This article interrogates dualistic theoretical polarization as an unproductive metatheoretical approach to knowledge production, addresses associated issues of cultural politics, and submits that theoretical tensions are, instead, productive grounds for transformative reformulations and for contingent, selective synthesis. In particular, the article takes issue with the polarization of discourse-theoretic and “cognitive” approaches to psychological phenomena, and it explores a reconstructed notion of the mental grounded in a discursive view of the subject that honors the inseparability of the psychological and the social. A reconceived “mental space” is posited, seen as continuous with the social yet consisting of a distinct functional space, as the anchor for (discursively produced) thought processes in a given moment. These ideas are briefly illustrated with respect to ongoing feminist research on reasoning and discussed with reference to a systemic model of the social that comprises macro-social, local, and personal processes of social constitution.
Abbey, E., & Falmagne, R.J. (2007). Styles of tension work within the complex self. Culture & Psychology, 13, 395-413.
2.
Ahmed, S. ( 2000). Strange encounters: Embodied others in post-coloniality . London: Routledge.
3.
Bechtel, W., & Graham, G. (Eds.). (1998). A companion to cognitive science. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
4.
Billig, M. ( 1991). Ideology and opinions: Studies in rhetorical psychology . London: Sage.
5.
Billig, M., Condor, S., Edwards, D., Middleton, D., & Radley, A. ( 1988). Ideological dilemmas: A social psychology of everyday thinking. London: Sage.
6.
Butler, J. ( 1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity . New York: Routledge.
7.
Butler, J. ( 1992). Contingent foundations: Feminism and the question of postmodernism. In J. Butler & J. Scott (Eds.), Feminists theorize the political (pp. 3-19). New York: Routledge .
8.
Butler, J., & Scott, J. (Eds.). (1992). Feminists theorize the political . New York: Routledge.
9.
Coulter, J. ( 1990). Mind in action. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
10.
Coulter, J. ( 2005). Language without mind. In H. Te Molder & J. Potter (Eds.), Conversation and cognition (pp. 79-92). New York: Cambridge University Press.
11.
Cullen, J. (Ed.). (2002). Deconstruction: Critical concepts in literary and cultural studies. London : Routledge.
12.
Derrida, J. ( 1973). Of grammatology (G. Spivak, Trans.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. (Original work published 1967)
13.
Drew, P. ( 2005). Is confusion a state of mind? In H. Te Molder & J. Potter (Eds.), Conversation and cognition (pp. 161-183). New York: Cambridge University Press.
14.
Edwards, D. ( 1997). Discourse and cognition. London: Sage.
15.
Edwards, D. ( 2006). Discourse, cognition, and social practices: The rich surface of language and social interaction. Discourse Studies , 8, 41-49.
16.
Edwards, D., & Potter, J. ( 1992). Discursive psychology. London: Sage.
17.
Edwards, D., & Potter, J. ( 2005). Discursive psychology, mental states, and descriptions . In H. Te Molder & J. Potter (Eds.), Conversation and cognition (pp. 241-259). New York: Cambridge University Press.
18.
Falmagne, R.J. ( 2001). The dialectic of critique, theory, and method in developing feminist research on inference. In J. R. Morss, N. Stephenson, & H. Van Rappard (Eds.), Theoretical issues in psychology (pp. 145-158). London: Kluwer Academic.
19.
Falmagne, R.J. ( 2003). A contextual approach to the study of "mind": Cognition, discourse, and society. Athens, Greece: Colloquium, University of Athens.
20.
Falmagne, R.J. ( 2004). On the constitution of "self" and "mind": The dialectic of the system and the person. Theory & Psychology, 14, 822-845.
21.
Falmagne, R.J. ( 2006). The dialectic of the particular and the general. International Journal of Critical Psychology, 17, 167-184.
22.
Falmagne, R.J., & Iselin, M.G. ( 2002). On mapping a transdisciplinary approach to reasoning . In R.J. Falmagne & M. Hass (Eds.), Representing reason: Feminist theory and formal logic (pp. 133-168). New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
23.
Fox, P.A. ( 1993). Recasting the "politics of truth": Thoughts on class, gender, and the role of intellectuals. In M.M. Tokarczyk & E.A. Fay (Eds.), Working class women in the academy: Laborers in the knowledge factory (pp. 219-238). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
24.
Fraser, N. ( 1989). Unruly practices: Power, discourse, and gender in contemporary social theory. Cambridge, UK: Polity .
25.
Gardner, H. ( 1987). The mind’s new science: A history of the cognitive revolution. New York: Basic Books .
26.
Glenn, E.N. ( 1999). Social construction and institutionalization of gender and race: An integrative approach. In M. M. Ferree, J. Lorber, & B. Hess (Eds.), Revisioning gender (pp. 3-43). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
27.
Grossberg, L. ( 1996). On postmodernism and articulation: An interview with Stuart Hall. In D.C. Morley & K.-H. Chen (Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp. 131-150). London: Routledge.
28.
Hall, S. ( 1996a). Cultural studies and its theoretical legacies. In D. Morley & K.-H. Chen (Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp. 262-275). London: Routledge .
29.
Hall, S. ( 1996b). Introduction: Who needs "identity"? In S. Hall & P. du Gay (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 1-17). London : Sage.
30.
Harré, R., & Gillett, G. ( 1994). The discursive mind. London: Sage.
31.
Hennessy, R. ( 1993). Materialist feminism and the politics of discourse. New York: Routledge.
32.
Hennessy, R., & Ingraham, C. (Eds.). (1997). Materialist feminism: A reader in class, difference, and women’s lives. New York: Routledge.
33.
Hepburn, A., & Wiggins, S. ( 2005). Developments in discursive psychology. Discourse & Society, 16, 595-601.
34.
Hepburn, A., & Wiggins, S. ( 2007a). Discursive research: Themes and debates. In A. Hepburn & S. Wiggins (Eds.), Discursive research in practice: New approaches to psychology and interaction (pp. 1-29). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
35.
Hepburn, A., & Wiggins, S. (Eds.). (2007b). Discursive research in practice: New approaches to psychology and interaction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
36.
Howarth, D. ( 2000). Discourse. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
37.
Keller, E.F. ( 1992). Nature, nurture, and the human genome project. In D.J. Kevles & L. Hood (Eds.), The code of codes: Scientific and social issues in the human genome project (pp. 281-299). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
38.
Landry, D., & MacLean, G. ( 1993). Materialist feminisms. Cambridge, UK: Basil Blackwell.
39.
Lewontin, R. ( 2000). The triple helix: Gene, organism, environment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
40.
Lugones, M. ( 1996). Purity, impurity, and separation. In B. Laslett & R.E.B. Joeres (Eds.), The second Signs reader (pp. 275-296). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
41.
McClelland, J.L., & Rumelhart, D.E. (Eds.). (1986). Parallel distributed processing: Explorations in the microstructure of cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
42.
Nicholson, L. (Ed.). (1990). Feminism/postmodernism. New York: Routledge.
43.
Pinker, S., & Prince, A. ( 1999). Rules and connections in human language. In R. Cummins & D. D. Cummins (Eds.), Minds, brains, and computers: Foundations of cognitive science (pp. 307-318). New York: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1988)
44.
Potter, J. ( 1996). Representing reality: Discourse, rhetoric, and social construction. London: Sage.
45.
Potter, J., & Edwards, D. ( 2003). Rethinking cognition: On Coulter on discourse and mind . Human Studies, 26, 165-181.
46.
Potter, J., & Hepburn, A. ( 2006). Discursive psychology: Mind and reality in practice. In A. Weatherall, B. Watson, & C. Gallois (Eds.), Language, discourse, and social psychology (pp. 160-184). London: Palgrave.
47.
Potter, J., & Wetherell, M. ( 1987). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour. London: Sage.
48.
Sanders, R.E. ( 2005). Validating "observations" in discourse studies: A methodological reason for attention to cognition. In H. Te Molder & J. Potter (Eds.), Conversation and cognition (pp. 57-78). New York: Cambridge University Press.
49.
Smith, D. ( 1990). Texts, facts, and femininity: Exploring the relations of ruling. London: Routledge.
50.
Sternberg, R.J. (Ed.). (1999). The nature of cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
51.
Wetherell, M. ( 1998). Positioning and interpretative repertoires: Conversation analysis and poststructuralism in dialogue. Discourse & Society, 9, 387-412.
52.
Wetherell, M. ( 1999, June). Discursive psychology and psychoanalysis: Theorising masculine subjectivities. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology, Sydney, Australia.
53.
Wetherell, M. ( 2001). Themes in discourse research: The case of Diana. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor, & S. Yates (Eds.), Discourse theory and practice: A reader (pp. 14-28). London: Sage.
54.
Wetherell, M., & Potter, J. ( 1988). Discourse analysis and the identification of interpretative repertoires. In C. Antaki (Ed.), Analysing everyday explanations: A casebook of methods (pp. 168-183). London: Sage.
55.
Wetherell, M., & Potter, J. ( 1992). Mapping the language of racism: Discourse and the legitimation of exploitation. New York: Columbia University Press.
56.
Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. , & Yates, S. (Eds.). (2001). Discourse theory and practice: A reader. London: Sage.
