Institution, childhood and subjectivity

Abstract

This essay is based on a work experience conducted by the research group on Studies on childhood and adolescence at the Faculty of Psychology of the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, entitled "Program of diagnosis and intervention for adoption" held at DIF Michoacán in 2016-17 with children and adolescents from an institution called “Casa Hogar”. Taking a critical position based on a psychoanalytic view, a series of reflections on the impact of the institutional discourse over the development of the child as a line of transcendence for subjectification since it is constituted from the others’ gaze. The way in which the institutional discourse causes an effect on the child is discussed, since it defines him or her as an abandoned child when naming him and enunciating him as a subject in need and deserving of charity; positioning him in that subjective place, sometimes immovable, because it is an institution that always decides for him in the name of his care and his good.