Paranoid Knowledge

Psychoanalysis and the Interpretation of Mad Writing

von Alan Bristow

181 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

This book inserts Lacanian theory into contemporary debates within the emerging interdisciplinary field of ‘Mad Studies’ via an analysis of psychotic writing. The author questions what psychoanalysis can offer a progressive, emancipatory means for engaging madness. Taking the 
Memoirs of Daniel Paul Schreber
 and the 
Exegesis of Philip K. Dick
 as the primary sites of investigation, the book examines how the written representations of paranoid psychosis have historically been exploited to further clinical insights and forms of social critique. 

Paranoid Knowledge
reveals how Lacan’s theorisations of the sinthome, the universal condition of psychosis and the overdetermined nature of any interpretation provide theoretical alliance to Mad Studies and critical mental health endeavours.  By focusing on the taut interrelation between knowledge production, diagnostic structure and technological development, Bristow demonstrates how an individual’s madness can harness, reformulate or channel broader socio-cultural themes. As such, the author contends that psychosis can be shown to have value beyond mere pathology and may offer us a privileged position to grasp psychosocial processes. This book will offer fresh insights for students and scholars of psychoanalysis, critical psychiatry, literary theory, philosophy, and cultural studies.

• Reihe: The Palgrave Lacan Series
• ISBN: 9783031997341
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 23.01.2026
• Genre: Psychologie/Psychoanalyse
• Verlag: Springer International Publishing