Does Psychoanalytic Theory Have Anything to Say on Learning?

Before answering the question posed in the title, the aim of this paper is to exploit how to pose the question properly. Elsewhere (Salvatore, Freda, Ligorio, Iannaccone, Rubino, Scotto di Carlo, et al., 2003; Salvatore & Ligorio, 2003) we have already discussed a possible encounter between the socio-constructivist approach to learning and psychoanalysis. In this paper we will first focus in detail on aspects of learning emerging from the socio-constructivist approach, to which psychoanalysis could give its contribution. Later we will report points of psychoanalysis that could be used to understand learning. Finally, a four-dimensional definition of learning will be proposed and for each dimension the effects of using psychoanalysis as an additional framework to understand the relevant processes will be discussed.