Join us this session as we discuss the work of “Universal Madness” in the 20th and 21st centuries. Recently some Lacanian analysts have begun to develop a concept of Lacan’s called “Ordinary Psychosis.” As important as this is for understanding the current symptom of society, Lacan pursued another more important concern: what we call “Universal Madness.” We will trace the symptom of Schreber through the work of Freud, Lacan, and Guattari to the point where it opens up into the symptom of Artaud. We will correct the mistaken notion of Joyce’s “psychosis” in the art of the symptom or sinthome. We will examine the founding act of the experimental La Borde Clinic and development of schizoanalysis out of Lacan’s unfinished revolution in psychoanalysis through a confrontation with psychosis.

Texts:

Freud – Psychoanalytic Notes on Schreber
Lacan – On Psychic Causality
Lacan – Question Preliminary to Any Possible Treatment of Psychosis
Lacan – Seminar 23: The Symptom (Sinthome)
Deleuze & Guattari – Anti-Oedipus