What is subject and object?
In everyday language, subject often means a person,
and object a thing.
In psychology, however, this means something else.
Subject and Object
In everyday language, the word subject may refer to any person, while the word object may mean an inanimate thing.
In philosophy and psychology, however, these terms have a much broader meaning.
General definition
In the broadest sense:
Subject is that which perceives, experiences, or acts.
Object is that toward which perception, experience, or action is directed.
Thus the distinction is not between
a human being and a thing,
but between
the experiencing center and that which stands opposite to it.
Therefore the object is not necessarily a thing
In psychology, the object may be:
- another person
- a group of people
- a situation
- one’s own body.
What matters is not what it is, but that it becomes the object of experience.
And the subject is not “any person”
The subject is the experiencing center of the psyche.
This may be:
- a concrete person
- their consciousness
- their psychic position at a given moment.
Thus in psychology the subject is not simply a human being as a biological organism, but that which experiences the object.
A very short formula
This can be expressed as follows:
Subject – the bearer of experience.
Object – the object of experience.