Subjectivity and Identity: Semiotics as Psychological Explanation

Semiotic theorists including Umberto Eco have recently sought to found epistemology on a cognitive interpretation of sign-usage. Other psychological models of ‘identity’ and/or ‘subjectivity’ or of individual ‘subjects’ have also been re-interpreted in general semiotic terms. It is argued that these analyses are frequently reductionist, circular, or merely re-describe the psychological phenomena in question. Many Cultural Studies texts seem to equate subjects with individual persons and so retreat to a vulgar empirical level of psychological analysis. To avoid such naṏve pseudo-theorising and pseudo-explanation, it is suggested that carefully formulated distinctions be made between different uses of the terms ‘identity’, ‘subject’, ‘subjectivity’ and the Lacanian concept of what might be called ‘subject-hood’ or ‘subject-ness-in–general’.