Human body in Western philosophy has been always described as the matter opposed to the Reason. However, this scheme cannot be applied to modern French philosophy in which dialectics reason – body is comprehended as an act of violence and exclusion of the body. For Deleuze there is vital need to understand the human being as an entirety. It is possible only as a version of materialistic, psychoanalytic thought. Deleuze refuses therefore autonomy of subject and tries to connect the subject and his body with “social mechanisms”. Finally human’s body is understood only as a source of pure social functions, presented as a “Body without Organs”.
The problem of time was very important in the theory of phenomenology. Husserl understood that this is the basis of his research. That is why phenomenology of the time was scrutinized with a great importance. Conception of non-linear time and many possibilities of philosophical re-thinking the same moment of the time were the results of that theoretical model. Reading Husserl’s works Derrida is impressed with them. His analysis of phenomenology starts with a general question: if the conception of the time contains mistakes should we still accept the entire phenomenology at all? Accordingly, French philosopher finds three moments of that theory, which are illegitimated. However Derrida doesn’t want to refuse the phenomenology. In that three problematic points he offers his own, very interesting solutions.
Heterotopia is the space of otherness, a counter-space. A very specific type of heterotopia is a human’s body, especially in its illness and sickness. Hysteria, the disease which can imitate many other diseases, is here a crucial example. From its ancient beginnings until today hysteria makes us reflect on the essence of illness and disease, on the definition of the human condition, on the social role of a healthy and ill human body, etc. The archeology of hysteria explains how disorders shape medical standards.
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