The Emotions in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory: Personality, Emotion and Motivation in Social Relations and Activity

This article conceptualizes human emotion as formed within the cultural and historical development of each individual within their society, using theories of emotion created within cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). It examines how the process of the cultural formation of emotion takes place as part of the social development of the personality, intimately tied in with motivation, need and desire. In doing this I review ideas about emotion in the work of the two founding thinkers of cultural-historical activity theory, L. S. Vygotsky and A. N. Leontyev; however, for different reasons their work has its limits in creating a contemporary understanding of emotion. Moving forward, I draw on more recent work on emotions in the field of CHAT, as well as on the work of M. M. Bakhtin, to create a more embodied understanding of the cultural-historical formation of the emotions as part of the dynamics of personality as a whole, including its conscious and unconscious elements.