Downes, Paul (2013) Developing Derrida’s psychoanalytic graphology: diametric and concentric spatial movements. Derrida Today, 6 (2). pp. 197-221. ISSN 1754-8519
Abstract
Derrida’s work encompasses dynamic spatial dimensions to understanding as a pervasive theme, including the search for a ‘new psychoanalytic graphology’ in Writing and Difference. This preoccupation with a spatial text for repression also occurs later in Archive Fever. Building on Derrida, this paper seeks to develop key aspects of a new dynamic psychoanalytic graphology through diametric and concentric interactive spatial relation. These spatial movements emerge from a radical reconstruction of a neglected aspect of structural anthropologist LéviStrauss’ work on spatial relations prior to myth. This psychoanalytic graphology is argued to silently pervade Freud’s own direct accounts of repression. This graphological domain is developed through diametric and concentric spatial movements across common concerns of Derrida and Freud such as inversions, interruption and restoration, regarding traces in the unconscious. A spatial text is uncovered for diverse features of Freudian repression, including ambivalence in obsessional neurosis and psychosis, splitting of the ego and repetition compulsion. This psychoanalytic graphology challenges the construction of a restricted subjectivity based on repressive diametric spatial relations. It goes beyond Freud’s logocentric repression, resonant with Derrida’s more radical call for a wider spatio-temporal understanding of structures of differential relation, prior to causality and myth.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article (Published) |
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Refereed: | Yes |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | spatial relations; spatio-temporal understanding; differential relation; Psychoanalysis |
Subjects: | Medical Sciences > Psychology |
DCU Faculties and Centres: | DCU Faculties and Schools > Institute of Education > School of Human Development |
Publisher: | Edinburgh University Press |
Official URL: | http://dx.doi.org/ 10.3366/drt.2013.0064 |
Copyright Information: | © Edinburgh University Press |
Use License: | This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. View License |
ID Code: | 21494 |
Deposited On: | 05 Dec 2016 16:33 by Thomas Murtagh . Last Modified 02 Mar 2022 15:37 |
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