Commentary : re-imagining self in a world of change – a conversation with Valerie Walkerdine

Abstract

Valerie Walkerdine's “Using the Work of Felix Guattari to Understand Space, Place, Social Justice, and Education” examines a number of theoretical ideas derived principally from Felix Guattari's work with psychiatric patients. Walkerdine applies these approaches to educational settings where personal subjective change and transformation is desired. The central approach utilises imaginative work and a rethinking of subjecthood in an attempt to equip the individual to deal with what is perceived as a potential destabilisation, alienation, and perhaps disintegration of the self's sense of identity as a result of life changing educational inputs. This “Conversation” engages Walkerdine's and Guattari's work and reconsiders some basic tenets in their approaches and challenging the continuing reliance on orthodox theory concerning early childhood development, attachment, and the threat that change is thought to pose to ideas of self. While supporting Walkerdine's and Guattari's overall approach, particularly in relation to adults, I argue that there are significant flaws in conventional childhood development and attachment theories underpinning their method. Drawing on more recent findings in biological and brain science, I propose that it is today possible to abandon moribund psychoanalytic theoretical premises of childhood development and arrive at a more empirically founded, non-pathological understanding of both change and human development.