Dialogical and systemic anthro-psychology: Toward a culturally sensitive transdisciplinary human science

This article proposes a transdisciplinary human science that integrates psychology and anthropology, moving beyond the reductionistic axioms of mainstream psychology to establish a dialogical and systemic framework. It argues for a culturally sensitive, person-centered approach that recognizes individuals as active agents in meaning making, connecting them to their environments through idiosyncratic yet culturally embedded processes. The proposed framework rests on five key principles: (a) the irreversibility of human development, emphasizing gradual and permanent change across the life course; (b) the self as a complex system of diverse, often contradictory representations shaped by internal and external dialectics; (c) a shift from Cartesian multiculturalism to polyculturalism, viewing cultures as interconnected and identities as negotiated through dynamic, overlapping cultural–semiotic fields; (d) meaning making as an emotional process, where affective semiosis bridges individual and cultural domains; and (e) a systemic approach rooted in irreversible developmentalism, likening the self and culture to a decentralized, interdependent “global cultural blockchain.” This blockchain metaphor illustrates how selves co-construct meaning within a distributed, evolving network. Given the conceptual fragmentation in cultural psychology, the article introduces anthropological psychology as a unifying framework. Positioned closer to psychology but grounded in anthropological contextualization, it emphasizes the irreversibility of development as the foundation for human subjectivity, balancing universal mental regularities with situational uniqueness. Anthropological psychology offers a path toward a transdisciplinary human science that bridges psychology and anthropology while prioritizing cultural sensitivity and systemic interconnectedness.