The Play of the Qurʾanic Trace

Stefania Pandolfo’s exciting and deeply profound ethnography, Knot of the Soul, offers the most extensive analytic framework to consider madness in a Muslim-majority context (in this case, contemporary Morocco) and to address broader methodological questions concerning conceptual translation between psychoanalysis and Islam. The book’s most salient feature, in my view, is the care and caution with which it crafts an engagement between multiple frames of reference and modalities of meaning: the postcolonial (really, the lingering colonial) predicaments of her interlocutors, the local bodies of knowledge and patterns of practice from which they draw affective force as they navigate their ordeals in life, and psychoanalysis as a mode of reading, as an assemblage of theories about subjectivity, and as an institutional practice enmeshed in wider political regimes of social control.In this brief essay I explore and complicate the itineraries of two themes that circulate in Knot of the Soul: the ethics of psychoanalysis and the performative function of Islamic theological discourse, but specifically the Qurʾan, in those experiences of personal and collective existence in which souls/selves inhabit the edge of divine grace. This “other-place” or “beyond” of experience is situated at the limit of (meta)physical reality, somewhere outside reason and therefore the social order, “the place of that limit where,” in the words of Jacques Lacan with reference to Antigone, “life is already lost . . . already on the other side.”1 This queer place of subjectivity yields “the point of view from which one can embrace the whole of one’s existence as if from outside,” a perspectival position that authorizes a radical critique of social inequalities and the violence of the political and the familial.2 The voices we hear in Knot of the Soul critique a reified modernity that is enshrined in and enacted through authoritarian statehood and the globalized market as well as attendant tropes of violence, socioeconomic disparity, and alienation of the subject. Yet these voices also bring their difference to local institutional manifestations of modern biopower, such as the psychiatric hospital, which performs dual, contradictory tasks: it prescribes “cures” that seek to straighten out the mad subject dubbed unsuitable (because unproductive) for modern citizenship, but it also considers the heterogeneity of the local context, songs sung by “counter-subjects.” Pandolfo shows how clinicians feel the need to readjust the institutional ambitions of both psychiatry and psychoanalysis when patients such as Amina sing their difference, when those going through the ordeal of exclusion insist on the value of knowledges and ontologies that are “out of joint” with modern constructions of the thinkable and the livable. These counter-subjects bring into the clinic remnants of a tradition that is itself disjointed, experiencing fracture and reassembly, but one that cannot be simply reduced to superstition and/or illusion by the psychoanalyst or the psychiatrist.Pandolfo’s interlocutors also point to the paradoxical function—or, the play of the trace—of the Qurʾan in their lives: it is a part of the machinery that transports them to the limit of the Symbolic but also the primary source of their rehabilitation within the social order. Knot of the Soul takes on a daunting, ambitious methodological and analytic task: to engage in an ethics of interpretation at the intersection of Islam and psychoanalysis, returning to—reopening and reconsidering—certain Islamic rituals and discursive practices (rituals such as “the recital” as a cure to rid one of madness, and discursive practices such as traditionalist, scripturalist, and everyday vernacular forms of theological argumentation) that have been largely repressed or foreclosed in existing scholarship. Pandolfo pursues this methodological and analytic ambition in three sections.In a four-chapter section titled “Psychiatric Fragments in the Aftermath of Culture” Pandolfo reflects on views exchanged, lives observed, and time spent “in the wards and the emergency room, with psychiatrists, residents, patients, and sometimes their families” at the Razi Hospital (located in Sale, a city bordering Morocco’s capital, Rabat) (ks, 10). At this site, from 1998 to 2003, Pandolfo witnessed, on the one hand, psychiatrists’ dilemmas of inheriting clinical psychoanalysis in a cultural landscape steeped in local traditions but also exploited by European colonialism and restructured by the authoritarian impulses of the postcolony, and, on the other hand, patients’ ordeals and resymbolizations. She also “engaged in conversation with psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, [and] participated in their seminars and conferences” (ks, 10). In the first chapter of section 1 Amina calls attention to the failure of the police, the courts, and the hospitals—“the bureaucratic apparatuses of the state” (ks, 73)—to deliver justice. Speaking to Pandolfo, Amina says: My sister, I’ve visited all the doctors, I’ve been to the police, they said to me, “Make a declaration”; he’s the one who should have been sentenced to five years in prison, if he’d been sentenced to prison, I wouldn’t have had to see this hospital. I don’t know if it’s a spell (maʿraft wash sḥur), [again she begins to sing] dayr bik u biya, ula men ʿand allah, anā qabla lih [the song ends], I don’t know if it’s a spell, which was cast around you and me, or if it is the will of God, in that case I accept it. (ks, 72)Amina eschews the disciplinary machinations of the state and disrupts the disciplining techniques of the hospital; she “fashions herself into a being who speaks from and in the name of an absence (ghayba), a position gained here at the margins of the psychiatric institution” (ks, 74). Her song and soliloquy therefore allude to the possibilities of absence—of writing, of the multiple meanings, the deferral and differing, of being and time—and bear witness to the violence of what is present, the present that includes her in the form of an exclusion, an absence, a subject position too unbearable to inhabit.Section 2 consists of two chapters in which Pandolfo reflects on two scenes of movement: the figural passage and the political passage. The first is a vacillating movement between sanity and insanity, the visible and the invisible, and is traversed in the imaginative paintings of Ilyas. The second movement pertains to “the world of undocumented migration” and characterizes the struggles of Kamal and Jawad, whose unsuccessful efforts to find refuge in the global North leave them with a “sense of suffocation” but also lead to lively argumentation regarding the status of the life lost, the life “burned,” while attempting to cross over into Europe (ks, 10). Ilyas’s paintings bear testimony to his bouts of madness and outbursts of imagination: are the two really that distinct? His paintings take up several figures, including “the Serpent . . . the Sword . . . the Writing (kitāba) . . . and the Key” (ks, 169). The “Sword” points to something paradoxical about God: it is “an image of the divine power that conquers, punishes, and saves” (ks, 169). We shall return to this paradoxical inscription of God. The disputation between Kamal and Jawad might be seen as teasing out another dimension of this paradox: the same Qurʾanic verses authorize for two readers very different political programs and ethical approaches to the value of secular life. Their debates about socioeconomic inequalities at home and “the burning,” the death that awaits some migrants on the shores of Europe, point to the everyday struggle, or jihād, that characterizes both the figural and the political passages. Pandolfo places the contradicting voices of Kamal and Jawad within a broader conversation about the purchase of Muslim theology for thinking through issues of social justice in the postcolonial predicament.Section 3, “The of the chapters that on the of “the practice of a Qurʾanic and to as “the His and practice are steeped in and are to both the and of and (ks, The “the contemporary of the Qurʾanic of the and Pandolfo his practices to of the of the in the and (ks, Pandolfo’s to to subject whose and and are in to God, and who is in to in a (ks, be to such a subjectivity is for psychoanalysis, which largely a subject. In section Pandolfo extensive conceptual for psychoanalysts such as Lacan and Islamic such as while on their to the in this but in the as is the between Qurʾanic and experiences of madness in contemporary attention to the Qurʾan is as the herself a between the world she and the inscription of in her She speaks of this in the I already well into the of this and a of life the with the that the experience of and but also of was for through the of Qurʾanic ethics as the of the (in or a divine to which the subject is to (ks, of her ambition to an between psychoanalysis and Islam. Knot of the Soul pursues this through “the of or a conceptual of between “the and the and “the and life, and of the (ks, The most extensive of her methodological ambition takes places in a chapter titled and the of 1 and to her interlocutors, and by through her experiences with their and political Pandolfo the between Islam and In she the and of that place psychoanalysis on the of and secular modernity but Islam to and In a also “the of an between psychoanalysis and Writing in different disciplinary Pandolfo and draw attention to and of the conceptual and institutional of psychoanalysis and Islamic knowledge traditions as well as practices in and Pandolfo that in some of these the of psychoanalysis an of cultural for when some Muslim and/or psychoanalysis to the violence with Islam. on a of in the from which the Pandolfo was being as a in the of political to what was as and (ks, In the chapter Pandolfo the discursive of these and her of this institutional in the broader on psychoanalysis and Islam. In she an and framework for into frames of Pandolfo’s for a and an of at the intersection of psychoanalysis and that a mode of interpretation by psychoanalysis itself from and of Islamic theology is in the of theological argumentation and practice that questions of madness, and ethics are for in the Muslim (ks, This Pandolfo to her political of postcolonial and In Knot of the Soul of psychoanalysis with the of Pandolfo’s interlocutors, their political by and affective frames that are or other disciplinary and In Pandolfo’s psychoanalysis from status as an institutional of the state and the scenes of mode of and the multiple of to be mad by but that Pandolfo takes as points to the of social and political violence on methodological of are when one places ethics at the of one’s to the the to cure to her over the Pandolfo a different of in to the is or I the in I on the of on the of the and I my to them in a context, a social context, but also that of a tradition in which such as or have a theological (ks, At the same Pandolfo that in her mode of affective and She is to the of and in the the of the subjectivity in to her The ethical is to a of inscription that the while on how one’s one’s and for the and this this of a of between the the in and being a at with how Lacan of the ethical is an ethical in the context of At the it is to that Lacan is of ethical theories and which into the of the Yet Lacan is of of how might but the of by the ethical in that The with is that the of the in the This is a in by the as the to seek the The is an image of the it as the but is already the in one’s is to inhabit a place within the Symbolic that from and the social order. Lacan offers an to to the one as a one to but to the the the be itself by for the the that it that this is the it will be it from ethical conceptual for Lacan in the clinical context of the can his or her Lacan the ethical of by the of the the of the places at the of his ethical the or of a some of the ethics of psychoanalysis by at what they for the and the this into Knot of the is to the in a for the of the the into the of Lacan calls The ethical for the is to the to the and as a subject while the place of the to the with “The to that that the with all all and as to that place and the to her Lacan to this as what is the of one’s a a to of by that had and that had This to one’s the of the which to the in the of the Yet this return to the is an for by the time one is in a position to how the in the of one of already the the The through this this of the by the in a collective mode of that or she to to the and to feel the of the his or her the of the ethical is to those of the that to their had the subject to a unbearable to a of that had to be to that of foreclosed and repressed the of inscription of the Symbolic on the approaches his or her In other or she with his or her it for the to his or her with leave one’s In and Lacan points to two from and modern and and take different to at their or with her by her at the of the play her as “the of the which through She the of her the to experience the of and This was the by you all but that that I by force of he’s a and of of by those to me, and I while to the the with death her to the of her a life, and In an in the of the that to be to all that to her in life, she what the of her her herself in the Her being itself is lost, for from the if the can be . . . this of the or is ethics of psychoanalysis that the inhabit the position of that the might with her in of or but in a that her These two the radical of the of they the in one’s to one’s is to what is the of is it is to the out of the subject. Pandolfo’s is deeply profound and to in the of by being to the between social constructions of the and of the in her and but also by the in which and their clinical context, of as the for the of for an of madness and to a return to affective the ethical the subject from that she might be to experience and to “an that is The ethical in the of as an into the violence of into the of the those of the that be into is an of is all something that all engage all all that calls the . . . is all this a of the to somewhere the The ethics of psychoanalysis is the of one’s to the on a of being that is by the Pandolfo’s at something in in and and in Qurʾanic rituals by such as the the same the analytic that Pandolfo between Islam and psychoanalysis an of one that how the of in both psychoanalysis and Islamic theological and Pandolfo the of the into a which in the life of . . . in the we also need to the of her of (ks, In the part of this I to this by my on the performative function and status of the Qurʾan in Knot of the The Qurʾan through Pandolfo’s of Muslim madness the is to the themes of and sanity as well as and Qurʾan and on that are in from to to The Qurʾanic inscription in a that consists of from an of to an and life to a . . . the of death . . . to The that the life of the world is one of the of the the one in this These or are to the by that one from the the that to the case of the as in section of Knot of the is at a a of Muslim a and a We hear about the the and Pandolfo’s which all to a of the of the in the everyday of the The a for which “an is an of the divine ordeal that the the into a secular (ks, We about the in a mode of that might be as a of of the We had been about his I at his that was and and that had been to the Qurʾan at the of the and the of the for several the also and was at and to for his and his that to his and his life had been by an of the and when some had been to the in a emergency of a was an and had to all his and his for and that might see his this have a state of and the of and will as his will (ks, life been by the of a which takes as the of but his will with that of the to engage as The his to God, but also to to with his The the for his that that to inhabit his or to on the to the and his patients, Pandolfo of another in we the subject to as his is his The the political that a world of social and and might be up as the of a postcolonial the lingering of colonialism in contemporary “The a political and critique of the that to the itself a the of (ks, The with the who seek his and to as a of the of the Qurʾan to in life by the of at in the world and in the what we that reference to the life of the of and in the life both of the and the (ks, who seek the at the edge of the social order, and at they that their are up in from their sometimes being out by the the in the Qurʾan and present in the everyday and places of Muslim speaks of his patients’ their At their ordeals unbearable for a and the of a such as the who into the that the by of a form of a that theology as to the the Pandolfo “The Qurʾanic an a time of the the of the a and the of the to a of the (ks, The Qurʾan as a of the God, the of the wider of and and between the and the Pandolfo explore the of the of that of the I that her the of the Qurʾanic that it in how the Qurʾan both the and the of the the one hand, prescribes the it into existence the ordeal that one to in the other hand, itself as the and to as The Qurʾan, as the from the to . . . is the and the the of which are on the bodies of The of been The Qurʾan in on a to in a mode of as “the In another mode of the mode as “the begins with an of the of and with a that to take refuge from and two in the mode of the that and the of will and and of an that and these and their will from that of in are from of the of and of their and for that from the of the Their of will cannot they on The of is with was to of his is through a of that seek to . . . with the and return to absence . . . from the The Qurʾan places and a of and the of with find in and Qurʾan to to the that they from by with divine is force an from “the of the These words are performative as their a in the by the and a it in here we see violence the force of divine and to out is by of the rituals such as the the the Qurʾan over the of the by an of the is (ks, Yet are and other that can the Muslim this through in Islamic and have a place in the Symbolic as the In Knot of the Soul the practices the on the of one of his patients, to as The of over by a the to the who The also a absence, the of This mode of into in to cure of her is one of the performative the is a of and The the Qurʾan in to his patients, but that some of them divine The to of the to the who is this tradition from the of his clinical with patients, what is and in the of the is the that the is as a or that can be and in a but as an of in the the is and cannot be to we a of between life and life death can be or This state or the is by the power of by “the as in the experience of the to whose lives are by the of and and by (ks, in the the for his might be in the cure in The that some being to by the the limit of his position within the Qurʾanic divine power by of the but of that to his of psychoanalysis in with the theology the between the and the of a by the Jacques in and the of that the conceptual themes of psychoanalysis to the of . . . to the of which was in to or outside or the of the as a and as or In clinical the cure is of the to the as if the of writing, might be into into the of the as if the psychoanalysis as in the broader and that the of and as the subject is in the image of God, as the of the in that are to but also different from Qurʾanic the of in the the subject of Qurʾanic between and absence, is something about the of the Qurʾan to as well as in everyday life, that to consider this subject on his or her Pandolfo this by attention to the of in an Islamic The in which the the into their a form of the that is here that Qurʾanic “cures” for madness, and about their need to be Pandolfo state it as I that her offers a to how the Qurʾanic but the of the the Qurʾanic as to the of the who to the Muslim by but also of repressed experiences and those of socioeconomic to a cure that into limit when the takes on the and function of the and inhabit the as they with ordeals of and with a that at the of the personal and the the and the between of and those of the of the and the of the with a that in the of the everyday and in the secular here to of the that awaits in the The Qurʾan this but also the that take to from the to The into the collective of of but also an of of therefore in the words of the the very that of also to the subject and itself and with divine and and Qurʾanic that most to be the of the to to from the The as in such as and and such as and These of are seen as on the by of such as the or the as well as social and political that an of and the of of such as and and and difference as well as Pandolfo’s about in section At to his and/or to it at of difference in a landscape but also of the Pandolfo the between his paintings and Qurʾanic themes she speaks of a of a with two of the Qurʾanic of and and their from the Ilyas’s other paintings At an is a between his and discursive for madness the and the all from the consider all the time that in to the of the experience of of is the of the of a which Lacan what might be is of “the of the in The madness, the of the and attention to the of the visible and the to over one’s as one’s the the is is and is also as a for the the and the are from is a a the of and by Pandolfo’s interlocutors and those by the This is a testimony to the play of the Qurʾanic performative status as a of in Muslim life. Pandolfo’s to this of Qurʾanic and to the broader of madness at the intersection of Islam and to and for their

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