Symptom and signal, expression and mutual adjustment in preverbal social regulation

Abstract

In this paper, I reconstruct the continuities and differences between Karl Bühler’s pre-cybernetic model of non-verbal interaction – as sketched in his Krise der Psychologie (1927) and his Ausdruckstheorie (1933) – and present-day debates on the expression of emotion and affect. I offer the thesis that today, almost 100 years later, the field of psychology is still caught up in very similar quandaries. This is shown by comparing Bühler’s work to the theories and models of a present-day ethologist (Frans de Waal), a neuroscientist and psychologist (Lisa Feldman Barrett), and a culturalist developmental psychologist (Michael Tomasello).