Why Theory

Coronavirus and Its Discontents

Mar 21, 2020 · 1 hr 17 min · 74.5 MBExplicit
0:00-1:17:38

Streams straight from the publisher. podnod never proxies or re-hosts episode audio.

In this episode, Ryan and Todd discuss the political implications of the coronavirus pandemic. They lay out the differences between a natural disaster and an emergency that has a clear enemy. They explore the implications that the response to virus has for the concept of biopower and the idea that we have been reduced to bare life today.

From listener and clinician Conor McCormack:
Structures are key to Lacanian practice and the parameters of differential diagnoses and can currently be nicely discerned in reactions to Coronavirus.

Melancholia: It doesn't matter, I'm already dead

Schizophrenia: I hadn't noticed

Paranoia: I knew this was going to happen

Obsessional Neurosis: We'll all be ok if we follow the rules

Hysteria: Who's in charge here anyway?