The notion of the border is an interesting advancement in research on the processes of meaning making within the cultural psychology. The development of this notion in semiotic key allows to handle with adequate complexity construction, transformation, stability and the breakup of the relationship between person/world/otherness. These semiotic implications have already been widely discussed and exposed by authors such Valsiner (2007, 2014), Neuman (2003, 2008), Simão (Culture & Psychology, 9, 449-459, 2003, Theory & Psychology, 15, 549-574, 2005, 2015), with respect to issues of identity/relatedness, inside/outside, stability/change in the irreversible flow of the time. In this work, after showing some of the basics of such semiotic notion of border, we discuss the processes of construction and transformation of borders through the modal articulation, defined as the contextual positioning that the person assumes with respect to the establishment of a boundary in terms of necessity, obligation, willingness, possibility, permission, ability. This modal subjective positioning acquires considerable interest from the clinical point of view since its degree of plasticity vs that of rigidity is the basis of processes of development or stiffening of relations between person/world/otherness.
Keywords: Border; Boundary; Clinical psychology; Cultural psychology; Meaning making process; Modal articulation; Modal operator; Modalities; Modality; Semiotics; Sensemaking process.