Citation

Moghaddam FM. Cult. Psychol. 2010; 16(4): 465-475.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1354067X10380160

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Traditional research adopts the embryonic fallacy: the assumption that as soon as life begins, the individual becomes the source of psychological experiences. The embryonic fallacy has resulted in intersubjectivity being treated as ‘a problem’: how can each individual, the source of private experiences, understand the private experiences of ‘self-contained’ others? This ‘problem’ disappears when we recognize that intersubjectivity is regulated through interobjectivity: how individuals understand others arises out of the cultural collective in which they are socialized. The source of our understandings of others is ‘out there’ in the social world.