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The Writing Subject

A Reconceptualization of the Psychological Self

Duquesne University, esgalhado{at}duq.edu

This paper examines the use of the `individual' in mainstream psychology and suggests an alternative in French poststructuralist Julia Kristeva's conceptualization of the writing subject. This conceptualization includes both conscious and unconscious functions as produced through the language of the text and social, historical and ideological circumstances. As a result of the dynamic workings of the unconscious, the writing subject emerges as a way of understanding subjectivity as a process that is never fixed, always motile and continuously in the throes of productivity. Since this conceptualization is less static, less unified and less fixed than the notion of the individual promoted by mainstream psychology, it offers a more comprehensive view of the processes by which the subject and subjectivity are formulated.

Key Words: Kristeva • semiotic • subjectivity • unconscious • writing

Theory & Psychology, Vol. 12, No. 6, 777-794 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/0959354302126003


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