This book provides a fresh and critical perspective on psychology by challenging its foundational assumptions through the lens of Cultural Psychology. Using a Brazilian metaphor of "peeling a pineapple" or descascar o abacaxi it unpacks the complexities of epistemological renewal in psychology-questioning taken-for-granted concepts, reconstructing theoretical frameworks, and emphasizing the role of culture in shaping human experiences. Inspired by a seminar course of the same title, this book explores four essential themes in psychology: Care and Education, Mental Health and Therapy, Self and Identity, and Relationships and Emotions. Each chapter revisits these areas from the ground up, highlighting their cultural underpinnings and questioning taken-for-granted assumptions. The book showcases discussions and reflections that emerged from classroom debates, emphasizing the importance of meaning-making and developmental perspectives in psychology. Epistemological renewal is at the heart of this book. It refers to the process of reevaluating, updating, and transforming the ways knowledge is produced, justified, and disseminated within psychology and the broader human sciences. By questioning dominant paradigms, integrating interdisciplinary perspectives, and engaging with diverse cultural practices, this volume challenges mainstream psychological approaches that often overlook meaning-making processes and the socio-cultural contexts of human development. Just as peeling a pineapple requires patience and precision to access its core, epistemological renewal demands intellectual curiosity, reflexivity, and a willingness to deconstruct established paradigms. By peeling back the layers of conventional psychological constructs, the authors expose the limitations of universalist assumptions and propose alternative pathways for knowledge production.

Autorentext

Nandita Chaudhary taught at the University of Delhi, Lady Irwin College from 1982 - 2017. She has been a Fulbright scholar at the Psychology Department, Clark University, USA. Nandita has participated in international collaborations in the area of culture, children's development and family studies. Nandita is the author of `Listening to Culture: Constructing reality from everyday talk' (2004, Sage), and has co-edited five volumes and authored several publications. She is actively involved in public awareness campaigns regarding cultural issues in parenting. From March 2023, Nandita has been appointed as Visiting Professor at the Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, for a period of four years.

Karen Carolina is a licensed psychologist and a Master's student in Psychology, specializing in Developmental Transitions and Educational Processes at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Brazil. Since 2020, she has been a member of the research group Investigations in Cultural Psychology: Culture, Language, Transitions, and Developmental Trajectories (CULTS - UFBA). In 2023, she participated in the Research-Tandem program linked to the Master's in Special Needs Education at the University of Oslo, conducting research on dual minority inclusion. Her research interests include self and identity, language, and their intersections with cultural and developmental processes.

Jaan Valsiner is a cultural psychologist with a consistently developmental axiomatic base that is brought to analyses of any psychological or social phenomena. He is the founding editor (1995) of the Sage journal, Culture & Psychology. He is currently Niels Bohr Professor of Cultural Psychology at Aalborg University, Denmark. He has published and edited around 40 books, the most pertinent of which are The guided mind (Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press, 1998), Culture in minds and societies (New Delhi: Sage, 2007), and Invitation to Cultural Psychology (London: Sage, 2014). He has been awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize of 1995 in Germany, and the Hans-Kilian-Preis of 2017, for his interdisciplinary work on human development, and Senior Fulbright Lecturing Award in Brazil 1995-1997. He has been a visiting professor in Brazil, Japan, Australia, Estonia. Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.