González Rey's Theory of Subjectivity as a critical-propositive approach: paths, innovations and challenges
Daniel Magalhães Goulart (University of Brasilia)

This presentation is based on the idea that critique does not belong to specific theoretical frameworks but represents an ethical stance that supports the ability to subvert naturalized truths. From this perspective, I aim to present González Rey's Theory of Subjectivity as a critical approach on the dominant ways of understanding human processes based on the proposition of a new ontology. Two dimensions of criticism are emphasized. First, a critique of references that unfolded from the linguistic turn and the discursive turn in philosophy and in the human and social sciences is presented. Secondly, the Theory of Subjectivity is presented as a critical-propositive approach, as, together with the various critiques of the limitations of the human and social sciences, it stands as a new theoretical framework aimed at generating intelligibility about a new ontology of human processes: subjectivity as a symbolic-emotional system. This definition of subjectivity encompasses the idea that social and individual instances can be integrated as dimensions that share a subjective character, in a contradictory way, without one being reduced to the other. Through its constitutive concepts, the Theory of Subjectivity makes room for the explanation of singular individual and social productions inseparably from broader social dynamics. In this sense, a new comprehensive path is opened up, both in relation to social normalization processes, as well as emerging processes, which express rupture and alternatives to them. I argue that this framework allows the generation of new paths of intelligibility on different topics of current relevance, such as gender issues, violence, racism and mental health.

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Daniel Magalhães Goulart,
Daniel Magalhães Goulart is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Theory and Foundations of the Faculty of Education of the University of Brasilia. He is also a Collaborating Professor at the Master’s in Psychology of the University Center of Brasilia. He graduated as a psychologist from the University of São Paulo and completed his Ph.D. at the Faculty of Education of the University of Brasilia, Brazil. He is the current coordinator of the Reading and Research Group “Subjectivity: Theory, Epistemology and Methodology”. His latest books are: (1) Theory of Subjectivity from a Cultural-Historical Standpoint: González Rey’s Legacy (Ed., Springer, 2021), (2) Subjectivity within a cultural-historical approach: theory, methodology and research (Ed., Springer, 2019), and (3) Subjectivity and critical mental health: lessons from Brazil (Routledge, 2019)