Is there a Doctor in the House? Psychoanalysis and the Discourse of the Posthuman

Bibliographic Data

ID4940236
AuthorsJerry Aline Flieger (Soil Agro and Hydrosystems Spatialization, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume33
Issue3
Pages354-375
Publication date2010-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueParagraph (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0264-8334 • E-ISSN: 1750-0176
PublisherEdinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3366/para.2010.0204
OpenAlexW1963846309
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited3

This article uses a Lacanian framework both to map types of posthuman discourse that shape the debates around science, technology and the fate of the human, and to advocate a more psychoanalytic framing of these debates. It identifies three dominant posthumanisms: 'doomsday', 'celebratory' and 'critical'. The first adopts an apocalyptic tone in the defence of a supposedly natural human essence; the second unthinkingly embraces the promise of new technologies for augmenting human potential; the third draws on the critique of humanism to balance the first two tendencies. The article then proposes a 'fractal' reading of both Freud and Lacan which updates psychoanalysis for the online world today. Finally, the article aligns each of the types of posthumanism with one of Lacan's 'four discourses': 'doomsday' posthumanism with the discourse of the hysteric, 'celebratory' posthumanism with that of the master, and 'critical' posthumanism with that of the analyst, thereby putting psychoanalysis at the centre of the posthuman rather than its margins

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Humanism · Posthuman · Posthumanism · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Queer · Queer theory · Sociology · Transhumanism · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · Gender Studies · History · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics · Psychology · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction

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