FROM PATRIA TO PHRATRY: PERSPECTIVES ON SUBJECTIVE CONSTITUTION AND THE SOCIAL BOND

Abstract

This article is a theoretical study that problematizes, based on Freud’s work and its interpreters, the notions of paternal and fraternal functions in the constitution of subjectivity and the configuration of the social bond, articulating them with the philosophical concepts of heteronomy and autonomy, which have historically guided education, particularly since Kant. Both theoretical perspectives share the same foundation, namely: it is through the bond with the already humanized fellow human being that the individual of the species finds the possibilities for humanization and singularization, as well as the possibility of collectively resignifying the inherited world. This process takes place first through the introduction of the newcomer into the world of culture by means of a symbolic prohibition (paternal function/heteronomy) and through the intersubjective bond for coexistence in a shared world (fraternal function/autonomy). It is concluded that the meaning of the paternal and fraternal functions for education, which belong specifically to the psychoanalytic domain, points to the fundamental idea that educating implies assuming them based on their structuring effect, but, above all, sustaining them. Regarding the paternal function, this implies acknowledging the necessary heteronomous and asymmetrical relationship between the old and the new, adults and children, parents and children, which requires the subject’s subjection to the symbolic world of culture, not as destiny, but as a condition. Regarding the fraternal function, educating means creating the conditions for each newcomer to establish bonds with their fellow human beings and, together, to receive and articulate the transmitted legacy, constituting a world.