Between Affirmation and Ambivalence: A Comparative Study of Judith Butler’s and Axel Honneth’s Theories of Recognition

This paper analyzes the theories of recognition proposed by Axel Honneth and Judith Butler by focusing on the interconnected dimensions of recognition, reification, and subject formation. Honneth emphasizes the positive and integrative potential of recognition, presenting a normative framework that links personal identity to social and ethical inclusion. In contrast, drawing on Freud’s ambivalence of love and hate as well as Melanie Klein’s object relations theory, Butler highlights the ambivalence inherent in recognition. Butler points out the limitations of Honneth’s theory, demonstrating that his assumption of recognition as an integrative value underestimates the structural features shaped by aggressivity, ambivalent attachment, and psychological vulnerability. Revisiting the concepts of recognition and reification through Butler’s perspective allows for an expanded theoretical model in which recognition functions not only as an ethical resource but also as a field of ongoing negotiation, tension, and ambivalent re-signification.