Fictions of the Flesh: Psychoanalysis, Myth, and the Marked Subject

At the heart of psychoanalytic theory and technique lies an effort to narrate the story of the human condition and its myriad forms of both suffering and transformation. Drawing widely upon the world of myth, psychoanalysis stages a reading of subjectivity that attends to the fictions that mark us, while facilitating a time and space in which to rewrite ourselves anew. This special issue, the first of two to collect articles developed from presentations delivered at the 2025 Psychology and the Other conference, invites us to consider a range of stories, in both the clinic and beyond, concerning the intricacies of embodied experience. Whether rethinking key tenets of psychoanalytic theory, such as prevailing narratives around sexuality and the drive, or illuminating the impasses of psychical life via cinema and literature, the authors featured here accentuate a fundamental imbrication of fiction and embodied subjectivity, including the ways in which fictions of gender and sexuality are not merely inscribed, but capable of being rewritten at the level of the flesh. This special issue therefore advances a vital endeavor that resonates with the aims of psychoanalysis and the shared vision of the Psychology and the Other community, namely, the effort to cultivate meaning through a writing and rewriting of the stories of what makes us human.