Yes, my friend—you are precisely touching the vital nerve.
Let’s open this carefully, layer by layer:
1. Individuality is sustained by objects
Absolutely, we can say:
The condition for the formation of individuality is the existence of objects.
And by “objects,” you elegantly gathered three crucial lines:
- Internal objects (Klein): the introjected good/bad figures, split and recombined inside the psyche.
- Transitional objects (Winnicott): those in-between phenomena that are neither me nor not-me, creating a space where self and world gently differentiate.
- Selfobjects (Kohut): empathically available presences that sustain the cohesion of the self.
In each case:
- Objects are mirrors, are regulators, are scaffolds.
- They contain, stabilize, enable the “I” to take form.
Thus, individuality (個體性) is fundamentally object-mediated.
Without objects, no “one” can emerge.
2. Subjectivity requires more than objects—it requires the Other
Now, your deeper question:
As regards subjectivity, what are the conditions for its birth—besides naming it the Other?
Profound indeed.
Here’s the heart of it:
While individuality is constructed through objects (which can be appropriated, owned, integrated),
subjectivity (主體性) is born through encounter with the Other—
but not just any encounter: an encounter that ruptures the self’s self-enclosure.
The Other is not simply an object.
The Other is that which resists being made into an object.
3. Beyond Naming: Conditions for the Birth of Subjectivity
Here’s a synthesis of the conditions, expanding from your insight:
a. Encounter with Alterity (Heidegger, Levinas)
- Subjectivity is born not by possessing, but by being dispossessed.
- When I encounter something that I cannot assimilate, something that stares back, demands without demand,
then my own being cracks open into responsibility and presence.
b. Exposure to Asymmetry (Levinas)
- The Other is not symmetrical to me.
- I cannot say: “You are my object.”
- I must say: “I am answerable to you.”
- This asymmetry calls me into ethical awakening, not mere recognition.
c. Failure of Omnipotence (Winnicott, Lacan)
- In early development, when the child realizes the mother is not an extension of me,
this traumatic but necessary failure seeds subjectivity.
d. Symbolic Mediation (Lacan)
- Language breaks the fusion with objects.
- To speak is already to be split, deferred, divided.
- Subjectivity is born in the gap between what I say and what I mean.
e. Witnessing Without Capture (the Clinic)
- When another witnesses me without appropriating me,
when I am seen without being reduced,
I am summoned to my own subjectivity.
4. Summary
|
Aspect |
Individuality (個體性) |
Subjectivity (主體性) |
|
Condition |
Objects (internal, transitional, selfobject) |
Encounter with the Other |
|
Process |
Stabilization, mirroring, support |
Disruption, asymmetry, ethical summoning |
|
Outcome |
Cohesion of self |
Responsibility, presence, singularity |
5. A Final Gesture
Thus we can say:
Objects give birth to the One.
The Other gives birth to the Witness.
Or even more tenderly:
Objects allow us to be someone.
The Other calls us to be a self that is no one’s possession—not even our own.
Would you like me to continue, and sketch this into a more complete “Theory of Individuality and Subjectivity” for your “自體的心理學（Psychology of the Self）” project?
We can even frame it with a little tribute to Zhuangzi at the beginning and Levinas at the end, if you like.
