Select Page

A Spinozist Approach to Therapy

by | Vol 31 (4) 2013

This article examines schizophrenic experience from a phenomenological point of view to determine how it differs from normal experience. The autobiographical investigations of Wouter Kusters serve as a guide. In his famous study on schizophrenia, Alphonse De Waelhens gives a psychoanalytical account of psychotic experiences. For De Waelhens psychosis stems from a lack of desire, a perspective which implies that psychoanalytical therapy should aim to fill this lack. There are several problems arising from this perspective, which however are easily confronted when one conceptualises desire in a spinozian sense. Anti-Oedipus, a book by Deleuze and Guattari, is grounded in this spinozistic model. The schizophrenic lacks nothing, they argue, it may even be the case that he or she is torn by an overabundance of desire. These findings demand radical therapeutic change, according to Deleuze and Guattari.

Related articles

  • A Neuro-Psychoanalytical Approach of Anosognosia

    This article argues the case for increased recognition of a neuro-psychoanalytic vision within the field of neuroscientific research. It demonstrates how the neuro-psychoanalytic approach to concrete clinical problems can result in new clinical and theoretical insights that can serve to advance the field of neuroscience. The clinical phenomenon of anosognosia, the denial of illness, is used to illustrate the importance of this approach. The article begins with a brief outline of the neurological and clinical symptomatology of anosognosia and a…

  • Psychoanalytic Materialism. A Political-Philosophical Approach

    In these times of the increasing neurologisation of the person, the question is not only how psychoanalysis can or should relate to the neurosciences, but also how it should position itself in relation to psychology, as the latter has seemingly unproblematically aligned itself with the new hegemonious discourse. The author argues that philosophy, specifically political philosophy and ideology critique, that can bring clarity here. The central idea is that where neurologisation and psychologisation merge, psychoanalysis shall have to clarify its…

  • The Psychotherapeutic Labour of the Subject within Visual Creative Therapy

    This paper explores what happens in the subject when creating visual art. It is argued on the first level that there are four steps in the creation process: (i) forming the image; (ii) creating the object; (iii) the decision to finish; and (iv) the separation. On a more advanced level, one needs to be aware of the essential difference between the status of the creative process in neurosis and psychosis. It is argued that within a neurotic structure the process…