ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author provides Sigmund Freud’s notion of the ego in the light of other theories of subjectivity within the field of continental philosophy, namely those of Foucault and Merleau-Ponty. She discusses in more detail the crucial importance of a view of subjectivity as shifting and socially and culturally specific to psychoanalystic clinical practice. The author describes the Cartesian heritage that structured much of Freud’s thinking. She demonstrates how Freud’s claims of “objectivity” arise from the influence of Enlightenment philosophers and their view that “science” can offer us certain knowledge about the world. The author argues that his association of the ego with “reason” and “science” does not sufficiently allow for the impact of the social context on the constitution of subjectivity. In contrast to Freud’s account of the ego, Merleau-Ponty theorises subjectivity as culturally and historically specific. Freud’s theorising of the ego reflects the Enlightenment’s view of subjectivity.
