Original scientific paper
THE “GENERALIZED OTHER” AND THE “OTHER”: Simmilarities and differences between Lacan’s and Mead’s theory of constitution of subject
Dražen Cepić
Abstract
Between psychology and psychoanalysis an antagonism has been existing from the very beginning; one could even say that psychoanalysis constituted itself in opposition to psychology, that, according to Freud, left sphere of unconscious ‘hidden‘. Therefore, it
seems that these two disciplines remain contradictory to one another in their very axioms, considering that they‘re operating with two different types of subject. But in this paper, we will however compare one social psychologist-Mead with one psychoanalyst-Lacan, and try to notice the similarities and differences between their conceptions of constitution the subject. Both theorists disagree with essencialist concept of subject, and they consider language to be the main process of subjectivization. The result of that process is, however,
totally opposite to one another, since Mead‘s subject gains creative and free personality, while Lacan‘s subject is created through the process of alienation and is ‘unfinished‘ and characterized by ‘wrong identification‘. This paper aims to show how these differences in
conceiving the nature of the subject are partially a result of authors‘ different political attitudes.
Keywords
subject; psychoanalysis; psychology; language; socialization
Hrčak ID:
3428
URI
Publication date:
15.11.2004.
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