The unconscious as dialectical pole of consciousness: Possibilities and Approaches in Vigotsky’s psychology

This work has a highly theoretical nature, and aims to restore, in all the Vygotsky studies, the relationship between consciousness and the unconscious because the unconscious is treated in an unsystematic way in his work. Therefore, we take the epistemological and methodological assumptions of historical and dialectical materialism, which have allowed us to understand how Vygotsky conceives both instances of the psyche, safeguarding the cultural derivation of its features. Thus, while socio-cultural construction, the unconscious can only be grasped in its dialectical relation to consciousness, not being an absolute and dominant instance of this, but rather, ensuring and enabling the existence of this other pole. We also believe that due to a common epistemic orientation between the analyzes contained in Marxist theory and historical-cultural theory, the understanding of the unconscious as a dialectical pole of consciousness is different from the explanations now produced in certain theories of psychology, for example, psychoanalysis and cognitive theories. We have reached some understandings about the unconscious in the relations with labor activity, with language and, in particular, with the role of emotions and interpersonal relations in the constitution and development of psychic instance, which is historically promoted by the model need to society.