The first of the 'old wounded,' hysterics suffering from reminiscences, were Freud's co-conspirators in the invention of psychoanalysis. Not only were they its earliest patients and critics; their malady formed the very stuff of psychoanalysis. Malabou identifies a more recent class of 'new wounded'—Alzheimer's patient,
autistic children, concentration camp survivors, victims of rape, bombing, natural disasters and brain tumors—who, radically severed from their own past, are devoid not only of reminiscences but of meaning itself. Their maladies, she claims, evacuate the core concepts of psychoanalysis, its original stuff. Friends and foes of Freud's science will be riveted by Malabou's intelligent argument whose destructive thrust produces not merely rubble and dust, more a foam of fascinating new concepts—including cerebrality and destructive plasticity—and strong readings of Freudian texts.
- —Joan Copjec, University at Buffalo, SUNY
What has happened when subjectivity is utterly changed by brain damage? What are the links of war, trauma, and loss of affect? In The New Wounded Catherine Malabou brilliantly shows how 'destructive plasticity' is the key concept for understanding our 'new economy of pain.' Highly recommended for everyone in the fields she so deftly examines: philosophy, psychoanalysis, and neurology." - —John Protevi, Louisiana State University
“Malabou draws upon the most current neurological research and
contemporary psychoanalytic works, and applies them to a careful, penetrating and convincing reading of Freud’s primary texts, in order to fashion her original interpretation.”
- —Clayton Crockett, University of Central Arkansas
The first of the 'old wounded,' hysterics suffering from reminiscences, were Freud's co-conspirators in the invention of psychoanalysis. Not only were they its earliest patients and critics; their malady formed the very stuff of psychoanalysis. Malabou identifies a more recent class of 'new wounded'—Alzheimer's patient,
autistic children, concentration camp survivors, victims of rape, bombing, natural disasters and brain tumors—who, radically severed from their own past, are devoid not only of reminiscences but of meaning itself. Their maladies, she claims, evacuate the core concepts of psychoanalysis, its original stuff. Friends and foes of Freud's science will be riveted by Malabou's intelligent argument whose destructive thrust produces not merely rubble and dust, more a foam of fascinating new concepts—including cerebrality and destructive plasticity—and strong readings of Freudian texts.
---—Joan Copjec, University at Buffalo, SUNY
“Malabou draws upon the most current neurological research and
contemporary psychoanalytic works, and applies them to a careful, penetrating and convincing reading of Freud’s primary texts, in order to fashion her original interpretation.”
---—Clayton Crockett, University of Central Arkansas
What has happened when subjectivity is utterly changed by brain damage? What are the links of war, trauma, and loss of affect? In The New Wounded Catherine Malabou brilliantly shows how 'destructive plasticity' is the key concept for understanding our 'new economy of pain.' Highly recommended for everyone in the fields she so deftly examines: philosophy, psychoanalysis, and neurology."---—John Protevi, Louisiana State University