Intersubjectivity

The term intersubjectivity had a small presence in philosophy for a century or more before becoming a focused topic in the 1950s and 1960s, taking off in psychology in the early 1970s with the discovery of early infant communicative competences. Its usage is varied and its meaning is difficult to pin down. It refers, broadly, to the psychological relation between people (subjects or organisms capable of subjective experience). This entry first tackles the variations within this broad meaning and describes changes in the scientific consensus about the origins and early manifestations of intersubjectivity in infancy. Intersubjectivity in adulthood is a less clear field of study and reveals varied and often contradictory findings about intersubjective capacities. This points to multilinearity in development influenced by variations in ...