TY - JOUR
T1 - Experiments in self-interruption
T2 - A defining activity of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and other erotic practices
AU - Colapietro, Vincent
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - In this article I propose to explore psychoanalysis, philosophy, and other erotic practices as inevitably inclusive of experiments in self-interruption. Indeed, these practices are often such experiments more than anything else. I draw here not only upon Adam Phillips interruption but also on Stanley Cavell, Joan Acocella, and James Snead. The function of experiments in self- is, for at least some practitioners, to turn the qualities of experience upon themselves for the sake of intensifying, deepening, extending, and in other respects enhancing these qualities. In the process of doing so, pleasure can be made so intense as to be practically indistinguishable from pain, and pain or, more precisely, its overcoming, so integral to the execution of an activity as to be an integral part of an intrinsically pleasurable pursuit. Good and evil as well as pleasure and pain have their experiential meaning only in reference to the somatic (hence, erotic) practices of social actors, human or otherwise. "The old phrase 'stop and think' is," Dewey insists, "sound psychology." It is also critical for pedagogy, philosophy, politics, friendship, and much else. The art of stopping ourselves is, however, a more subtle and difficult one than we might appreciate.
AB - In this article I propose to explore psychoanalysis, philosophy, and other erotic practices as inevitably inclusive of experiments in self-interruption. Indeed, these practices are often such experiments more than anything else. I draw here not only upon Adam Phillips interruption but also on Stanley Cavell, Joan Acocella, and James Snead. The function of experiments in self- is, for at least some practitioners, to turn the qualities of experience upon themselves for the sake of intensifying, deepening, extending, and in other respects enhancing these qualities. In the process of doing so, pleasure can be made so intense as to be practically indistinguishable from pain, and pain or, more precisely, its overcoming, so integral to the execution of an activity as to be an integral part of an intrinsically pleasurable pursuit. Good and evil as well as pleasure and pain have their experiential meaning only in reference to the somatic (hence, erotic) practices of social actors, human or otherwise. "The old phrase 'stop and think' is," Dewey insists, "sound psychology." It is also critical for pedagogy, philosophy, politics, friendship, and much else. The art of stopping ourselves is, however, a more subtle and difficult one than we might appreciate.
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U2 - 10.5325/jspecphil.30.2.0128
DO - 10.5325/jspecphil.30.2.0128
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84974625269
SN - 0891-625X
VL - 30
SP - 128
EP - 143
JO - Journal of Speculative Philosophy
JF - Journal of Speculative Philosophy
IS - 2
ER -