Voluntary Submission as a Dark Side of Adaptive Preference. The Contribution of Relational Psychoanalysis to Political Philosophy
by Barbara Henry
pp. 98-117 Issue 9 (5,1) – January-June 2018 ISSN (online): 2539/2239 ISSN (print): 2389-8232 DOI: 10.17450/180106
Abstract
The proposed objective is to analyze some intersubjective dynamics and consequences of the irreflexive and disabling mimetic preference: the dark side of adaptive preference. To achieve this, a dialogue is proposed among political philosophy, some gender studies streams and relational psychoanalysis through some concepts, such as Self-ownership, intersubjectivity, asymmetry, and recognition. Therefore, the seduction of submission indicates a type of intersection between emergent intersubjective phenomena and deep intrapsychic/intersubjective phenomena. Here we assume that this form of voluntary obedience grounds, as a form of deformed interaction, and not as a single matrix, the persistent and persuasive predisposition within the intersubjective mechanisms of mimetic reflection, according to which the victims are stimulated “by themselves” to acquire inadequate forms for them, with the purpose of being accredited and recognized by those who hold the symbolic and material power.