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In this volume, Wolff-Michael Roth provides a critical but partial reading of Tony Brown's book Mathematics Education and Subjectivity. The reading contrasts Brown's approach with Roth's own conception of subjectivity as derived from the work of Vygotsky, in which Roth aims to 'reunite' psychology and sociology. Brown's book, however, focuses on how discourses in mathematics education shape subjective action within a Lacanian model that circumnavigates both 'psychology' and 'sociology'. From that platform, this paper responds to Roth through problematising the idea of the individual as a subjective entity in relation to the two perspectives, with some consideration of corporeality and of how the Symbolic encounters the Real. The paper argues for a Lacanian conception of subjectivity for mathematics education comprising a response to a social demand borne of an ever-changing symbolic order that defines our constitution and our space for action. The paper concludes by considering an attitude to the production of research objects in mathematics education research that resists the normalisation of assumptions as to how humans encounter mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper articulates Sigmund Freud's conceptualization of the social world by surveying and critically examining four of his major sociological works: Civilized' Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness (Freud, 1908/1991b), Totem and Taboo (Freud, 1913/1946), The Future of An Illusion (Freud, 1927/1991d), and Civilization and Its Discontents (Freud, 1930/1991a). The paper also embeds the development of Freud's social theory within its historical context by discussing the impact of various evolutionary, philosophical, and life event influences. It is argued that Freud's social theory is merely a projection of his psychological theory of mind, which is predicated on the biogenetic principle (i.e., ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny). In tracing the development of Freud's social theory over time, an isomorphism is revealed whereby the changes in Freud's psychological thought reflect the changes in his social thought. In this way, Freud's sociology can be said to recapitulate his psychology despite Freud's insistence otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]