Semiotic Catalysts’ Activators: An Early Semiotic Mediation in the Construction of Personal Syntheses

Abstract

The notion of causality based on systemic and catalytic principles has brought to the discipline of cultural psychology of semiotic orientation the challenge to describe the processes through which a given sign assumes a catalyst role. It is argued here that an activation towards such function takes place one step before the catalyzed activation or inhibition of semiotic regulators (SRs). Semiotic mediators are initially activated through one’s emphasis on specific features of a given situation to which preexisting signs are meaningfully linked. What follows is a canalization of those signs into the current semiotic mediation, favoring the transformation of a certain semiotic mediator into a semiotic catalyst. The personally storied nature of semiotic catalysts is highlighted as those catalyst activators are taken into consideration in the semiotic catalytic cycle. The main objective of this chapter is to explore and understand how semiotic catalysts work in catalytic cycles over time, considering the complex “catalyst—catalyst activators” previously to the activation/inhibition of semiotic regulators. In order to accomplish such a goal, three narrative interviews performed by a bereaved mother who lost three children to homicide in a poor neighborhood in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, were analyzed in the aspects related to the processes of making sense of the child loss and integrating such losses to her sense of self.