Living in Difference: A Commentary on Annie Stopford's “Leaving ‘Home’”

This commentary opens in strong agreement with Annie Stopford's project, to contemplate the prospect of a non-normative psychoanalysis. Reflecting on the complexities inherent in psychoanalysis' dual nature as both a theory of subjectivity and an agent of given social discourses, I focus on the psychoanalytic tendency to conflate the notion of the right with that of the normative; particularly in the context of developmental theory. Elaborating on Stopford's rendering of the relations between the subject and normative collective discourses, I suggest that we think of these relations as less deterministic. We all find ourselves under the sway of a cacophony of different, sometimes conflicting social narratives. Moreover, our relations with these narratives are themselves dynamic. Considering this multiplicity, I suggest that the subject, even as seen in the grip of powerful social forces, has significant power of resistance and agency.Keywords