Cultural-historical psychology and the dominant activity as mediation that forms and transforms: contradictions and crises in the periodization of psychic development

Abstract

This article is based on the fact that it is only possible to understand the concept of dominant / guiding activity and the periodization of psychic development systematized by Historical-Cultural Psychology having knowledge of the principles of dialectical historical materialism, particularly managing theory as a conceptual system arising from contradictions and qualitative transformations of reality. Our objective was to analyze the supraindividual concreteness of the activity category and to highlight the contradictions inherent to the dominant / guiding activity, including crises as moments of rupture necessary for psychic development. The exhibition was organized in two moments; in the first, the unity between the concept of dominant activity and that of social practice was highlighted, with the purpose of pointing out that the dominant / guide activity is a mediation that becomes the course of individual life toward self-conscious activity. In the second, the process of formation of internal contradictions inherent to each period of development was emphasized, affirming that crises mean overcoming particular contradictions that pose more complex challenges to the person. We conclude the chapter with notes on the problem of managing the concept of dominant activity in society marked by structural inequality, considering that crises can not be conceived as a-historical, since they have distinct social contents and qualities determined by the contradiction humanization - alienation.