A Description of the Process of Subjectivity of Girls with Social Pathologies through a Semiological Analysis of Their Paintings

In the present study, based on the process of formation of human as a subject in the social structure and his entrance into the state of subjectivity, attempt is made to answer the question of whether the analysis of the paintings by girls with social pathologies can help describe the process of their subjectivity.To answer this question, the process of formation of the subjects was studied through an analysis of the semiotics of their paintings, and their biographies were examined as well. In fact, in the present article, semiology was utilized to analyze their works of art, and then qualitative case study method was employed to study the girls with social pathologies. Girls with social pathologies engaged in creative action in art, because of experiencing double deprivations in life, on the one hand, and their attempt to escape from their constructed identity through creative work, on the other hand, are suitable cases for research on subjectivity. A semiological analysis of the paintings of those selected for this study showed that they constructed themselves as subject at three levels. The first level is the “subject in itself”. At this level the “I” of the subjects is clarified to them through a deep understanding of life experiences, which here among the subjects of the present study are composed of the social pathologies experienced by them. At the second level, construction is carried out through encountering the others. The interaction of subject in these situation gains special importance. Considering the concept of the big other, in this situation the subject considers his life and being to be dependent on the big other, in a way that he even experiences his desire and pleasure in perfecting the desire and pleasure of the other. At the third level, construction is carried out through the positioning of the subject against “surrounding objects”. Semiotic examples of the surrounding objects have been clearly presented in the semiologcical analyses of the paintings.