1.25.2011

The Noble Lie of the Schizo

Deleuze writes extensively on schizophrenics. His schizophrenic is related to, but different from a clinical schizophrenic. "Schizos", as he calls them, engage in a scrambling of the codes of language, of meaning, of sense. Schizos, best exemplified perhaps by the later writings of Antonin Artaud, cannot be pinned down by any law, by any process of deduction. They are constantly slipping into another dimension by means of evasion, dissimulation, nonsense, violence. Why do they do this? What are they protecting? My best guess is the noble lie. There is a construct that justifies their erratic, harmful, nonsensical behavior to themselves. It is not thought of as a lie, but it is a lie, just as every social law is a social construction born of circumstance then solidified through reification.

One other interesting thing is that social organizations, such as a jail, a school, or a company can demonstrate schizophrenic behavior and hide noble lies just as well as an individual can. Schizo organizations can evade, dissimulate, provoke violence, and produce nonsense explanations.

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