This article examines the sociological appropriation of psychoanalysis in the work of Anthony Giddens. It describes how Giddens uses psychoanalysis as a theoretical and strategic resource for the sociology of identity. The paper comprises an outline of the axes and problematizations of subjective identity in structuration theory. On the one hand, the three axes of cognition, competence and biography; on the other hand, the four problems of trust (how to believe in the world); knowledge (how to appropriate our belief in the world); anxiety (how to defend our sense of the world); and morals (how best to manage ourselves in the world). From this I draw three main conclusions: (1) Giddens includes trust as well as knowledge along the axis of cognition; (2) he views operations of defence as achievements of competent subjects; and (3) he understands the narrative of self-identity as a type of defence mechanism. If these conclusions are correct, then structuration theory will continue to treat affectivity as a problem of representation.
Bion, W.R. (1970) Attention and Interpretation. London: Maresfield Reprints.
2.
Craib, I. (1998) Experiencing Identity. London: Sage.
3.
Deleuze, G. (1983) Nietzsche and Philosophy, trans. H.Tomlinson. London: Athlone Press.
4.
Deleuze, G. (1991) Empiricism and Subjectivity: An Essay On Hume's Theory of Human Nature, trans. C.V. Boundas. New York: Columbia University Press.
5.
Deleuze, G. (1994) Difference and Repetition, trans. P. Patton. London: Athlone Press.
6.
Donzelot, J. (1979) The Policing of Families: Welfare versus the State, trans. R. Hurley. London: Hutchinson.
7.
Erikson, E.H. (1995) Childhood and Society. London: Vintage.
8.
Freud, S. (1905) Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, pp. 122-245 in J. Strachey (ed.) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works, Vol. 7. London: Hogarth Press.
9.
Freud, S. (1910) `Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood', pp. 57-137 in J. Strachey (ed.) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works, Vol. 11. London: Hogarth Press.
10.
Freud, S. (1913) `The Disposition to Obsessional Neurosis: A Contribution to the Problem of Choice of Neurosis', pp. 311-326 in J. Strachey (ed.) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works, Vol. 12. London: Hogarth Press.
11.
Freud, S. (1916-17) `Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (Part III)', in J. Strachey (ed.) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works, Vol. 16. London: Hogarth Press.
12.
Freud, S. (1926) `Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety', pp. 75-175 in J. Strachey (ed.) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works, Vol. 20. London: Hogarth Press.
13.
Freud, S. (1940) `An Outline of Psycho-Analysis', pp. 138-207 in J. Strachey (ed.) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works, Vol. 23. London: Hogarth Press.
14.
Freud, S. (1985) The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess (1887-1904), J. Masson (ed.). Harvard, MA: Belknap Press.
15.
Giddens, A. (1976) New Rules of Sociological Method. London: Hutchinson.
16.
Giddens, A. (1977) `Functionalism: Après la lutte', pp. 98-129 in A. Giddens, Studies in Social and Political Theory. London: Hutchinson.
17.
Giddens, A. (1979) Central Problems in Social Theory. London: Macmillan.
18.
Giddens, A. (1981) A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism, Vol. 1. London: Macmillan.
19.
Giddens, A. (1982) Profiles and Critiques in Social Theory. London: Macmillan.
20.
Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.
21.
Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
22.
Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
23.
Giddens, A. (1992) The Transformation of Intimacy. Cambridge: Polity Press.
24.
Giddens, A. (1994) `Living in a Post-Traditional Society', pp. 56-109 in U. Beck, A. Giddens and S. Lash (eds) Reflexive Modernisation: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Cambridge: Polity Press.
25.
Giddens, A. and C. Pierson (1998) Conversations with Anthony Giddens. Cambridge: Polity Press.
26.
Green, A. (1986) `Conceptions of Affect', pp. 174-213 in A. Green (ed.) On Private Madness. London: Hogarth Press.
27.
Heidegger, M. (1962) Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
28.
Heidegger, M. (1980) Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 39: Hölderlins Hymnen `Germanien' und `DerRhein', S. Ziegler (ed.). Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann.
29.
Heidegger, M. (1982) Nietzsche, Vol. IV: Nihilism, D.F. Krell (ed.). San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.
30.
Heidegger, M. (1988) Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 63: Ontologie (Hermeneutik der Faktizität), K. Bröcker (ed.). Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann.
31.
Heidegger, M. (1989) Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 65: Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis), F.-W. von Hermann (ed.). Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann.
32.
Hume, D. (1740/1972) A Treatise of Human Nature, Books II and III. London: Fontana.
33.
Husserl, E. (1970/1954) The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, trans. D. Carr. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
34.
Husserl, E. (1983/1913) Ideas pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, First Book, trans. F. Kersten. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
35.
Lacan, J. (1977) Écrits: A Selection, trans. A. Sheridan. London: Tavistock.
36.
Laing, R.D. (1965) The Divided Self. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
37.
Nietzsche, F. (1979/1908) Ecce Homo, trans. R.J. Hollingdale. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
38.
Nietzsche, F. (1996/1878) Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits, trans. R.J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
39.
Nietzsche, F. (1997/1873-6) Untimely Meditations, trans. R.J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
40.
Parsons, T. (1964/1958) `Social Structure and the Development of Personality: Freud's Contribution to the Integration of Psychology and Sociology', pp. 78-111 in T. Parsons, Social Structure and Personality. New York: Free Press.
41.
Spinoza, B. (1985/1677) Ethics, pp. 408-617 in E. Curley (ed.) The Collected Works of Spinoza, Vol. I. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
42.
Winnicott, D.W. (1985/1960) `The Theory of the Parent-Infant Relationship', pp. 37-55 in J. Sutherland (ed.) The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment: Studies in the Theory of Emotional Development. London: Hogarth Press.
43.
Winnicott, D.W. (1986) Home Is Where Start From. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
44.
Winnicott, D.W. (1987) Babies and Their Mothers. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
45.
Winnicott, D.W. (1989a/1967) `The Concept of Clinical Regression Compared with that of Defence Organisation', pp. 193-199 in C. Winnicott, R. Shepherd and M. Davis (eds) Psycho-Analytic Explorations. London: Karnac.
46.
Winnicott, D.W (1989b/1969) `The Mother-Infant Experience of Mutuality', pp. 251-260 in C. Winnicott, R. Shepherd and M. Davis (eds) Psycho-Analytic Explorations. London: Karnac.
47.
Wittgenstein, L. (1978a/1937-44) Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, trans. G.E.M. Anscombe. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
