Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Signifiance and Interpretosis

It's been years that this basic idea follows me. I never knew where I got it.

It's around the idea of Social Neurosis: neurotic behaviours that are not considered sick. Things that are obviously Neurotic but at the same time are part of our way of being "normal".
All health professionals will say the same: the different between a Neurosis and what I'm talking about here is the suffering: a real Neurosis always involves suffering.

We are all Neurotic, being neurotic is part of being normal. But some types of Neurosis, some ways of being neurotic are considered a disease. The normal mechanisms are the same as the sick mechanisms, neurotic mechanisms.

The neurotic mechanisms of normality are varied. I just wanted to post Deleuze talking about one of many varieties of this mechanism, the most important variety for him:
"In truth, signifiance and interpretosis are the two diseases of the earth or the skin, in other words, humankind's fundamental neurosis.", Mille Plateaux, Deleuze

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