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The Psychotic States of America: Representation, Power, and Subjectivity in the USA Today
The Psychotic States of America Representation Power and Subjectivity in the USA Today Author:Katherine Howard Every day, what is left of our major metropolitan newspapers seems to tell us that America has gone crazy. But are we actually a nation of psychotics? This study looks at contemporary American culture through the lens of lacanian psychoanalytic theory. It takes as its central premises that as a nation, we manifest signs of psychosis both ... more »in culture and in person,and that capitalism and foucauldian power exert a formidable influence on the emerging mode of "subjectivity." But hey, who says psychosis has to be all bad? Julia Kristeva suggests that there are psychotic modes of art forms that push the subject to the limits of subjectivity, and in doing so, destablize unitary meaning; this type of art, though it may make us feel unmoored from ourselves,is productive and works for the good of a democratic society. This book explores American cultural productions that manifest psychosis in both salutary and destructive ways.« less