Border-making is an inevitable experience in human life. Borders can be viewed as part of an external sociocultural structure that guides the dynamics of dialogues between persons and institutions. However, in addition to the interpersonal and societal level of analysis, borders can be conceptualized as an intra-psychological process of identity formation that is involved in meaning making and in organizing experiences with the world. Within the framework of cultural psychology, this article will provide an account of the process of bordering, using the example of Estonian identity that is approached as an affective process of semiotic construction of borders between us and the “other” (i.e., “non-us”). Using the dialogical self theory, it will examine how different I-positions (e.g., I-as-Estonian) related to collective and personal past experiences are involved in the construction of borders. The tendency to incline toward re-creation of the established structure of borders with the potential to renegotiate them is also revealed in this study.

建立边界是人类生活中不可避免的经历。边界可被视为指导个人与机构之间对话动态的外部社会文化结构的一部分。但是，除了人际和社会层面的分析之外，边界可以被概念化为一种身份形成的内部心理过程，它涉及意义的产生和与世界的经验的组织。在文化心理学的框架内，本文将以爱沙尼亚身份为例，对边界化过程进行说明，该方法被视为对我们与“其他”（即“非人类”）之间的边界进行符号化建构的情感过程。我们”）。使用对话式自我理论，它将研究I位置如何不同（例如，与集体和个人过去的经验有关的爱沙尼亚语（I-as-Estonian）参与了边界的建设。这项研究还显示出倾向于重新建立既定边界结构并有可能重新谈判边界的趋势。