Camille Robcis, a historian from Columbia University, delves into her book 'Disalienation,' which examines radical psychiatry in postwar France. She discusses the evolution of institutional psychotherapy, highlighting influential figures like Frantz Fanon and Michel Foucault. Robcis explores how historical contexts, from WWII to capitalism, shaped mental health practices. The conversation also connects psychoanalysis with political movements, reflecting on contemporary social dynamics and the impact of unconscious influences on activism, notably in today's climate against neoliberalism.
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Tosquelles's Political Psychiatry
François Tosquelles, a Catalan psychiatrist, treated combatants and refugees during the Spanish Civil War.
This experience solidified his belief in the interconnectedness of psychiatry and politics.
insights INSIGHT
The Politics of Space
Physical spaces like asylums and prisons can have profound psychological and political effects on individuals.
Institutional psychotherapy aimed to create healing collectives by transforming these spaces.
insights INSIGHT
Rethinking Transference
Institutional psychotherapy, influenced by Lacan, rethought transference for psychotic patients.
They used collective activities to manage transferential relations and foster a healing environment.
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Politics, Philosophy, and Radical Psychiatry in Postwar France
Camille Robcis
Camille Robcis's "Disalienation" explores institutional psychotherapy in postwar France, focusing on Saint-Alban Hospital. The book examines the movement's key thinkers, including their responses to fascism and colonialism. Robcis analyzes the interplay between psychiatric practice and political theory, highlighting the blurring of boundaries between theory and praxis. The work delves into the concepts of alienation, the unconscious, and the political implications of institutional structures. It offers a nuanced historical perspective on the movement's evolution and its lasting relevance.
Anti-Oedipus
Félix Guattari
Gilles Deleuze
In 'Anti-Oedipus,' Deleuze and Guattari critique the Freudian/Lacanian psychoanalytic model of the ego, particularly the Oedipus complex. They argue that human desire is not rooted in familial relationships but in broader socio-political contexts. The book introduces the concept of 'schizoanalysis,' a method aimed at freeing desire from capitalist and familial repression. It delves into the relationship between capitalism and schizophrenia, suggesting that capitalism exploits and commodifies desires rather than repressing them. The authors propose a radical analysis that synthesizes political economy and psychology, introducing concepts such as desiring-machines, deterritorialization, and the body-without-organs[1][3][4].
The Law of Kinship, Anthropology, Psychoanalysis, and the Family in France
The Law of Kinship, Anthropology, Psychoanalysis, and the Family in France
Anthropology, Psychoanalysis, and the Family in France
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Jacques Lacan
On this episode, J.J. Mull interviews scholar and historian Camille Robcis. In her most recent book, Disalienation: Politics, Philosophy, and Radical Psychiatry in Postwar France(University of Chicago Press, 2021), Robcis grapples with the historical, intellectual, psychiatric and psychoanalytic meaning of institutional psychotherapy as articulated at Saint-Alban Hospital in France by exploring the movement’s key thinkers, including François Tosquelles, Frantz Fanon, Félix Guattari, and Michel Foucault. Anchored in the history of one hospital, Robcis's study draws on a wide geographic context—revolutionary Spain, occupied France, colonial Algeria, and beyond—and charts the movement's place within a broad political-economic landscape, from fascism to Stalinism to postwar capitalism.
J.J. Mull is a poet, training clinician, and graduate student at Smith College School for Social Work currently living in Northampton, MA. He can be reached at jmull@smith.edu.
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