Labyrinths of the Mind

Daniel R. White is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of Postmodern Ecology: Communication, Evolution, and Play, also published by SUNY Press. Gert Hellerich is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bremen, Germany. He has published two books in Germany on social and postmodern issues.

"Labyrinths of the Mind traces the archaeology of 'the self' within the context of shifts in communication and culture and breakdowns in modernist institutions. Drawing on Lacan, Foucault, Kafka, Kristeva, Bateson, and, especially, Nietzsche, its central move is to open up ideas of self-formation, what it terms, in its central metaphor, 'the postmodern labyrinth of the self.' At the heart of the book is a critique of the human sciences for what Foucault has termed its 'technologies of control.' Situating postmodernism as 'a radically enlightened diversity of movements,' the authors explore the effects of this decentralization on the 'self.' Their particular interest is to move the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and therapy in postmodern directions. White and Hellerich offer a masterful discussion of Nietzsche's seeming contradictions in his revaluations of consciousness and will, reason and truth." — Patti Lather, Ohio State University"This book is full of provocative flashes of brilliance, of odd juxtapositions of various authors, ideas, outcomes." — Mary Gergen, Pennsylvania State University

• Acknowledgments Introduction: Into the Labyrinth: The Self enters the Postmodern ConditionA Sketch of the LabyrinthThe Metaphysical Triad of ModernityChapter 1. Nietzsche at the Mall: Deconstructing the ConsumerThe Church of the ConsumerDecentering the Consumer SubjectLearning and the Self-Transformation of the ConsumerThe Will to Power and the Will to PlayNew Forms of EmpowermentInterlude: Nietzsche Goes to Hell (and so do we)Beyond Good and Evil: fröhliches KulturmachenChapter 2. They Might be Giants: Mental Patients in RebellionPsychiatry in the Labyrinth: Deconstructing DeviancyPostmodern Reflections on Modern Psychiatry: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)The Foundations of Modern ScienceThe Lineage of Modern PsychiatryDissidents from Scientific OrthodoxyThe DSM-IVChoose a CasePostmodern Critics of ModernismInsanity, Autopoiesis and the Opening of the LifeworldA Rose by Any Other NameChapter 3. Postmodern Metamorphosis: The Transformation of the Self from Modern to Postmodern Forms, or The Power of the Uninterpretable in Kafka's VerwandlungMarxist CriticismPsychoanalytic CriticismDeleuze and Guattari: Toward a Postmodern LandscapePostmodern MetamorphosisChapter 4. Nietzsche at the Altar: Situating the DevoteePrologueEvent-Scene I: The Situation: A Rock ConcertEvent-Scene II: Situation: War RagesThe Neocapitalist Imagology of the Sacred, or, Bush Does Baghdad : The TV Mini SeriesEvent-Scene III: The DionysiaThe Devotee of Life, or, God Quits Moralizing, Gets a Gender Change and Cultivates a Sense of HumorEvent-Scene IV: EncoreThe Philosophy of Laughter, or, Adam Flushes Money and Eve Ditches Bridge when they discover JouissanceChapter 5. Nietzsche's Joyous Health and Dionysian Ecology Nietzsche on the Table? Critical Narratives of a Postmodern "Im-Patient"Nietzche's CaseThe Narrative of Illness and Well-Being in Nietzsche's Autobiographical WritingsOn the sick Bed?: Nietzsche's "Joyous Illness""Diverse" versus "Normal" HealthDie Fröliche Gesundheit: Toward a New Philosophy of HealthA Genealogy of the Sick Bed: The Birth of the ClinicClimbing the Magic Mountain: Der Zauberberg as the Cultural Construction of Illness/HealthNietzsche Breaks out of the SanatoriumOff the Table and On the Road: The Will to PowerThe Ecological Self: Humanity and Nature in Nietzsche and GoetheThe Ecological Sensibility: Nietzsche and Goethe on Mind and NatureWill the Genuine Übermensch Please Rise?Ecological Premonitions: Nietzsche, Goethe and Dionysian EcologyRomanticism and Classicism: Toward a Genealogy of CyberneticsThe Ethical Self: Beyond Good and EvilToward a Poststructuralist CyberneticsThe Will to Life: The Ecological ÜbermenschConclusion Creating Alternatives: Toward a New Joyous ScienceNotes Works Cited Index