“Cultural Conserve” or mindless repetition strips our actions of meaning and renders them ineffective
At this significant moment of professional transition, it feels like a natural movement to look back at my initial reflections, those ideas that first sparked my interest in human development and the processes of social and behavioral change.
One of the reference points that continues to guide me is the premise upon which I developed one of my Master’s thesis in 2010: Development, both personal and social, is a narrative, a subjective experience inhabited by imageries. It cannot be understood solely as an external indicator or a target to be reached, but as a process of human significance.
“Development is an image, a social representation built within the intersubjectivity of the actors” (Méndez, 2010).
Myths and Stories That Influence Our Practices
As a psychoanalyst candidate and consultant, I am deeply interested in the intersection where the psyche, culture, and social norms meet. These dimensions articulate the myths and stories that constitute who we are.
In my work with individuals and groups, I observe that “development” contains both universal and particular imageries. The social myth is intertwined with the familial and personal myth. Embodying our experiences and exploring the imageries that constitute us allows for an evolution of consciousness and identity. It is from this place that an individual or a community can truly transform their environments and modify their practices with authenticity.
From the Script to the Creative Act
As if it were a theatrical play, every social group and every individual operates under pre-established “scripts”—scenes we repeat without full awareness, often playing characters or roles that no longer fit us.
If we do not examine these “scripts,” if we do not work through these stories, we will tend to tirelessly repeat the same behaviors. Intervening in our reality to transform it requires sufficient awareness to step out of the identified script and enter into a creative dialogue with the images that constitute it. Without this element, any attempt at change risks becoming an empty shell.
Empty Action and the “Cultural Conserve”
There is a concept from Psychodrama that helps explain this aspect of “empty action”: the Cultural Conserve. It is defined as that which we perform through repetition, automatically and without a real connection.
The Cultural Conserve is a rigidification of action that has lost spontaneity and contact. It is performed without committing or changing anything. This risk is present in both institutional leadership and private life: we work with data or logical plans that produce an impeccable narrative but, by becoming “rigid,” lose their humanity. By not embodying the change, it becomes something external and without effect. It does not challenge us and, therefore, it does not transform us.
Action-Based Innovation
My current proposal requires a revitalization of the creative act and imagination as a way of approaching reality. It is about recovering authenticity and spontaneity through what I call Action-Based Innovation.
This approach presents concrete needs for those seeking real change:
- Inhabiting the Laboratory: Creating spaces where change is experienced before it is implemented.
- Agents in Transformation: The capacity to be transformed by the very process of leadership or intervention.
- Symbolic Exploration: Enabling a deep look at the images and narratives that constitute our current challenges.
Today, my commitment is to renew this model. Not as a theory, but as a situated practice. A bridge between the rigor of processes and the depth of the human psyche.
I invite you to leave behind the “cultural conserve” of prefabricated solutions. I invite you to inhabit the rehearsal, to dialogue with your own scripts, and to recover the spontaneity necessary to transform your reality. Change is a creative act that begins when you finally decide to step onto the stage.
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