The contribution of psychology in critical social theory: Axel Honneth and Emmanuel Renault

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review some key parts in the theoretical framework of Emmanuel Renault in order to understand the contribution of psychology to the project of critical theory in the Frankfurt college tradition. It explores the reception of Axel Honneth’s early work and how it is continued by Renault from a model of social theory in a broad sense, of a dialogical and corrective type between disciplines, which emphasises the fundamental function of the production of knowledge about the social world in order to develop social criticism. It analyses how psychology has been used and defended in the theory of the struggle for recognition and the improvements made by Renault, especially considering one of the possible destinies of negative social experiences: social suffering. This theoretical complex is synthesized in the articulation between a pragmatic conception of identity and psychoanalysis, then we review how psychoanalysis and some trends and authors from psychology have been a support for Honneth and Renault in the formulation of their respective theories. We conclude with some reflections for our contexts of injustice.