Psychoanalysis, Deleuze and Schizophrenia by Paul Moyaert

Psychoanalysis, Deleuze and Schizophrenia by Paul Moyaert

In Psychoanalysis, Deleuze and Schizophrenia: The Self-Organization of Madness, Paul Moyaert draws on his readings of psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan, Klein) and Deleuze in order to explore the idea of "madness" and better understand schizophrenia in terms of its own power.

Deleuze observed that psychiatry and psychoanalysis are both easily inclined to negatively assess, or more properly, negatively judge schizophrenia. According to a negative definition, psychotic symptoms indicate a dysfunction, however the author seeks to challenge this notion and identify how schizophrenia organizes itself, and has the power to find and create solutions within the field of its own conflicting tensions. Using many clinical examples to support his claim, Moyaert aims to show how Deleuze's metaphysical approach to understanding schizophrenia has great therapeutic value.

This is essential reading for psychotherapists, clinicians, and even philosophers wishing to better understand these different kinds of psychotic functions and looking for evidence-based alternatives to the DSM diagnostic criteria.

Paul Moyaert is a professor of philosophy at the KU Leuven. He studied philosophy in Leuven and Paris and is author of different monographs amongst others on the ethics of Lacan, on Deleuze and the death drive. He is a trained psychoanalyst and worked for many years in a psychiatric hospital.