The Ontology of the Accident: An Essay on Destructive Plasticity 1st Edition by Catherine Malabou (PDF)

Description

In the usual order of things, lives run their course and eventually one becomes who one is. Bodily and psychic transformations do nothing but reinforce the permanence of identity. But as a result of serious trauma, or sometimes for no reason at all, a subject’s history splits and a new, unprecedented persona comes to live with the former person – an unrecognizable persona whose present comes from no past and whose future harbors nothing to come; an existential improvisation, a form born of the accident and by accident. Out of a deep cut opened in a biography, a new being comes into the world for a second time. What is this form? A face? A psychological profile? What ontology can it account for, if ontology has always been attached to the essential, forever blind to the aléa of transformations? What history of being can the plastic power of destruction explain? What can it tell us about the explosive tendency of existence that secretly threatens each one of us? Continuing her reflections on destructive plasticity, split identities and the psychic consequences experienced by those who have suffered brain injury or have been traumatized by war and other catastrophes, Catherine Malabou invites us to join her in a philosophic and literary adventure in which Spinoza, Deleuze and Freud cross paths with Proust and Duras.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Situating the concept of plasticity within the history of philosophy, specifically the work of Hegel, Catherine Malabou has developed the means of invigorating philosophy’s relation to science. Here she takes up the challenge of rethinking ‘destruction’, ‘negativity’, ‘loss’ and ‘death’; terms which stand opposed to plasticity within the structure of plasticity itself. This work marks a significant development in Malabou’s important philosophical project.”Andrew Benjamin, Monash University “Through profiles of Spinoza, Deleuze, Proust, Kafka, Duras, Freud and others, Catherine Malabou has produced an exciting extension of her analysis of plasticity in its darkest and most disturbing dimension. Explosive plasticity – catastrophe, breakdown, destruction without remission, repair or promise – sculpts a new deformed form, a deviation in being as a form of being, an adieu to life while still alive, each with a phenomenology of its own. Her exploration of the accident as a category of being confirms once again her reputation as one of the brightest stars of the new generation of French philosophers.”John D. Caputo, Syracuse University About the Author Catherine Malabou is Professor of Philosophy at Kingston University London.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐At a mere 90 pages, this is a good introduction to Malabou, someone touted as a contemporary philosophical influencer. Her writing (translated into English) is engaging, but felt one-sidedly subjectivistic, almost to the point of nihilistic: “annihilation hides within the very constitution of identity.” Nonetheless, her point is well taken: nothing is fixed, and to try and fix (freeze, ontologize) it is to risk destroying it.

⭐The first thing to be noted about this book is the author’s claim that the human brain has not occupied the attention of philosophers hitherto, with a straightforward counterexample being Patricia and Paul Churchland. The work exists in a kind of “boundary” between philosophy and science, and it would take some alteration (but no major) for this book to find its place their also. As such it would be premature to call this book “neurophilosophy” as one could easily say of the work of the Churchlands, but it still contains some provocative and interesting assertions, and is worth taking the time to read and study.Being a work of philosophy one should not expect to find discussion of medical case studies in this book for the phenomenon of “destructive plasticity”. Philosophers talk loud but don’t usually carry a big scientific stick. The author does provide plausible discussion however, and she draws on results from neuroscience and Freudian patient studies, even though she is not focused enough to use these results to give empirical or medical plausibility to her claims.Greek mythology and the writings of Franz Kafka are used as a kind of evidence for destructive plasticity, but phrases such as “post-traumatic subjectivity” are not discussed in sufficient detail and the Freudian “death drive” is taken seriously. The author does view neurobiology as being a legitimate field of inquiry, but reminds the reader the Freud rejected his classification as a neurologist.It is clear that the author wants to distinguish destructive plasticity from the gradual and continuous change which operates on the self, leaving it as a fixed point under this transformation. Rather, destructive plasticity is a radical discontinuous transformation that replaces the self with another one. This transformation, or what the author calls “explosive plasticity” is one that changes the number nature of the particular neuronal connections responsible for the construction of personality. It is a fact though that much of contemporary neuroscience calls into question the existence of a self, and if this is the case much of the discussion in this book would be somewhat vacuous, if not entirely so.

⭐Catherine Malabou is on the very cutting edge of philosophy, and this small book will have a large impact on the new century. As our social stance in the west has become more and more sensitized to individual and collective trauma (there is good and bad in this), and at the same time as we have become more and more engaged in producing trauma through war and poverty, we have every right to consider the traumatic mind as a new ontological entity. In other words, there is a clue here to why we are stuck as a society: the effects have come to overwhelm the causes. But in studying, even over-analyzing, the effects, we may learn a new way to go back and reconceptualize causes. Perhaps trauma itself has become ontology, and history is now nothing but an ongoing means of feeding the need for trauma as self-awareness.

⭐I was able to follow her narrative; especially because of the examples she used. I was not able to follow the final chapter on first reading, may try again. As I am an elderly person and not quite ready to give up the ghost, I’m not sure that changes going on with me are all that destructive . . . some are, for sure . . . but I am very active as a performing musician, watercolorist, and writer at 79.

⭐If you’re reading Malabou, you’re lilkely comfortable with the continental tradition. I’m not so much, so the way that she does philosophy is difficult for me to handle. Of course, the content is really excellent and after some time with the book I understand the importance of the tradition in which the book is written and the way that the arguments are expressed. It basically introduces ‘destructive plasticity’ and then gives a few case examples of it.

⭐This book helped considerably with my grieving process – it helped me understand the changes witnessed in a loved one with dementia and to find ways to conceptualize change and identity

⭐The book starts out interesting and the theories proposed are compelling. As it goes on it seems to be reaching at straws and the examples become less dynamic. It was an interesting read, either way.

⭐The basic thrust of this essay is that something traumatic changes every aspect of being. The author uses a lot of words to say just that.

⭐Fine summary of Catharine’s thinking so far, in one easily digestible and clearly written little book which should enhance most libraries.

⭐An interesting book, well written, interesting cover. Would read again.

⭐A useful read for back ground reading for my PhD studies.

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