| Chapter : | Introduction |
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Subjectivity as Paradox
We none of us know quite what we mean when we say ‘I.’
—Catherine Belsey, Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction 67–68
I am not where I think and I think where I am not.
—Jacques Lacan, Écrits 33
It all began with René Descartes. The fundamental issue of subjectivity and the way in which it has been formulated over many centuries, was constituted by the Cartesian cogito ergo sum , which established rationality as the basis of existence, on which the idea of ‘common sense’ has been based. Descartes, however, was not the only one to busy himself with explorations on human subjectivity. As Roy Porter argues, the concept has been contingent to change, to a greater or lesser degree, over the centuries:
It is indeed the answers that provide the key to understanding how subjects have viewed themselves throughout history. The narrative of these answers, then, may provide insight into the transformation that the notion of identity has undergone for the human subject, a topic which has not only occupied pages and pages of volumes of philosophy, poetry and psychiatry in the past, but which continues to exert a peculiar fascination to this day.