The Dialectics of Subjectivity. Narrative Identity in Paul Ricoeur's Theory and Psychoanalytic Conceptions of Narcissism Cover Image

Dialektyka podmiotu. Tożsamość narracyjna w teorii Paula Ricoeura a psychoanalityczne koncepcje narcyzmu
The Dialectics of Subjectivity. Narrative Identity in Paul Ricoeur's Theory and Psychoanalytic Conceptions of Narcissism

Author(s): Agata Bielińska
Subject(s): Psychoanalysis
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: Ricoeur; subjectivity; narrative identity; narcissism; psychoanalysis;

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to bear out the similarity between the model of subjectivity that emerges from Paul Ricoeur’s theory of narrative identity and the one implied in some of the psychoanalytic conceptions of narcissism. Presented are Ricoeur’s views on a dialectic relation between the narrative forming an individual’s identity and lived reality. In Ricoeur’s theory stories are entangled in pre-narrative life yet at the same time they do transform it by imbuing it with a meaning. The narrative so perceived turns into a defence mechanism protecting singularity against overwhelming reality, which development draws it to the psychoanalytical notion of narcissism. Selected conceptions of narcissism (Freud, Klein, Winnicott) are reviewed to indicate that narcissism, similarly as the narrative, is based on a dialectical relation between reflection and transformation, dependence and autonomy, incoherence and coherence. Presented are also Julia Kristeva’s views attributing an inherently narrative character to narcissism.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 28
  • Page Range: 165-187
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Polish