Toward the formulation of a folkloristic theory of mind: The role of psychoanalysis and symbolist approaches to tradition

In the twenty-first century, the study of folklore and particularly folk art has given increasing attention to the individual as an agent of tradition, but has avoided psychological approaches, and especially psychoanalytic interpretation, to locate cognitive sources for cultural practices. Discourse on the value of psychoanalytic interpretation is traced to Ernest Jones’s 1928 presentation to the Folklore Society (the major international learned organization for folklore study founded in London in 1878), but the consideration of folk art as a projection of anxieties onto expressive material forms did not become prevalent until the late twentieth century. This essay argues for more of a “psychological ethnology” in the twenty-first century to achieve more insightful explanation, rather than mere description, of folk art and artists with their symbolization of the touch-oriented world aroused by the hand and handiwork. Using examples of whirligigs and carved wooden chains as examples, the essay proposes the need for a goal to address a symbolist theory of mind centered on developmental ideas of play and art as human strategies of coping and adapting. Such a theory would incorporate concepts of frame, practice, and projection in work with individual folk artists.