A Philosophy of Madness : The Experience of Psychotic Thinking

The philosophy of psychosis and the psychosis of philosophy: a philosopher draws on his experience of madness. In this book, philosopher and linguist Wouter Kusters examines the philosophy of psychosis—and the psychosis of philosophy. By analyzing the experience of psychosis in philosophical terms, Kusters not only emancipates the experience of the psychotic from medical classification, he also emancipates the philosopher from the narrowness of textbooks and academia, allowing philosophers to engage in real-life praxis, philosophy in vivo . Philosophy and madness—Kusters's preferred, non-medicalized term—coexist, one mirroring the other. Kusters draws on his own experience of madness—two episodes of psychosis, twenty years apart—as well as other first-person narratives of psychosis. Speculating about the maddening effect of certain words and thought, he argues, and demonstrates, that the steady flow of philosophical deliberation may sweep one into a full-blown acute psychotic episode. Indeed, a certain kind of philosophizing may result in confusion, paradoxes, unworldly insights, and circular frozenness reminiscent of madness. Psychosis presents itself to the psychotic as an inescapable truth and reality. Kusters evokes the mad person's philosophical or existential amazement at reality, thinking, time, and space, drawing on classic autobiographical accounts of psychoses by Antonin Artaud, Daniel Schreber, and others, as well as the work of phenomenological psychiatrists and psychologists and such phenomenologists as Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He considers the philosophical mystic and the mystical philosopher, tracing the mad undercurrent in the Husserlian philosophy of time; visits the cloud castles of mystical madness, encountering LSD devotees, philosophers, theologians, and nihilists; and, falling to earth, finds anxiety, emptiness, delusions, and hallucinations. Madness and philosophy proceed and converge toward a single vanishing point. Contents Preface to the English Edition Preface Introduction: Philosophy and Madness 1. A Philosophy of Madness 2. Madness and Psychiatry 2.1 Data 2.2 Treatment 3. Philosophy 3.1 Philosophy from Madness 3.2 From the Philosophical Side 3.2.1 A Place for Madness 3.2.2 Mad Philosophers 3.2.3 Madness from Philosophy 4. Reading Guidelines 4.1 Approached from the Outside 4.2 Inner Dynamic and Theme Overture: The Eternal Return I. Cogitating Your Head Off Introduction: Setting Sail 1. Realer than Real 1.1 Everyday Realism 1.1.1 Self-Evident Birds 1.1.2 Real Things, Real People 1.1.3 Real Time 1.1.4 Continuous Impressions 1.2 Mad Pararealism 1.2.1 Hyperrealism 1.2.1.1 Strong powers 1.2.1.2 The compulsion of things 1.2.1.3 Circular time 1.2.1.4 Impressions of unity 1.2.2 Hyporealism 1.2.2.1 A quagmire of possibilities 1.2.2.2 The world in check 1.2.2.3 Dreamtime 1.2.2.4 Photos without frames 1.3 The End of Reality 1.3.1 Real Life 1.3.2 Fracture 1.3.3 Dreaming with Your Eyes Open 2. Inlooks and Outlooks 2.1 Common Views of Cognition and Perception 2.2 Mad Focus 2.2.1 Visions and Hallucinations Fragment I: Written in the Stars 2.2.2 Staring, Scanning, and Intuiting 2.3 The World in Thoughts, Thoughts in the World Fragment II: Internet for Insiders 2.3.1 Imagined World 2.3.2 Thinking as Things 3. Outside Time 3.1 The Fabric of Everyday Time 3.1.1 Fixed time: Aristotle 3.1.2 Moving time: Husserl I 3.1.3 Human time: Ricoeur Fragment III: Bar Time 3.2 Mad Crystal Time 3.2.1 Spaciousness 3.2.1.1 Fragmentation 3.2.1.2 Extensiveness 3.2.1.3 Reversibility 3.2.2 Eternity 3.2.2.1 Eternal waiting 3.2.2.2 The eternal present 3.2.2.3 Eternal time: Plotinus 3.2.3 Numbers 3.2.3.1 Data harmony 3.2.3.2 Basic rhythm 3.2.3.3 Dissonances Fragment IV: Forty-Plus 4. Inside Space 4.1 Ordinary Space 4.2 Mad Space: Groundlessly Reversible 4.2.1 Depth 4.2.1.1 Groundlessness Fragment V: Open Air 4.2.1.2 Fragmentation 4.2.1.3 Extensiveness Fragment VI: Via the Ring 4.2.2 The World on Its Head 4.2.2.1 Width 4.2.2.2 Height 4.2.2.3 Inside out Fragment VII: The Circle Is Round 4.3 Crazy Places 4.3.1 Intrusive Media 4.3.2 Portals, Tunnels, and Holes 4.3.3 Black Light Fragment VIII: The Earth Is Flat II. Via Mystica Psychotica Introduction: Glimpses into Troubled Water 5. Detachment 5.1 Dissolution and Liberation 5.2 Emptying of the Soul and Internalization 5.3 Evacuation: Thomas Pynchon’s Mad Universe 5.4 Desynchronization 5.4.1 Time and Rhythm 5.4.2 Chronopathology 5.4.3 Absolute Desynchronization: Crowhurst I 6. Demagination 6.1 Mystical Iconoclasm 6.2 Madness by Images: Podvoll’s Buddhist Therapy 6.2.1 Fascinations and Seductions 6.2.2 Infinite Emptiness, No Visuals 6.2.3 Beyond the Image of Madness 7. Delanguization 7.1 Mute Language 7.2 Talking Language 7.3 Scratch Language: A Rejection 7.3.1 Via Metaforica 7.3.2 Via Multimundiana 7.3.3 Via Formica 7.3.4 Via Negativa 7.3.5 Via Infinitiva 8. Dethinking 8.1 Beyond Thought 8.1.1 Paranoetic Parousia 8.1.2 Mythical Concatenation 8.2 Brave New World: Awakening and Rebirth 8.3 Debankment: Husserl II, Time, and Water 8.3.1 Silent Stream 8.3.2 Forms of Water 8.3.3 Philochosis, Water Depicted 8.4 Inflaming 8.4.1 Enticing Fire 8.4.2 Rapid Fire 8.4.3 Scorching Fire Intermezzo I: Fire at a Distance III. Light Mists Introduction: De-parting into Parts 9. Pyramids of Light: The Uni-Delusion 9.1 Notes from Aboveground: Plato’s Cave 9.2 Union and Unification: Plotinus’s One 9.3 Under the Spell of the One 9.3.1 Basic Principles of the Uni-Delusion 9.3.2 The Problem of the Doctrine of One 9.3.3 Inside the Uni-Delusion 10. White Fullness: The Esse-Delusion 10.1 High Pressure: Introduction to the Esse-Delusion 10.1.1 The Discovery of Being 10.1.2 Intensity 10.1.3 Pantheism 10.1.4 One-Sided Music 10.2 Writing Yourself Out: Custance’s Live Report on the Esse-Delusion 10.3 The Self-Induced Esse-Delusion: Huxley, Mescaline, and Other Drugs 10.3.1 Behind the Doors of Perception 10.3.2 Too Much Being 10.3.3 Mescaline Criticism 10.3.3.1 Godlessness: Zaehner’s criticism of Huxley 10.3.3.2 Immorality 10.3.3.3 Substance use: Rosenboom’s white sugar 11. The Infinity Trap: The Ω-Delusion 11.1 Cantor and Mathematical Infinity 11.1.1 Calculation 11.1.2 Ad Infinitum 11.1.3 Number Leap 11.2 Rapture: Infinity Celebrated 11.2.1 Mystical Space Travel 11.2.1.1 Fencing with infinity: Fractals represented 11.2.1.2 High-flying art: Michaux’s space lyrics 11.2.1.3 Golden chicken or golden egg? 11.2.2 Merging Opposites 11.2.2.1 Infinitely out of control: Custance adrift 11.2.2.2 Pray without ceasing: Nicholas of Cusa 11.2.2.3 Pairing in the wild: Eliade and the Orgy 11.3 Dread: The Infinity of Fear 11.3.1 Infinite Weight 11.3.2 Infinite Cold: Peter Sloterdijk 11.3.3 Infinite Fracturing: Michaux on Schizophrenia 11.3.4 Battle of the Omegas: the Unger Case 11.3.4.1 Significant visions 11.3.4.2 Impossible unions: Mormons and physics 11.3.4.3 Behind the infinite struggle Intermezzo II: Revelation II.I Introduction to Revelation II.II Tetralogy: Revelation at Home II.II.I The Birds II.II.II At the Wheel II.II.III The Neon Hotel Building Plan II.II.IV The Red Haze II.III Analysis of Revelations II.III.I Fear of Disruption: Klaus Conrad and World War II II.III.II Strikingly Public: Shitij Kapur and Neurobiology II.III.III Phenomenology and Revelation: Louis Sass and Daniel Schreber I II.III.IV 1 Corinthians 13: Faith, Hope, and Love 12. Absolutely Nothing: The Ø-Delusion 12.1 “With Without My Coat”: A Linguistic Philosophical Introduction 12.2 From Matter to Nothing: Nothing as Deduced from Something 12.2.1 Phenomenology: Psychosis as Lack of Being 12.2.2 Sartre’s Being and Nothingness and the Ø-delusion 12.2.3 Closer to Nothing: Artaud I 12.3 Absolute Zero: Nothingness as the Basis of Existence 12.3.1 Neon Light 12.3.2 Broken by Nothing 12.3.3 Fretting over Nothing: Schelling’s The Ages of the World I 12.4 Through Nothing to Liberation 12.4.1 The God of Nothingness: Eckhart and Ruysbroeck 12.4.2 Springing: Heidegger’s Anxiety 12.4.3 Everything Illuminated by Nothing: Eliade and Capriles Intermezzo III: Postmortem III.I Emptiness III.I.I Vanishing Point: Mad Emptiness III.I.II Living in Emptiness: Artaud II III.I.III Propelled through Emptiness: Artaud III III.II Silence III.II.I Point of Silence III.II.II Babel Still Life III.II.III Obligatory Silence in Psychiatry III.III Midnight Express: The End of Wim Maljaars III.III.I Postscript IV. Crystal Fever Introduction: Complete Dis-Integration 13. Paradoxes: Philosophy and Madness Tied Up in Knots 13.1 Introduction: Puzzling Paradoxes 13.2 Paradoxes in the Absolute: Schelling’s The Ages of the World II 13.3 Indian Man-Gods: Eliade on Yogis and Paradoxes 13.4 The Crystal Castle: Schreber’s Complex Memoirs 13.4.1 From Experience to Text, from Mysticism to Solipsism 13.4.2 Further Developments: The Sun and the Absolute 13.4.3 Exegesis and Laying on of Hands: Sass and Schreber II 13.4.4 Proliferation of Paradoxes 13.5 Thought Experiments and the World According to Lacan 13.5.1 Escaping from Lacan’s Imaginary Jail Cell 13.5.1.1 Imaginary advantages 13.5.1.2 Indomitable time 13.5.2 Varieties of the Prison Cell: The Limits of the Thought Experiment 13.5.2.1 Three-man cell 13.5.2.2 Four plus 13.5.2.3 Gamblers and spoilsports 13.5.3 Cell of Death: Crossing the Border 13.5.3.1 Mass death 13.5.3.2 Solitary death Intermezzo IV: Imagination and the Tightrope Walkers IV.I Osmotic Hopping: Sybren Polet, a Gnome, and a Giant IV.II Rectilinear Superficial Warped: Word Play with Harald Kaas 14. Deliverance and Doom in Madness and Therapy 14.1 Charles Taylor and the Enchanted Worldview 14.1.1 Common Musings on the Sacred 14.1.2 Desecration and Reconsecration 14.1.3 Sacred Emanation 14.2 Madness: Sorcery and Magic 14.2.1 Penetration and Radiation 14.2.2 Animo, Anima, Animal 14.2.3 Mighty Magicians 14.2.3.1 Transpersonification 14.2.3.2 The shaman 14.2.3.3 Sorcery of the yogis 14.3 Holy Healing: Spiritual Therapies 14.3.1 Diagnosis of Deliverance 14.3.2 Divide and Heal: Transpersonal Psychiatry 14.3.2.1 Good holy grounds 14.3.2.2 Trans trance transition I: Pulling back to go forward 14.3.2.3 Trans trance transition II: Misunderstood jumping talent 14.3.2.4 Trans trance transition III: Mad psychiatrists 14.3.2.5 Trans trance transition IV: Ladders and circles 14.3.3 Charles Taylor and the Sources of Salvation 14.3.3.1 Mind-numbing therapy 14.3.3.2 Visions of change 14.3.3.3 Psychosis: Taylor-made, homemade? 14.3.4 Peter Kingsley’s praise of isolation 15. The Mad Plan in Story and System 15.1 Introduction: Crystallizations 15.2 The Blueprint 15.2.1 The Myth and the Plan 15.2.2 Planology 15.2.3 Plan Time 15.2.4 Plan Logic 15.3 The Script as Metaphor for the Plan 15.3.1 Film without a Screen: The Truman Show 15.3.2 Monkey Wrench in the Works: Shutter Island and The Matrix 15.3.3 Labyrinth: Vanilla Sky and Inland Empire 15.4 The Test as a Metaphor for the Plan 15.4.1 Playing Games: I and the Other 15.4.2 Fight to the Death: Testing in Nazi Germany 15.4.3 Operators, Flies, and Guinea Pigs: O’Brien 16. Typology of Plans and Psychoplanatics 16.1 “Them”: Conspiracies and Persecution 16.1.1 Lightning and a November Thunderclap: Strindberg’s Inferno 16.1.2 Steering Force: Abstract Powers and Vague Influences 16.1.3 The Ghost in the Machine in Nazi Germany 16.2 Superpower, Omnipotence, Dominance: Megalomania 16.2.1 Kings without Kingdoms 16.2.2 One Mind, One Body, One War 16.2.3 Beyond the Limit: Crowhurst II 16.3 Messengers and Mad Prophets 16.3.1 For All Humanity to Hear 16.3.2 As if the Whole World Were Waiting: Tears of the Prophet 16.3.3 Whereof One Cannot Speak, Thereof One Must Prophesy 16.4 Journey to the End of the Day 16.4.1 Endgame Apocalypse 16.4.2 Decay, Fading Away: Schreber’s End of the World 16.4.3 Unfathomable Downfalls: Artaud IV 16.4.4 Stalemate on Paper: Harald Kaas’s End Finale: The Recipe for Crystal, or the Discovery of the Wheel I Earth II Air III Water IV Fire Acknowledgments Notes Introduction Overture Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Intermezzo I Introduction Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Intermezzo II Chapter 12 Intermezzo III Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Finale References Index