Psychoanalysis and subjective responsibility:

reflections about a problematic relation between clinic, neoliberalism and social vulnerability

Abstract

Although widespread in current psychoanalytic clinics, subjective responsibility can and should be put in check by positioning the subject as solely responsible for itself and its unconscious contents, tending to disregard social structures and issues within the analytic setting. Thus, transiting through reflections on the terms "responsibility" and "subject", the present article proposes, through a narrative review, to rethink the notion of subject’s responsibility in analysis and reflect on clinical practices from subjects in social vulnerability. In the end, the relevance of a psychoanalysis more politically and socially implicated with its theory and practice is highlighted, given the dimension of its performance.