“A flaw in the great diamond of the world”: Reflections on subjectivity and the enterprise of psychology (A diptych).

Abstract

In this article, I consider the problematic nature of human subjectivity, which the philosopher Merleau-Ponty (borrowing from poet Paul Valéry) referred to as the "flaw in the great diamond of the world." We are "self-interpreting animals" who largely create ourselves through our own modes of self-understanding, yet our own subjectivity remains enigmatic even to ourselves. I consider, in light of these facts, the status of several dominant ways of conceptualizing human existence in psychology and the psy professions: cognitivebehavioral theory, psychoanalysis, and especially existential-phenomenology. Before doing so, however, I first offer an historical sketch of the focus on subjectivity that began in the European Renaissance, notably through such figures as Shakespeare and Rembrandt. It is important to explore this advent of modern subjectivity, if only to remind us of what can be at risk in the course of cultural change. As psychologists, we are often preoccupied with practical or empirical issues. A key question to ask, however, is whether our field-which plays a formative role in contemporary culture-does sufficient justice to the forms of subjectivity and selfhood that came into focus or even into being during that crucial era of Western history.

Intersecting perspectives: Hermeneutic phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and historical ontology.

“…It is a pleasure and an honor to be in dialogue with them. As each of them notes, we are in fundamental agreement as to the main thesis of my essay, "'A Flaw in the Great Diamond of the World': Reflections on Subjectivity and the Enterprise of Psychology (a Diptych)" (Sass, 2022). My essay calls attention to psychology's need to offer a deeper appreciation of the fact and the nature of human subjectivity as well as to its historical variability, and laments academic psychology's overall failure to take up this challenge.…”

When did we become modern? Commentary on Louis Sass’s (2022) “A flaw in the great diamond of the world”.

“…The good news is, it still seems possible to reject such conceptualizations and to fashion images of psychological being that are more in keeping both with who we are, when one looks beneath the surface of things, and who we ought to be. Isn't this what Sass (2022) has done in this outstanding essay? And doesn't it in turn suggest that, even amid all of the refashionings and remakings of subjectivity that have come our way, there is something that persists-namely, a recognition of and appreciation for the deep corridors of being, as they may be found in the likes of Shakespeare, Rembrandt, and all other "humanistic psychologists" who celebrate the enigma of subjectivity and do what they can to honor it, in whatever way their particular time and place allows?…”

“…A few pages into the essay, Sass (2022) discusses "the birth of modern subjectivity-a distinctly self-conscious kind-in modern Western culture," noting that "this is a development, involving both discovery and invention, that, for many scholars, begins with the European Renaissance and emerges especially in the literary and artistic works of that period and its aftermath" (p. 5). This claim is a somewhat familiar one, and surely has some validity.…”

“…As Sass (2022) acknowledges in his section on Shakespeare, "There were of course characters before Shakespeare," but "little sense of true character development, nor . .…”

“…The section on Renaissance portraiture and perspective is interesting and compelling. At the same time, I wonder how Sass (2022) is relating the history of style (in painting) to the history of subjectivity. I am thinking especially in this context of works like E. H. Gombrich's Art and Illusion (Gombrich, 1961), which may well see at least some of the changes in portraiture and perspective as having less to do with new forms and conceptions of subjectivity than with the history of changing artistic conventions.…”