Catherine Malabou’s Followers (126)

Catherine Malabou

Born

in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria

June 18, 1959

Genre

Philosophy, Nonfiction, Art

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Catherine Malabou (b. 1959) is a French philosopher. She is a professor of philosophy at The European Graduate School / EGS and professor of modern European philosophy at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) at Kingston University, London. She is known for her work on plasticity, a concept she culled from Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, which has proved fertile within contemporary economic, political, and social discourses. Widely regarded as one of the most exciting figures in what has been called “The New French Philosophy,” Malabou’s research and writing covers a range of figures and issues, including the work of Hegel, Freud, Heidegger, and Derrida; the relationship between philosophy, neuroscience, and psychoa Catherine Malabou (b. 1959) is a French philosopher. She is a professor of philosophy at The European Graduate School / EGS and professor of modern European philosophy at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) at Kingston University, London. She is known for her work on plasticity, a concept she culled from Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, which has proved fertile within contemporary economic, political, and social discourses. Widely regarded as one of the most exciting figures in what has been called “The New French Philosophy,” Malabou’s research and writing covers a range of figures and issues, including the work of Hegel, Freud, Heidegger, and Derrida; the relationship between philosophy, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis; and concepts of essence and difference within feminism.

Born in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria, Catherine Malabou began her advanced studies at the Université Paris-Sorbonne before attending the prestigious École normale supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud, where, in 1994, she submitted her dissertation on G.W.F. Hegel under the direction of Jacques Derrida. Her thesis was published in 1996 under the title L’avenir de Hegel: Plasticité, temporalité, dialectique (The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality and Dialectic, 2005) with a long preface by Derrida, whom she would later co-author La Contre-allée (1999; Counterpath, 2004). Before arriving at Kingston University, Malabou became assistant professor at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre in 1995 and, as a frequent lecturer in the USA, has taught at UC Berkeley, The New School in New York City, New York State University at Buffalo, the University of Wisconsin in Madison, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, and, most recently, UC Irvine.

Catherine Malabou’s philosophical work forges new connections and intellectual networks that imaginatively leap across existing synaptic gaps between, for example, continental philosophy and neuroscience; the philosophy of neuroscience and the critique of capitalism; neuroscience and psychoanalysis; and continental and analytic philosophy (notably Kant). As well, her work is explosive and iconoclastic, shattering perceived understandings of Hegel, feminism and gender, and the implications of post-structuralism.

Starting with her 2004 book, Que faire de notre cerveau? (What Should We Do With Our Brain?, 2009), Catherine Malabou has argued passionately and provocatively for a connection between continental philosophy and empirical neuroscience. She centers her argument on a highly original interpretation of the concept of plasticity, an interpretation that she first uncovered in her reading of Hegel’s dialectic. Plasticity refers to the capacity both to receive form and to give form. Although the concept of plasticity is central to neuroscience, Malabou’s work shows that neuroscientists and lay people often misunderstand the basic plasticity of the brain, succumbing to an ideology that focuses solely on its capacity to receive form, that is, the capacity of the brain to be shaped in and through its experience of the world to the exclusion of its creative, form-giving power. In other words, the reigning ideology that governs both the neuroscientific community and the broader culture substitutes flexibility for plasticity, and flexibility, Malabou warns us, “is plasticity minus its genius.” The emphasis on flexibility also fits all too neatly with the demands of capitalism under neoliberalism, which demands efficiency, flexibility, adaptability and versatility as conditions of employability in a post-Fordist economy. The creative, form-giving power of the brain—its genius—consists in its explosive capacity, a capacity that unleashes new possibilities, and herein also lies the capacity for resistance. In her conclusion, Catherine Malabou writes: “To ask ‘What should we do with our brain?’ is above all to visualize the possibility of saying no to an afflicting economic, political, and mediatic culture that celebrate ...more

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Catherine Malabou’s books

Average rating: 3.95 · 1,571 ratings · 192 reviews · 61 distinct works • Similar authors

	What Should We Do with Our Brain? (Que faire de notre cerveau?) by Catherine Malabou, Sebastian Rand (Translator), Marc Jeannerod (Introduction) 3.91 avg rating — 358 ratings — published 2004 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ontology of the Accident: An Essay on Destructive Plasticity by Catherine Malabou, Carolyn Shread (Translator) 3.73 avg rating — 345 ratings — published 2009 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Il piacere rimosso. Clitoride e pensiero 3.86 avg rating — 244 ratings — published 2020 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality and Dialectic 4.43 avg rating — 97 ratings — published 1996 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing: Dialectic, Destruction, Deconstruction by Catherine Malabou, Clayton Crockett (Goodreads Author) (Foreword), Carolyn Shread (Translator) 4.02 avg rating — 62 ratings — published 2004 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain Damage 4.07 avg rating — 59 ratings — published 2007 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Morphing Intelligence: From IQ Measurement to Artificial Brains by Catherine Malabou, Carolyn Shread (Translation) 3.77 avg rating — 56 ratings — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Changing Difference: The Question of the Feminine in Philosophy 4.25 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 2009 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	¡Al ladrón! Anarquismo y filosofía by Catherine Malabou, Horacio Pons (Traductor) 4.11 avg rating — 35 ratings — published 2022 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality 4.52 avg rating — 25 ratings — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Catherine Malabou (?)

“To ask ‘What should we do with our brain?’ is above all to visualize the possibility of saying no to an afflicting economic, political, and mediatic culture that celebrates only the triumph of flexibility, blessing obedient individuals who have no greater merit than that of knowing how to bow their heads with a smile.”
― Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?

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“Decadence has two rhythms, two melodies, the first a slow waltz, the second dissonant and quick, the plastic creation of the lightening bolt.”
― Catherine Malabou, Ontology of the Accident: An Essay on Destructive Plasticity

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“Por masturbação, a cultura sexual masculina compreende não somente o autoerotismo, como qualquer forma de estimulação dos órgãos sexuais que não seja o coito. […] Para essa cultura”, continua Lonzi, “a sexualidade clitoridiana só pode atuar por meio da masturbação, mesmo que praticada por um(a) parceiro/a”. Importa afirmar, ao contrário, a carícia clitoridiana como relação sexual por completo. “Em nossa opinião, a diferença entre masturbação e não masturbação está na percepção da presença do outro e na troca erótica, não na execução de um modelo de coito” – modelo inteiramente determinado pelos “valores ideológicos da penetração heterossexual procriadora”. A questão do gozo clitoridiano é indissociável da questão política da subjetivação. A afirmação da mulher clitoridiana é o ponto de partida de um tipo novo de devir-sujeito. Lonzi estabelece uma relação determinante entre clitóris e pensamento quando declara que ser clitoridiana significa para uma mulher “pensar na primeira pessoa”. De fato, é impossível pensar por si mesma sem se conhecer, e se conhecer sem saber onde está e qual é o seu prazer. Na escola, escreve Lonzi, “os jovens aprendem o funcionamento da procriação, não o prazer sexual”. Se existe, por exceção, uma distância redutível, é aquela, muito pouco interrogada, entre saber pensar e saber gozar. Entre saber como formamos nossa cabeça e de que maneira a perdemos.
Daí o conceito de autoconsciência (autocoscienza). Para uma mulher, a autoconsciência de seu sexo e de seu prazer distingue-se da consciência de ser dessa ou daquela maneira, vaginal ou clitoridiana. Não se trata de aceitar um dado de nascimento, uma forma de fatalidade. A autoconsciência desperta aquilo de que ela é a consciência, isto é, a verdadeira fonte do desejo. É assim que ela permite, antes de tudo, acabar com a culpa pela suposta frigidez vaginal. A “mulher vaginal” é de fato apenas uma projeção do esquema sexual masculino, uma fabricação da “cultura patriarcal [que] conseguiu manter o clitóris escondido e inutilizado”. “Como é possível que a mulher vaginal hesite em se conscientizar de problema sexual tão vasto?”, prossegue Lonzi. Porque a cultura patriarcal é precisamente uma cultura da clitoridectomia.”
― Catherine Malabou, Il piacere rimosso. Clitoride e pensiero

tags: clitoris

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