The plasticity of human desire Humans are the most un-natural of all the animals. We might frame this observation in terms of the contrast which psychoanalysis draws between instincts and drives. Matthew Stanley • Psychoanalysis
Killing ourselves in order to live Self-harm is riddled with fruitful contradictions. Do we hurt ourselves in order to kill ourselves or in order to save ourselves? Matthew Stanley • Psychoanalysis
Samsara Audio: A conversation with Javier Rivera Javier Rivera is someone I met earlier this year (and I've plugged his writing before on this newsletter), but I'm continually impressed with his raw and unique insights which flow from an earnest wrestling with the complexity of human relationships. Javier Rivera is a student of Matthew Stanley • Psychoanalysis
Oedipus in a Biopolitical World (Part 3) Thus – while the glory of Oedipus the King has passed, I propose that we should hail the appearance of a new and different king – the prophet Job. Matthew Stanley • Theology
Oedipus in a Biopolitical world (Part 2) With the emergence of the biopolitical state, death no longer appears as the point of power’s absolute exercise, but rather as the appearance of its mysterious failure. Matthew Stanley • Psychoanalysis
Oedipus in a Biopolitical World (Part 1) Foucault’s critique raises the question of how a psychoanalytic theory which is based on the notion of repression can speak to a society which everywhere commands the liberation of desire. Matthew Stanley • Philosophy
