<p>Public libraries are commonly imagined as neutral and democratic institutions that guarantee equal access to knowledge. Drawing on semiotic cultural psychology, Foucauldian power analytics, and Bourdieu’s field theory, this paper challenges that assumption by examining public libraries as human arenas in which higher psychological functions are culturally organized through everyday embodied practices. Moving beyond Eurocentric frameworks, this paper grounds its analysis in the specific historical and sociopolitical context of postcolonial Bangladesh—cross-cut by colonial institutional legacies, nationalist literacy movements, and localized class, gender, and generational scripts. Based on ethnographic observation, 36 interviews, policy and document analysis, and a survey of 210 users in three diverse urban public libraries. The findings show that reading in public libraries is not merely a cognitive activity but a practice regulated by psychological and moral norms. Repeated participation in library routines helps readers internalize norms of self-regulation, attentional control, emotional restraint, and bodily comportment, often seeing these as natural instead of imposed. These processes occur in a liminal space between openness and discipline, where inclusion is universal but practically mediated by age, gender, class, and cultural capital. While overt resistance is rare, readers display adaptive compliance and micro-resistances, showing awareness of surveillance. The article contributes to a general theory of the human psyche by showing how higher psychological functions emerge through culturally mediated participation in institutional settings. By framing public libraries as sites where psyche, power, and practice intersect, it encourages interdisciplinary dialogue on how institutions shape human experience.</p>