Paranoid Pedagogies: Education, Culture, and Paranoia (Palgrave Studies in Educational Futures)

This edited book explores the under-analyzed significance and function of paranoia as a psychological habitus of the contemporary educational and social moment. The editors and contributors argue that the desire for epistemological truth beyond uncertainty characteristic of paranoia continues to profoundly shape the aesthetic texture and imaginaries of educational thought and practice. Attending to the psychoanalytic, post-psychoanalytic, and critical significance of paranoia as a mode of engaging with the world, this book further inquires into the ways in which paranoia functions to shape the social order and the material desire of subjects operating within it. Furthermore, the book aims to understand how the paranoiac imaginary endemic to contemporary educational thought manifests itself throughout the social field and what issues it makes manifest for teachers, teacher educators, and academics working toward social transformation. Series Editor Foreword 6 Preface 8 Contents 15 Notes on Contributors 17 Chapter 1: Out of Our Minds: A Haphazard Consideration of Paranoia and Its Antecedents 22 A Feverish Genealogy 23 The Modern Paranoiac, Descartes 24 The Paranoiac in all Rationalists 26 Psychoanalysis and Paranoia 27 Paranoiac Superego 29 Knowledge and Paranoia 30 The Positive Potential of Paranoid Thinking 32 Postmodern Paranoia 33 What Paranoia Might Do 34 Paranoia and Education 35 Living Paranoia 37 Paranoid Pedagogies 38 Parting Thoughts 44 References 45 Part I: Paranoid Aesthetics 48 Chapter 2: The Menticide Sequence 49 Chapter 3: Penetrating Images: Paranoia in Media Pedagogy 56 Introduction: The Trope of the Reluctant Student 56 Lacan in Relation to the Image 59 The Violence of the Image 64 The Future of the Image 67 Addendum 70 References 71 Chapter 4: Pedagogy and Distance 73 Friending and Place 75 Swimsuits, Sakura, and Stupid Sensei 77 ‘Dr. ________’ Is My Name 78 The Kakure Bushi 80 Sameness and Transformation 82 Part II: Paranoid Society 84 Chapter 5: ‘The Last Judge’: The Paranoid Social Machine of Jack T. Chick’s Religious Tracts 85 ‘This Was Your Life!’: Introducing Jack Chick 88 ‘It’s the Law’: Paranoiac Social Organization 89 ‘The Mad Machine’: The Paranoiac World of Jack Chick 90 ‘The Deceived’: A World of Satanic Conspiracies 91 ‘One Way’: Chick’s Theology 95 ‘True Path’: The Paranoid Social Machine 97 ‘The Dreamer’: Transcendence and Paranoia 100 ‘Something in Common?’: Paranoia and Education 101 ‘The Awful Truth’: Paranoia and Curriculum 103 ‘The Great Escape’(?): Circuits of Desire 105 ‘Hard Times’: Paranoia and Schizophrenia 107 ‘Caught!’: Break Your Rusty Cage...and Run 109 References 110 Chapter 6: Making America Great (Again and Again): Certainty, Centrality, and Paranoiac Pedagogies of Social Studies Education in the United States 114 Elections Have Consequences (And So Does School Curricula) 114 Paranoia in Social Studies: You Probably Think This Class is About You (And It Is) 116 Affects/Effects of Certainty 120 March 17 Class Observation 122 Reflection on Bryan 123 Affects/Effects of Centrality 126 October 21 Classroom Observation 127 Reflection on Scott 129 Creating Effective Citizens: Concluding Thoughts 132 References 133 Chapter 7: Social Antibodies: Paranoid Impulses in Nativist Educational Reform 136 Introduction 136 Social Paranoia Defined 138 Brown Bodies in a Schizoid Nation 139 Nativist Organisms 144 Neo-Colonial Social Bodies and the Commons 146 Decolonial Pedagogies: Against Paranoia, Toward the Commons of Wellbeing 151 References 155 Part III: Paranoid Pedagogies 158 Chapter 8: It’s Been Getting Under My Skin: Paranoia, Parasitosis, and the Pedagogical Imperative 159 Prologue 159 One 162 Two 167 Three 172 References 179 Chapter 9: The Paranoid and Psychotic Pedagogies of Conspiracy Theory: Locating the Political in the Sinthome of Conspiratorial Logics 183 Prologue 183 Introduction 184 Pathology, Poverty, and Paranoia: Outlining Conspiracy’s Arcs 186 Becoming Psychotic 191 Paranoia as (Critical?) Pedagogy 196 Epilogue 200 References 200 Chapter 10: Ad-Hoc Means Necessity: An Assemblage Machine Infused with Paranoia for Generativity’s Sake 203 References 220 Index 221 Front Matter ....Pages i-xxi Out of Our Minds: A Haphazard Consideration of Paranoia and Its Antecedents (Jason J. Wallin, Jennifer A. Sandlin)....Pages 1-26 Front Matter ....Pages 27-27 The Menticide Sequence (Andrew Hammerand, Bucky Miller)....Pages 29-35 Penetrating Images: Paranoia in Media Pedagogy (jan jagodzinski)....Pages 37-53 Pedagogy and Distance (Doug Aoki)....Pages 55-65 Front Matter ....Pages 67-67 ‘The Last Judge’: The Paranoid Social Machine of Jack T. Chick’s Religious Tracts (Jennifer A. Sandlin, Jason J. Wallin)....Pages 69-97 Making America Great (Again and Again): Certainty, Centrality, and Paranoiac Pedagogies of Social Studies Education in the United States (Mark E. Helmsing)....Pages 99-120 Social Antibodies: Paranoid Impulses in Nativist Educational Reform (Nathalia E. Jaramillo, Erik Malewski)....Pages 121-142 Front Matter ....Pages 143-143 It’s Been Getting Under My Skin: Paranoia, Parasitosis, and the Pedagogical Imperative (Jennie Stearns, Charlie Blake)....Pages 145-168 The Paranoid and Psychotic Pedagogies of Conspiracy Theory: Locating the Political in the Sinthome of Conspiratorial Logics (Jake Burdick)....Pages 169-188 Ad-Hoc Means Necessity: An Assemblage Machine Infused with Paranoia for Generativity’s Sake (Jorge R. Lucero, Julio Cesar Morales)....Pages 189-206 Back Matter ....Pages 207-212 Annotation This edited work explores the under-analyzed significance and function of paranoia as a psychological habitus of the contemporary educational and social moment. The editors and contributors argue that the desire for epistemological truth beyond uncertainty characteristic of paranoia continues to profoundly shape the aesthetic texture and imaginaries of educational thought and practice