Transitions of bonding: The borders between hidden roots and visible roads in life course.

Abstract

The article explores the phenomenon of transition in a particular human passage, which entails two affective processes, the experience of parenting and the transformation of the couple's bond. Transition is analyzed as a field of self-movements and transitional-field-of-the-abject (Hermans and Hermans- Konopka2010) where new self-positions are co-constructed around oneself and the relationship with 'the other' through sharing meanings. The article describes processes of abandoning self-positions, which entail spatial and temporal movements, opening up possibilities to build a conception towards a communal self. Transition is discussed in terms of the indeterminacy of expanding horizons (BoulangerInternational Journal for Dialogical Science, 10(2), 9-33, 2017a, International Journal for Dialogical Science, 10(2), 117-130, 2017b) where uncertainty and semiotic tension are the drives for life experience and self to evolve. The phenomenon defined as tensegrity (Marsico and Tateo Integrative Psychological Behavior, 51, 536-556, 2017) enables the process towards new meanings of self and the other. The article elaborates on the life-course addressing the dynamics of actual self-regulation and transgenerational resources as crossing axes (Canevaro 1999).