Janunzi, J., Sá, A.L., Marsico, G. (2021). What can culture teach us about the concept of a subject? Ongoing debate on ethics in developmental psychology research. Human Arenas, doi: 10.1007/s42087-021-00239-6

In psychology, it is possible to find a multiplicity of ideas regarding what the subject is about. Those ideas characterize theoretical framework and orient interventions as well. The concept of subjectivity, at times, has been defined as detached from the socio-cultural aspects. Thus, childhood has been defined disregarding the necessary integration between cultural singularities and the relationships with the otherness, always mediated by language, as founding aspects of human subjectivity. Cultural–historical psychology and psychoanalysis contribute to the discussion about the subject from a systemic point of view. Epistemological reflection on what is considered a subject is an ethical and political stance in the field of psychology to avoid the risk of reducing human experiences to the individual– society dichotomy.