The external brain:: Eco-cultural roots of distancing and mediation

First, this article attempts to approach the problem of distancing from the psychocultural perspective, relating it with the basic mechanism of mediation that was proposed by Vygotsky. Secondly, it is a reflection on the combined process of approaching and distancing in human biological and mental processes, and the limitations of contemplating the development as a process that is assumed to proceed only in the direction of ever greater cognitive distancing. Finally, it is proposed that instead of conceiving contact and distance as divergent developmental paths, models should articulate both processes of approaching and distancing, as well as of social mediation and instrumental mediation. I suggest the ecological and situated nature of psychological operators of distancing as a process in an extra-cortical mise-en-scene.