Some thoughts on the feminine/ language/ depression from this brilliant book
by Kristeva:
"Listen again for a few moments to depressive speech, repetitive,
monotonous, or empty of meaning, inaudible even for the speaker before he or
she sinks into mutism. You will note that, with melancholy persons, meaning
appears to be arbitary..."
And later:
"Unlike what happens with psychotics... those who are depressed maintain a
paternal signifier that is disowned, weakened, ambiguous, devalorized, but
nevertheless persistent until asymbolia shows up...depressed persons do not
forget how to use signs."
And later:
"The spectacular collapse of meaning with depressive persons- and, at the
limit, the meaning of life- allows us to assume that they experience
difficulty integrating the universal signifying sequence, that is, language.
In the best of cases, speaking beings and their language are like one..."
And also:
"In the analytic cure, the importance of speech's suprasegmental level
(intonation, rhythm) should lead the analyst... to extract the
infrasignifying meaning of depressive discourse that is hidden in fragments
of lexical items, in syllables, or in phonic groups yet strangely
semanticized."
A final quote:
(regarding 'The Brothers Karamazov')
"Dostoyevsky considers two antidotes for that catastropic motion: suffering,
and forgiveness. The two movements take place at the same time and, perhaps
thanks to an underground, dark revelation, difficult to grasp in the tangle
of Dostoyevsky's narrative, are nevertheless percieved with sleepwalking
lucidity by the artist... and the reader."
"Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia", Julia Kristeva, Columbia University
Press, 1989
Kristeva seems to be arguing in this book, amongst other things, that
clinical depression involves a collapse of speech's meaning, but that there
often remains a symbolic structure hidden behind the speech of most
depressives, if we can only listen for it. And also that to resolve despair,
a valid way out is forgiveness, which can both restore selfhood and speech's
meaning and allow for new and creative uses and awareness of language.
Anyhow, it's a great read, very thought provoking.
Cheers,
Cassie
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