Madness and the Social Link

"In these remarkable seminars Jean-Max Gaudillière guides us through encounters with madness—in the clinical setting, in literature, in the lives and thought of scientists, philosophers, social scientists, psychoanalysts, political thinkers—as a way of following the "erased traces" of the stories that have been cut out from official history. Moving among literary narratives, cultural rituals across the globe, conceptual thought, personal biographies, and his own clinical experiences, Dr. Gaudillière teaches us to recognize in madness a "research tool" into catastrophic pasts, a showing, in personal lives, of what has been muted and remains unspeakable within a larger History. At the heart of this stunning book is the exchange by which the "mad" and the listener (in clinical settings, rituals, literature, and conceptual writing) can together participate in the inscription of these collective traumas. What is ultimately at stake in this utterly innovative work—in Dr. Gaudillière’s profound and moving listening, reading and telling—is the possibility of making the frozen time of lost histories move again, and fighting the perversion by which history is lost. In a time in which we face the renewed threat of totalitarian violence, the lessons of madness that emerge from this book point not only to crucial personal, but also political truths."

Cathy Caruth, Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters at Cornell University

"In the first of two volumes, seven years of seminars taught by Jean Max Gaudillière , demonstrate the links between psychosis, literature, language, history, and the psychoanalyst’s courage and persistence in understanding madness in the clinical encounter. Moving between fiction, clinical stories, and theory from a wide range of authors, Gaudillière brings the force of both death and life into the psychoanalytic field of understanding trauma and madness. Françoise Davoine, has organized and translated the seminars in a masterful way allowing the reader to enter the profound depth of Gaudillière’s thinking about the erasure of history and the production of madness. Clinicians who work with patients who are delusional, traumatized, or psychotic will find the book opens a space for new and fresh thinking about the meaning of madness. Full of humanity, wisdom, and creativity, Lessons from Madness, teaches clinicians to listen simultaneously to what is said and what cannot be said because of the rupture of the social link. This is a critically important book."

Jane G. Tillman, PhD, Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director of the Erikson Institute

"This lively and erudite double volume on psychosis showcases the work of a master teacher and clinician who was already a post-Lacanian psychoanalyst in Paris while Lacan was still alive. Psychosis is the patient’s investigative tool,
shared in the transference with the analyst, for naming the traumatic catastrophe that has stopped time and destroyed all social links. The author shows this process of inscription through many generous clinical examples and by extensive examples from literature, political texts, social thought, and other psychoanalysts. This rich work provides a much-needed thoughtful perspective for those who work with patients."

John Muller, Senior Erikson Scholar, Austen Riggs Centre

"Françoise Davoine’s transcriptions of the seminars she conducted with Max Gaudillière for thirty years in Paris brilliantly illuminate the psychic territory where the cataclysms of history intersect with personal story in trauma, breakdown, and psychosis. Here the texts of Cervantes, Sterne, Strindberg, Pirandello, Charlotte Beradt, Kensaburo Oe,Tony Morrison, and others, along with the words and gestures of particular patients, reveal the individual link to collective horror, horror which cannot be assimilated or thought but is nevertheless embodied and enacted. It seems to me that in this moment of global political nightmares, the lessons to be learned from reading Lessons From Madness are urgently needed."

Siri Hustvedt

"In these remarkable seminars Jean-Max Gaudillière guides us through encounters with madness – in the clinical setting, in literature, in the lives and thought of scientists, philosophers, social scientists, psychoanalysts, political thinkers – as a way of following the 'erased traces' of the stories that have been cut out from official history. Moving among literary narratives, cultural rituals across the globe, conceptual thought, personal biographies, and his own clinical experiences, Dr. Gaudillière teaches us to recognize in madness a 'research tool' into catastrophic pasts, a showing, in personal lives, of what has been muted and remains unspeakable within a larger History. At the heart of this stunning book is the exchange by which the 'mad' and the listener (in clinical settings, rituals, literature, and conceptual writing) can together participate in the inscription of these collective traumas. What is ultimately at stake in this utterly innovative work – in Dr. Gaudillière’s profound and moving listening, reading and telling – is the possibility of making the frozen time of lost histories move again, and fighting the perversion by which history is lost. In a time in which we face the renewed threat of totalitarian violence, the lessons of madness that emerge from this book point not only to crucial personal, but also political truths".

Cathy Caruth, Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters at Cornell University

"In the first of two volumes, seven years of seminars taught by Jean Max Gaudillière demonstrate the links between psychosis, literature, language, history, and the psychoanalyst’s courage and persistence in understanding madness in the clinical encounter. Moving between fiction, clinical stories, and theory from a wide range of authors, Gaudillière brings the force of both death and life into the psychoanalytic field of understanding trauma and madness. Françoise Davoine has organized and translated the seminars in a masterful way, allowing the reader to enter the profound depth of Gaudillière’s thinking about the erasure of history and the production of madness. Clinicians who work with patients who are delusional, traumatized, or psychotic will find the book opens a space for new and fresh thinking about the meaning of madness. Full of humanity, wisdom, and creativity, Madness and the Social Link teaches clinicians to listen simultaneously to what is said and what cannot be said because of the rupture of the social link. This is a critically important book".

Jane G. Tillman, PhD, Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director of the Erikson Institute

"This lively and erudite double volume on psychosis showcases the work of a master teacher and clinician who was already a post-Lacanian psychoanalyst in Paris while Lacan was still alive. Psychosis is the patient’s investigative tool, shared in the transference with the analyst, for naming the traumatic catastrophe that has stopped time and destroyed all social links. The author shows this process of inscription through many generous clinical examples and by extensive examples from literature, political texts, social thought, and other psychoanalysts. This rich work provides a much-needed thoughtful perspective for those who work with patients."

John Muller, Senior Erikson Scholar, Austen Riggs Centre

"Françoise Davoine’s transcriptions of the seminars she conducted with Jean-Max Gaudillière for thirty years in Paris brilliantly illuminate the psychic territory where the cataclysms of history intersect with personal story in trauma, breakdown, and psychosis. Here the texts of Cervantes, Sterne, Strindberg, Pirandello, Charlotte Beradt, Kenzaburō Ōe,Tony Morrison, and others, along with the words and gestures of particular patients, reveal the individual link to collective horror, horror which cannot be assimilated or thought but is nevertheless embodied and enacted. It seems to me that in this moment of global political nightmares, the lessons to be learned from reading Madness and the Socail Link are urgently needed".

Siri Hustvedt, American novelist