What is Poststructuralism and how does it affect Psychology?

This philosophical movement focuses on subjectivity and how we construct meaning.

In some scientific and philosophical traditions it is proposed that reality is something objective and neutral that exists outside our minds and independently of our social activity; therefore, it is proposed that we can access it by a set of methods that represent it as it is (for example through scientific models).

In the face of this, there are currents of thought and of the human sciences that have made some criticisms, for example, the so-called post-structuralist current. It is a controversial and constantly debated term, which has had repercussions on the way of doing human and social sciences.

In the following we will see in a general way what poststructuralism is and how it has affected psychology..

• Related article, "How are Psychology and Philosophy similar?"

What is poststructuralism? General definition and background

Poststructuralism is a theoretical and epistemological movement (relating to how knowledge is constructed) that arises mainly within the human sciences in the French tradition and has repercussions on the way philosophy, linguistics, science, art, history, psychology (in general in the human sciences) are done in the West.

It emerged in the second half of the 20th century, and the term "post" does not indicate the passage from one epoch to another but the emergence of new ways of doing human sciences. In other words, poststructuralism is a strong critique of the structuralist currentbut without completely departing from it.

It is also a term that generates much debate since the boundaries between structuralism and poststructuralism are not clear (just as they are not clear between modernity-postmodernity, colonialism-postcolonialism, etc.) and generally intellectuals who have been labeled as poststructuralists refuse to be inscribed in this current.

At the theoretical level it originates mainly from linguistics with influences from psychoanalysis with structuralist rootsThe theoretical level originates mainly from linguistics with influences from psychoanalysis with structuralist roots, as well as from feminist movements that question how women had been represented both in literature and in general culture.

Broadly speaking, the rupture that poststructuralism establishes with structuralism has to do with sense and meaning, that is, with the position that the subject acquires before language.

Two key concepts: meaning and subjectivity

Poststructuralism applied to the human sciences pays attention to meanings and the way in which a subject produces itself, especially through language (a language that is understood not to represent reality as it is, but at the same time to construct it). For this reason, two of the concepts that appear most frequently in the poststructuralist current are that of subjectivity and that of meaningalthough many more could be mentioned.

There are occasions in which poststructuralism is described as a way of bringing to light the hidden meaning of texts. However, it is not so much a matter of uncovering hidden meaning, but of studying this meaning as a product of representational systems. as a product of systems of representation (of the modes and processes we use to order and describe reality).

That is to say, it is a movement that questions the logic of representation on which the human sciences were founded; because the latter is a logic from which the idea has been constructed that there is a reality that is neutral, as well as a series of possibilities of knowing it "objectively".

Through its understanding of meaning, poststructuralism positions itself as a challenge for the positioned itself as a challenge to the realism that had marked the way which had marked the way of doing human sciences, relativizes the traditional way of knowing the world, and tries to avoid essentialism (the idea that a thing, for example a human being, is what it is because of the existence of a true essence that can be apprehended).

Specifically in linguistics (although this has repercussions in the way of doing science) poststructuralism is also defined as a critical practice that seeks plurality; arguing that the meaning or sense of a text is not given only by the author, but is also constructed through subjectivity, during reading, by the reader.

This is also the origin of the concept of intertextualitywhich indicates that a text of any kind is a heterogeneous product, a result of many ideas and many meanings, which in turn implies a logic of subversion that makes it difficult to define with traditional logic and languages.

Has it been relevant to psychology?

Psychology is a scientific discipline that has been nourished by many other disciplines, which is why it is not a homogeneous science but has generated many currents and many different practices. As a discipline that seeks to understand the processes that constitute us as human beings, in a biological, psychic and social framework, psychology has been constructed by different philosophical and scientific currents over time.

The post-structuralist approach transformed a part of psychology because it opened the door to create new it opened the door to the creation of new research methodsIt opened the door to the creation of new research methods, other options for understanding reality, and with this, new theories and models of identification, some of them even with political repercussions. It allowed us to pay attention, for example, to the relationship between identity and otherness, and to redefine concepts such as identity, subjectivity, subject, culture, among others.

To give a more concrete example, scientific practice became more heterogeneous when feminist theories that relate to poststructuralism proposed that social and individual reality (and science itself), are processes that have been constructed from apparently neutral experiences, but which are in reality male experiences and blind positions to other experiences, such as those of women.

Although poststructuralism escapes a single definition and its elements are constantly debated and its elements are constantly debated, in sum we could say that it is a theoretical tool that has served to understand some processes, especially in the field of human and social sciences, which has allowed the creation of political alternatives during its study.