This book offers a critical examination of contemporary cultural psychology through the lens of the Brazilian anthropophagic tradition. Inspired by the concept of symbolic “cannibalization” as an act of creative appropriation, transformation, and reinvention, the volume explores how established theories and methods in Psychology can be reworked to generate new perspectives on culture, subjectivity, and human development.

Originating from debates at the 8th International Seminar on Cultural Psychology, the book brings together original chapters and scholarly commentaries that foster dialogue across generations, disciplines, and intellectual traditions. Contributors engage with key themes in semiotic cultural psychology, such as meaning making beyond language, embodiment, affective and microgenetic processes, proculturation, polyculturalism and lived experience.

Rather than presenting a unified framework, the volume advances a pluralistic approach to psychological inquiry. Through theoretical reflection, methodological critique, and empirical discussion, it questions the predominance of narrative-centered models and examines alternative pathways for understanding symbolic dynamics, identity, social transformation, and psychological adaptation in diverse cultural contexts.

By bringing anthropophagic thought into conversation with contemporary cultural psychology, Cannibalizing Cultural Psychology contributes to ongoing debates on epistemology, knowledge production, and the future directions of the field. It will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in cultural psychology, developmental psychology, qualitative research, semiotics, dialogical studies, and related areas of the human and social sciences.

Maria Virginia Dazzani is Full Professor of Psychology at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, and a CNPq research productivity fellow. Her work spans cultural psychology, educational psychology, and psychoanalytic approaches to development, with a focus on poverty, schooling, and developmental trajectories. She coordinates the CULTS research group and serves on Springer’s Cultural Psychology of Education series committee and the Human Arenas editorial board.

Giuseppina (Pina) Marsico is Associate Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Salerno, Italy, and a leading scholar in cultural psychology of education. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Springer series Cultural Psychology of Education and co-editor of several international book series and journals. Her research advances interdisciplinary approaches to borders, dialogical processes, and developmental mereotopology within cultural and global psychology.