Theory of Abbreviation

The concept of Abbreviation, proposed by the researcher and professor Maria C.D.P Lyra in the late 1980s, was extensively explored in the two subsequent decades, emerging as an important theory that underpins the early stages of mother-infant communication. As a theory, it takes into consideration significant aspects of human development, including processes of meaning-making, language constitution, and dialogism. Abbreviation Theory thus becomes the central contribution in the field of Cognitive Psychology by Maria C.D.P Lyra, serving as a focal point in her studies on the mother-infant communication process and being further explored by several of her students in the 1990s and 2000s at the LABCCOM (Laboratory for Development Studies in Culture: Communication and Social Practices).

This book aims to explore the work of Professor Maria C.D.P Lyra as an internationally recognized Brazilian researcher, her life story, passion for knowledge construction, constituting a powerful representation of the science conducted in South America by women in their relatively unknown but intellectually robust laboratory work. The book also focuses on Abbreviation as the genesis of communication, intersubjectivity, and the self at various stages of Professor Maria Lyra's reflection, as well as the intersections of this theory with other fields in psychology beyond development.