Query for fun & making trouble ;->

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Jan 9 11:05:42 PST 2002


Carrol Cox wrote:


>Conspiracy theories usually seem to claim that there is only a symbolic
>relationship between appearances (or empirical actuality) and essence
>(or reality or cause).
>
>Is not psychoanalysis a conspiracy theory of human behavior?

Uh, what? Psa depends on the belief that a person's life history determines in some part their temperament and behavior. It also takes seriously what people say and how they say it, as offering clues to what goes on under the surface. In that sense, "symbols" are deeply meaningful. Wouldn't a literary critic agree?

This "merely symbolic" reminds me of Judith Butler's "merely cultural."

Doug



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