceptualise our qualitative understanding of how psychologists build their own theoretical positioning within psychology, as a process that happens both in individual and collective dimensions. Finally, we bring considerations on what our standpoint implicates for the learning, the institutionalisation and the theoretical negotiation of psychology.