Signification, Meaning, and Sense: The Vocational Event has a Crystal Appearance.

Abstract

Having Gilles Deleuze’s “Logique du sens“ as a reference, we propose a deep appreciation of the concepts of signification, meaning and sense that may affect the understanding of some key constructs of Vocational Psychology with implications for career guidance. The purpose is to grasp the concept of sense from a certain indistinctness that seems to pervade the theoretical corpus of Psychology in general, and Vocational Psychology in particular. First, we emphasize the tradition of research and practice in vocational psychological guidance and dive into the vocational characterisation of those constructs. Then, we propose a way of looking at these concepts as a phenomenon and event for vocational development. Our intention was to put the phenomenological questioning at the centre of the psychological practices and lead a reflection around language that goes beyond a purely symptomatic and empirical understanding, a reflection that grasps its collapse from the casuistry of narratives.