ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 traces the ascension of the ‘soma’ and bodily determined subjectivity. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological theory, it suggests that psychoanalysis has come to acknowledge the enacted and performative aspects of interaction as intersubjectively determining subjectivity. This partly semiotic communication is cast against the aspirations – and perceived limitations – of linguistic interpretation. Consciousness and subjectivity are thus redefined to include a somatic component: unconventionally, they are not seen as limited to cognitive capacities, and are not located in the head; rather, they are seen as suffusing the whole body.
