I-Other Dialectic

I-Other dialectic is when an individual or group constructs self through or from another individual or group, known as the Other. This dialectic takes place at both individual and collective levels.

The concept of I-Other was initially grounded in the psychoanalytic work of Sigmund Freud, who theorized that all human beings are unconsciously connected to the Other. But for Freud, the Other meant one's mother, and much of his work on the I-Other dialectic was grounded in the unconscious and how it manifested in one's sexuality. Central to Freud's claim was the construction of the Other—and ultimately oneself through that Other—by a set of symbols and signifiers. Yet Freud's work seemed to disqualify the idea of agency, and more importantly, held the construction of Self according to a universally applied set of rules.

French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan expounded upon Freud's thesis and helped to define the I-Other as a true dialectic grounded in the subject's active construction. Lacan believed that subjects constructed their identities in relation to the Other, arguing that the signifiers that one sees in the Other are used as a mirror by which he or she develops. But Lacan's theory of the Other was not limited to a maternal relationship; this allowed for psychologists to develop the I-Other dialectic into a conscious and tangible dynamic.

Lacan's work had a powerful impact on anticolonial thinker Frantz Fanon, who used the I-Other dialectic as a framework for explaining how colonized natives internalized their oppression and constructed their identities accordingly. For Fanon, the I-Other dialectic inverts the sense of self for colonized people, forcing them to see themselves as the Other. Fanon believed that the institutions developed by the colonizers only reified the natives’ sense of inferiority. In his works on the I-Other dialectic, Fanon is often torn by a sense of hopelessness and budding optimism, yet he believes that the I-Other dialectic is shaped by the conscious actions of the subject.

Identity scholars have built upon and diverged from the works of Lacan and Fanon, but in most cases, they have emphasized a poststructuralist approach that captures “I” as subject. Cultural studies pioneer Stuart Hall, following Lacan's and Fanon's approaches argues that identities are constructed through difference. Entire communities, Hall argues, construct their identities in relation to the Other. For subcultural groups, the Other is often representative of a group in power, and the I-Other dialectic serves as a counterhegemonic tool by which oppressed actors can construct distinct identities.

However, not all scholars reach such optimistic conclusions. French philosopher Michel Foucault, for example, argues individual and group identities are developed through discourses that are often regulated through institutions.

Foucault shows how the I-Other dialectic developed into self-regulations and society's definitions of sexual deviance. The discursive element of the I-Other dialectic is evident in feminist, queer, and postcolonial scholarship. For instance, Foucault and prominent queer theorists such as Judith Butler argue that homosexuality has been made [Page 410]deviant by the constructions of self dictated by right (hetero)sexual behavior. Foucault's theory on identity and the concept of Othering is popular in feminist and queer theory because it is predicated upon the notion that the subject does not have as much agency in constructing his or her identities as in the Lacanian approach.

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