^aNapier University, Edinburgh, UK

Correspondence: Calum Neill, School of Health and Social Sciences, Napier University, Craighouse Campus, Craighouse Road, Edinburgh EH10 5LG, UK. E-mail: c.neill@napier.ac.uk

Abstract

This paper explores a Lacanian approach towards inter-subjectivity and a consideration of how such an approach might impact constructively on social psychology. Drawing largely on the work of Bracha Ettinger, the paper will consider questions of alterity and the possibility of an alternative approach to thinking relations with others and will seek to elaborate a new vocabulary for such a thinking through Ettinger's use of such border concepts as trans-subjectivity and wit(h)nessing. Through the foregoing, the paper will seek to critically reconsider the place of the social in social psychology and the possibility of thinking the social in a manner not reducible to separateness and self-identity.