The Issue of Identity: An Articulation Between Psychoanalysis and Decolonial Studies

Abstract

Identity is a highly relevant political and social theme in contemporary times, whether we are discussing minority movements seeking recognition and rights, or the growth of reactionary movements that are founded on identities that exclude difference and promote social behaviors hostile to marginalized subjects. In the psychoanalytic field, the issue of identity is sometimes treated as irrelevant to our discussions, using the argument that we work with identifications instead of identities and hastily ending the debate. With this article, we intend to assert the importance of the theme of identity for psychoanalysis and discuss, together with decolonial studies, ways of thinking about the issue that take into account its problematic aspects while highlighting modes of relationship with identities that are directed towards relationality and confronting the mechanisms of domination in the contemporary world. To this end, we aim to touch on the specificities of identity processes in contexts marked by the effects of the coloniality of power and to investigate how the works of Freud and Lacan can provide pathways for thinking about identity in accordance with the direction proposed by this study.