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Tenth Study: Semiotics and Subjectivity

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Constituting Selves

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore semiosis and to assess its relevance and usefulness to psychological science. Semiosis was revealed by the investigations of Charles Peirce and consists of an initial object and a sign representing the object. The creative aspect is the addition of a third term referred to as an interpretant. An interpretant indicates the way an object-sign relation is used or interpreted. Every interpretant is a varying ratio of three properties: an icon, index, and symbol. Semiosis refers not only to thought, but is also a general process found in nature. A semiotic process is iterative and potentially continuous, but ideally terminates in a habit, action, or logical interpretant. An ideal habit is the achievement of self-control which is the ideal goal of everyone. Thinking consists of internal and external dialogues to resolve painful doubt. Phenomenology, greatly simplified, is experience that is expressed in three properties: object quality, a reaction that constitutes a relation to the quality of that object, and what is learned from the experience of that relation, or mediation. This study is the most complex of this monograph with new concepts, terms, and far reaching implications.

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  1. Duluth Psychological Clinic, Duluth, MN, USA

    Richard E. Duus

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Duus, R.E. (2020). Tenth Study: Semiotics and Subjectivity. In: Constituting Selves. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39017-4_10

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