Soggettività in relazione. Una prospettiva psicologica.

The book examines some psychological theories about consciousness and personality in modern and contemporary psychology. It deals with historical development from the phenomenology of conscious mind in W. James’ Principles of psychology, through the rereading of the concept of self by G.H. Mead, toward the primacy of interpersonal relationships in the process of developmental learning by L.S. Vygotskij. In the last socio-constructivist perspective, relationship, particularly during infancy between the child and the caregiver, shapes personality, by means of verbal and non-verbal communication in natural and clinical settings. Personality development is addressed to intersubjectivity, interpreted as an overcoming of piagetian egocentrism toward the acquisition of a theory of mind, i.e. the attribution of intentionality and of a different inner world to other people. S. Freud psychoanalytic theory is also reviewed to demonstrate the central role of patient-therapist intercourse and to explain the difference between the concepts of narcisistic vs object relation, with the aim of understanding the “relational turn” of many post-freudian authors and the contribution of infant research. Besides, the book analyses the different meanings of usual words as mind, self, relationship and empathy in the writings of important psychologists and tries to compare the recent use of mirroring metaphor in neuroscientific research with the traditional concept of reflection.