Social in psychoanalysis as an unconscious construction

Abstract

There is no subject “in itself.” There is no subject without society. The subject must incorporate in its definition the impact of its social inclusion. It is in function of this “other” that, “from the very beginning,” individual psychology is “simultaneously” social psychology. It is there, in this field, where it is possible to approach how the conflicts that society harbors are expressed in what seems more personal and intimate, since what is lived in one’s own body also expresses, in its own way, something that is outside, in the collective field. From this place we must also think about the unconscious.

Key words:

• psychoanalysis
• psychoanalyst
• social conflict
• transference
• countertransference

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juan Flores

Juan Flores R. is a psychologist at the Catholic University of Chile, a doctor in psychology (PH.D.) at the Universidad de Chile, and a psychoanalyst of the Chilean Society of Psychoanalysis (ICHPA). He is currently the director of the Masters in Psychoanalysis at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and a teacher at the Institute of Psychoanalysis Training of ICHPA. He is the former president of the Latin American Federation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis Associations (FLAPPSIP; 2003–2005) and was the president of ICHPA on two occasions (2004–2006 and 2008–2010). He was the president of the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies from 2012 to 2016 and was reelected for the periods 2016–2020 and 2020–2024.