Paranoid Knowledge

Introduction

This book inserts Lacanian theory into contemporary debates within the emerging interdisciplinary field of ‘Mad Studies’ via an analysis of psychotic writing. The author questions what psychoanalysis can offer a progressive, emancipatory means for engaging madness.

Primary Sites of Investigation

Taking the Memoirs of Daniel Paul Schreber and the Exegesis of Philip K. Dick as the primary sites of investigation, the book examines how the written representations of paranoid psychosis have historically been exploited to further clinical insights and forms of social critique.

Theoretical Framework

Paranoid Knowledge reveals how Lacan’s theorisations of the sinthome, the universal condition of psychosis and the overdetermined nature of any interpretation provide theoretical alliance to Mad Studies and critical mental health endeavours.

Focus on Knowledge and Socio-Cultural Themes

By focusing on the taut interrelation between knowledge production, diagnostic structure and technological development, Bristow demonstrates how an individual’s madness can harness, reformulate or channel broader socio-cultural themes.

Valuing Psychosis

As such, the author contends that psychosis can be shown to have value beyond mere pathology and may offer us a privileged position to grasp psychosocial processes.

Target Audience

This book will offer fresh insights for students and scholars of psychoanalysis, critical psychiatry, literary theory, philosophy, and cultural studies.