‘Only mothers can be true revolutionaries’: The Politicization of Motherhood in 1980s West German Psychoanalysis

Analyzing conceptualizations of motherhood in 1980s West German psychoanalytic debates, this article argues that, in the wake of what can be termed as a ‘turn to motherhood,’ German psychoanalysis saw an unprecedented politicization of motherhood that followed from a conjunction of three distinct historical contexts: the integration of feminist theories of subjectivity into the psychoanalytic canon; the belated reception of the British object relations school; and the renewed attempt at grappling with the Nazi past. On the one hand, West German (female) psychoanalysts posited motherhood as a utopian space that allowed for uncorrupted forms of intersubjectivity in the form of an intimate and sexualized mother–child/mother–daughter relationship. On the other hand, and mirroring this ideal, motherhood, if not practiced correctly, could, according to psychoanalytically inspired thinkers in the late 1980s, also be a source of fascism.

The geopolitics of presence and absence at the ruins of Fort Henry

In recent years, scholars have examined the non- or more-than-human world from a variety of unique positions. This article draws on contemporary archaeology and assemblage theories in geography to put forward an understanding of everyday geopolitics that includes the presence of objects in the formation of state subjectivity. Our approach, however, reveals not only this disciplining force of objects but also the ontological absences that are also at the heart of post-structuralist theories of subjectivity. As such, the formation of object-oriented geopolitical subjectivity is also always haunted by these other affective forces that are part of being in the world. These theoretical considerations are substantiated in our study of the material culture of a military outpost in the highlands of northern Chile where the objects left behind by soldiers offer insight into the complexities of state subjectification and state–society relations in border regions.

‘I think’ (the thoughts of others). The German tradition of apperceptionism and the intellectual history of schizophrenia

Although contemporary approaches to schizophrenia pinpoint ‘disturbances of the self’ as a central aetiological factor, historical insight into the link between accounts of schizophrenia and theories of subjectivity and self-consciousness is poor. This paper aims to overcome this gap by providing the outlines of a largely forgotten but crucial part of the intellectual history of schizophrenia. In particular, the impact of the German tradition of apperceptionism on nineteenth-century accounts of schizophrenia is unearthed. This tradition emerged from German Idealism, and culminated in Emil Kraepelin’s account of dementia praecox. In addition to filling an important gap in the historiography of psychiatry, this analysis contributes to ongoing efforts to correct some common misunderstandings regarding Kraepelin’s theoretical position.

What to Do with Nostalgia in Medieval and Medievalism Studies?

This essay considers the place of nostalgia in scholarly research and writing in the light of psychoanalytic theories of subjectivity and desire. The term ‘nostalgia’, coined in the seventeenth century to define a medical condition, is, despite attempts at rehabilitation, generally employed to describe a weak sentimentality incompatible with genuine research. Two writers, Walter Benjamin (a leader of the Frankfurt school of criticism) and Carolyn Dinshaw (a medievalist and queer theorist), have opened up a different path for nostalgia in the light of different temporalities. Both invoke a ‘time of the now’, in Benjamin’s words, to allow a ‘touching across time’, in Dinshaw’s. In the light of their experience of time, nostalgia can shake off its usual association with sentimentality or melancholia. Challenged by their example the essay ends with an investigation of my own research and the part nostalgia, sometimes unconscious, has played in it.

Religion: Introduction

This introduction provides an overview of the chapters in this section, which explores some of the important contributions of psychoanalysis to our understanding of religion, with particular emphasis on Sigmund Freud’s views. In The Future of an Illusion (1927), Freud argues that religion—or more specifically, beliefs in the Judaeo-Christian tradition and its prehistory—is an ‘illusion’, an idea that is not necessarily false, but one that is produced by the wish for it to be true. Each of the chapters agrees with the notion that there is a close connection between religious belief and desire, and addresses Freud’s account of the origin of religion in structures of subjectivity. Topics include Jacques Lacan’s theory of religion, the implications of psychoanalytic theories of subjectivity for philosophy of religion, the epistemology of religious belief in relation to the epistemology of psychoanalysis itself, and Freud’s supposed view that religion expresses a ‘historical truth’.

Placental beginnings: Reconfiguring placental development and pregnancy loss in feminist theory

The placenta has played an important role in feminist theories of subjectivity; however, the placenta of feminist theory has been the fully functional placenta of what is considered a successful full-term pregnancy. Pregnancy loss, a topic that has been generally overlooked within feminist scholarship, is absent from feminist theories of the placenta. This article uses early placental development, particularly development that takes place before the placenta becomes fully functional as an organ for hormone production and interchange, as a space through which to consider theorising subjectivity, reproduction and relation through pregnancy loss. In so doing, I argue that turning our attention to the placenta’s early development, regardless of outcomes, allows us to reimagine the role of process for feminist theories of subjectivity while also making room for a wider array of pregnancy outcomes, reinvigorating our ability to think about relations and models of hospitality that do not end as we might imagine.

A CONSTITUIÇÃO HISTÓRICA DA SUBJETIVIDADE NAS REVISÕES DA TEORIA HEGELIANA

Resumo: Não apenas pela natureza sistemática do projeto hegeliano como pela importância que a teoria da subjetividade inconfundivelmente assume para ele, a filosofia da história, como outros elementos, não pode ser satisfatoriamente compreendida sem uma análise conjunta do caráter histórico da subjetividade. Uma vez que subjetividade e intersubjetividade se sustentam e justificam mutuamente, toda teoria da história é sempre e necessariamente também uma teoria sobre as biografias, individuais, e as formas da cultura, das coletividades. Ao passo que estes finitos não produzem o todo, o todo tem de poder ser neles encontrado, de maneira que os princípios gerais, como o da história, estão sempre implícitos nos sujeitos e suas comunidades específicas. Somente assim entende-se que a filosofia da história é capaz de resistir às muitas críticas de anulação da individualidade e da incerteza quanto ao destino, oriunda do livre-arbítrio humano. Apresentaremos, portanto, alguns dos intérpretes contemporâneos do hegelianismo buscando enfatizar suas teorias da subjetividade como imprescindíveis para esboços de filosofia da história que preencham os critérios mais atuais.Abstract: Due to the systematic nature of the Hegelian Project and the unmistakably important role the theory of subjectivity plays in this project, the philosophy of history, as well as many other aspects of the system, cannot satisfactorily be understood without a joint analysis of the historical character of subjectivity. Since subjectivity and intersubjectivity are mutually supportive and justify each other, any theory of history is consequently and necessarily also a theory on biographies (individuality) and on the forms of culture (collectivity). Whereas these finites cannot produce the whole, totality has to be found in them so that the general principles, such as that of history, are always implicit in individuals and their specific communities. Only then can the philosophy of history resist against the numerous allegations of annihilation of individual freedom and the uncertainty of destiny, which derives from human free will. This article will therefore present some contemporary interpreters of Hegel whose theories of subjectivity are indispensable for the essays on the philosophy of history that comply with the most recent criteria.

“I longed to cherish mirrored reflections”: Mirroring and Black Female Subjectivity in Carrie Mae Weems's Art against Shame

Through staged photographs in which she herself is often the lead actor or through appropriation of historical photographs, contemporary African American artist Carrie Mae Weems deconstructs the shaming of the black female body in American visual culture and offers counter‐hegemonic images of black female beauty. The mirror has been foundational in Western theories of subjectivity and discussions of beauty. In the artworks I analyze in this article, Weems tactically employs the mirror to engage the topos of shame in order to reject it as a way of seeing the self and to offer a new way of lovingly seeing the self. I use the work of Kelly Oliver, Helen Block Lewis, and bell hooks to articulate the relationships among the mirror, shame, and black female subjectivity in Weems's work. Weems's subjects often reckon with what Oliver calls “social melancholy” as they experience shame while standing before the mirror. However, Weems also shows that by looking again—a critical strategy I explain using Oliver's model of “the loving eye”—her subjects can use the mirror as a corrective to the social shaming gaze and make it a stage for establishing black female subjectivity, a gaze of self‐love, and beauty.

From Psychological Science to the Psychological Humanities: Building a General Theory of Subjectivity

The development of psychology as a science and the struggle for scientific recognition has disrupted the need to interrogate the discipline and the profession from the perspective of the humanities, the arts, and the concept-driven social sciences. This article suggests that some of the humanities contribute significantly to an understanding of human subjectivity, arguably a core topic within psychology. The article outlines the relevance of the psychological humanities by reclaiming subjectivity as a core topic for general psychology that is grounded in theoretical reconstruction, integration, and advancement. The argument relies on a variety of disciplines to achieve a deeper understanding of subjectivity: Philosophy provides conceptual clarifications and guidelines for integrating research on subjectivity; history reconstructs the movement of subjectivity and its subdivisions; political and social theories debate the process of subjectification; indigenous, cultural, and postcolonial studies show that Western theories of subjectivity cannot be applied habitually to contexts outside of the center; the arts corroborate the idea that subjective imagination is core to the aesthetic project; and science and technology studies point to recent developments in genetic science and information technology, advances that necessitate the consideration of significant changes in subjectivity. The implications of the psychological humanities as an important, justifiable tradition in psychology and for a general theory of subjectivity are discussed.