Abstract It is widely believed that the philosophical concept of ‘tabula rasa’ originates with Locke'sEssay Concerning Human Understandingand refers to a state in which a child is as formless as a blank slate. Given that both these beliefs are entirely false, this article will examine why they have endured from the eighteenth century to the present. Attending to the history of philosophy, psychology, psychiatry and feminist scholarship it will be shown how the image of thetabula rasahas been used to signify an originary state of formlessness, against which discourses on the true nature of the human being can differentiate their position. Thetabula rasahas operated less as a substantive position than as a whipping post. However, it will be noted that innovations in psychological theory over the past decade have begun to undermine such narratives by rendering unintelligible the idea of an ‘originary’ state of human nature.
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