God of Psychotics: The Case of Judge Daniel Paul Schreber and Beyond

• 作者: Natalia Luiza Carneiro Lopes Acioly
• 来源期刊: 哲学研究:英文版
• 学科: 文学
• 关键词: father GOD Master of Signifier PARANOIA PSYCHOSES
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（12）
• 页码范围: 807-817
• 页数: 11页
• 分类号: H31

摘要

Schreber’s doctor,Professor Flechsig,believed that his patient was a sick and irrational man that should be deprived of his legal capacities.The assessment prevailing at that time of people afflicted with psychoses was that they are uncontrollable and unable of logical thinking.This condition widely remained medically undefined.However,a certain awareness can be detected in Schreber’s manner of dealing with his repressed desires—homosexuality,narcissism,and megalomania.We assume that his conviction came from using God as a filter for the thoughts that were consuming him and as a tool in reaching a sort of acceptance towards his condition.At the root of his problems was the conflicted relationship with his father(his inability to establish the Master of Signifier).Perceiving God as a super-father figure was a vital strategy for Schreber in his search for a cure.The larger issue of psychosis is its invisibility and our tendency as a society to sideline people afflicted with this type of mental issue and not seeing them as regular citizens.Whilst analyzing the case of Judge Daniel Paul Schreber and relating it to the concept of God,the conclusion that stood out the most was how God was a key strategy in resolving and accepting his delusions towards the establishment of a signifier:the Name-of-the-Father.