Cultural-Historical Psychology as a Theory of Subjectivity in the Works of F. González Rey

Abstract

Theory of subjectivity developed by Brazilian psychologist F. González Rey is considered as a result of rethinking some of Vygotsky’s ideas in the context of modern critical psychology based on the works of M. Foucault, L. Althusser, feminist and postcolonial theories etc. In critical psychology subjectivity is conceptualized as produced by the forces of social regulation, so it appears oversocialized and reduced to discursive constructions. It is argued that the theory of subjectivity in the framework of cultural-historical psychology developed by F. González Rey makes it possible to overcome social reductionism of critical approaches without falling into the pre-critical concept of subject. On the base of Vygotsky’s ideas about the unity of affect and intellect, sense and perezhivanie as psychic units, González Rey developed a new ontology of psychological science that allows to overcome the dominant representation of ‘psyche as a container’ of cognitive processes, emotions, personal traits etc. and to rethink the relationship between individual and social. In the light of theory of subjectivity, the importance of qualitative methodology for cultural-historical psychology is discussed.