Subject of the Unconscious

It has often been remarked that Freud hardly ever made use of the term "subject." The only exception (which is surprising, because it was never noticed) was his respected use of the term in "Instincts and Their Vicissitudes" (1915c). While describing the normal instinctual "vicissitude," where the drives turn back on the subject's body and where the mode of satisfaction is reversed from active to passive, Freud wrote of "a new subject," which he situated outside of the person proper. This subject wants to be watched (or violated) to satisfy the...