Reinventing the Soul: Posthumanist Theory and Psychic Life

by Mari Ruti

Essential reading for scholars and students in critical theory, psychoanalysis, and gender studies.

How does the self care for itself in the posthumanist era? What psychic processes might allow the postmodern subject to find meaning and value in its life? Is it possible to delineate a theory of psychic potentiality that is compatible with poststructuralist models of fluid, decentered, and polyvalent subjectivity?

Reinventing the Soul offers a new perspective on what it means to be a human being and to strive in the world despite the wounding effects of the socialization process. Drawing on the rich legacies of French poststructuralism and Lacanian psychoanalysis, Ruti builds an affirmative alternative to the post-Foucaultian tendency to envision subjectivity as a function of hegemonic systems of power. She proposes that the subject's encounter with the world also necessarily activates the psyche's innovative potential. By focusing on matters of creative agency, imaginative empowerment, inner metamorphosis, and self-actualization, Ruti outlines some of the mechanisms by which the psyche manages not only to survive its lack, alienation, or suffering, but also to transform its abjection into an existentially livable reality. Central to Ruti's argument is the idea that human beings relate to the world in active rather than merely passive ways—as dynamic creators of meaning rather than as powerless dupes of disciplinary power.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Mari Ruti is Distinguished Professor of critical theory and of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada. She is an interdisciplinary scholar within the theoretical humanities working at the intersection of contemporary theory, continental philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, cultural studies, trauma theory, posthumanist ethics, and gender and sexuality studies.

Reviews

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruti offers a posthumanist humanism, of sorts. By wading through Lacan, Foucault, Butler, Nietzsche and many others, Ruti (I think successfully) navigates the postmodern de-centering of the subject by reestablishing meaning-making in life through what she dangerously calls a 'soul'. I liked it. I liked the clarity of her prose. I liked how she expressed her goals and fears in writing this book. And I liked how her humanism and ethical insight emerged from a postmodern worldview.

"What this suggests is that those of us working with posthumanist paradigms of subjectivity cannot assume that existential questions—questions about the best way to live, for instance—carry any less weight now than they did prior to 1968. The fact that the self is socio-culturally constituted, that it is alienated rather than self-identical, does not mean that it does not long to live its life meaningfully. No matter how sophisticated our critical insights into the ideological seductions, exclusions, and manipulations through which we come to inhabit particular subject positions, no matter how refined our understanding of the systems of signification and power that rob us of self-determination, and no matter how elaborate our efforts at cultural demystification, it is virtually impossible to exorcise, on the level of concrete lived experience, the appeal of a life well lived. Who among us does not strive to live life to the fullest? Who does not hunger for psychic and affective profundity? Who can resist the allure of a unique calling, the promise of passion, beauty, and creative insight?" (p.22).

[Blaze-Pascal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every book that Ruti writes, is a pleasure to read. She spoke of how she reads Nietzsche to find consolation, and it's probably the Nietzschean undertone of all her work that is the reason why I read Ruti for consolation. Whenever I am in the midst of melancholia, and in the process of metaphorizing that lack which becomes me, I have been turning to Ruti, because this is the essence of her work. How do we inhabit the lack of our being, so that we can embrace the singularity of our being, which our lack is foundational for.

The way she writes too is quite comforting in a sense. It feels like a loving teacher, and it's probably why in every single one of my reviews of her work, I refer to having a crush on her. It's hard not to, because the character she presents as the author of the book, is one who is embodying love. The work which is personal, is also universal in a sense.

I absolutely love her work. I also have been learning to love my lack. AMOR FATI.

[Päivi Metsäniemi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mari Ruti, miksi sinun piti kuolla, ja miksi me Suomessa kiinnitimme huomiota sinuun vasta kun teit kuolemaa ja lopulta kuolit? Ruti oli Itä-Suomessa vaatimattomiin oloihin syntynyt sukupuolentutkija ja kirjailija, joka teki uransa Yhdysvalloissa ja Kanadassa. Hän kirjoitti ison joukon kirjoja, jotka on suunnattu tutkijoiden lisäksi tavallisille kansalaisille, mutta helpoiksi niitä ei voi parhaalla tahdollakaan sanoa. MIelenkiintoisia kyllä, ja kirjoitettu kevyellä kynällä, kirkkaalla ajattelulla ja loputtomalla kiinnostuksella ihmistä ja ihmisyyttä kohtaan, välttäen itsestäänselvyyksiä ja parempi maailma mielessä.

Reinventing the soul käsittelee sielun ideaa aikana, joka on hylännyt sielun idean. Ruti kuitenkin löytää käsitteelle määritelmän ja syvyyden, joka väistämättä puhuttelee. Olen lukenut tätä kirjaa 11 kuukautta, pienen palan yleensä aamuisin, enkä ole koskaan mistään kirjasta ottanut muistiin niin montaa kohtaa. Päiväkirjani alkusivuille olen liimannut kaksi erilaista lainausta yksinolon merkityksestä ja mahdollisuudesta. Se onkin yksi ideoista, jotka ymmärsin selvimmin - tunnen niin huonosti psykoanalyysiä ja Nietscheä, että osa teksteistä jää kauemmas. Mutta Ruti tutkii mahdollilsuutta, että yksin ollessa ”sielumme” (persoonallisuuden, ihmisenä olemisen) syvemmät, leikkisämmät, markkinajärjestyksestä riippumattomammat puolet pääsevät esille. Samalla tavalla Ruti pohtii rakkauden, kärsimyksen ja muiden väistämättömien elämäntilojen vaikutusta omaan ”sielukkuuteemme” (en tee oikeutta yrittäessäni kertoa, miten hän ajatuksiaan rakentaa). Erityisen usein hän palaa lacanilaiseen teoriaan psyykestä, ja rakentaa lacanin teoriaa paremmin nykyaikaan sopivaksi ja järkevämmin sanoitetuksi, ja oikoo monia (minulle aiemmin tuntemattomia) Lacania kohtaan kohdistettuja kritiikkejä. Kiinnostavaa ja opettavaista. Samalla tavalla maallikko tutustuu moneen muuhunkin filosofiin ja psykoanalyytikkoon, ja oma kirjapino kasvaa merkittävällä tavalla.

Olen samalla lukenut Rutin myöhempää tuotantoa, joissa hän ammentaa vielä enemmän omasta henkilökohtaisesta elämästään (hän eli ja lopulta kuolikin yksin, mutta ei yksinäisenä, aina korostaen tätä eroa solituden ja lonelinessin välillä, suomen kieli ei samalla tavalla tavoita, käytän itse yksinoloa kuvaamaan valittua, mielekästä tilaa ja yksinäisyyttä kuvaamaan ei-vapaaehtoista, sielua syövää tilannetta), mikä ei ehkä sovi tieteentekijälle, mutta vaikean tieteen popularisoijalle sitäkin paremmin. Rutin tuotantoon ja ajatteluun voi tutustua myös muutamassa podcastissa, esim Why Theoryssa ja Sean Carroll’s Mindscapessa, joissa on hänen haastattelujaan (miten eloisa, viisas, ystävällisyyttä huokuva voi joku olla!) tai sitten hänen kuolemansa jälkeen tehtyjä jaksoja, jossa hänen elämäntyötään käydään läpi. Ne voivat olla kirjoja helpompia tapoja päästä selville, mitä Mari ajatteli ja tarkoitti.

Liitän arvioni loppuun toisen lainauksista, jotka luen käytännössä joka päivä, ja ajoittain jopa onnistunkin raivaamaan onnistutta, leikkisää ja luovaa ykisnolon aikaa.

”Solitude, in muting the immediacy of life’s multiple demands, can give the subject a glimpse of psychic domains rarely visited or apprehended, asking it to confront those aspects of its existence that under normal circumstances remain banished to the remote corners of its consciousness. This distillation of inner resources can contribute to the enrichment of the soul, and it in no way forecloses the possibility of loving interpersonal connections”

Kuka tekisi kulttuuriteon ja aloittaisi Rutin kirjojen suomentamisen? Entä järjestäisi (avoimen) yliopiston kurssin hänen ajattelustaan?

[Colin Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

For Mari Ruti, the wager of Reinventing the Soul is simple enough: "If we are to theorize away the humanist soul (or the metaphysical notion of interiority), then we should be able to replace it with a posthumanist set of hypotheses that conveys something constructive about human interiority and psychic life" (xiii). Ruti continues, "I think that by far the worst that could happen…would be for posthumanist criticism to be perceived as a form of theorizing that empties and devitalizes the human subject" (xiii). All of that is to say, Ruti wants to reconceptualize the soul away from particular traditional, humanist paradigms, but in doing so, she wants something constructive to emerge in the theoretical void Reinventing the Soul creates. In the "Introduction," she emphasizes this point by writing, "I have chosen this particular approach because I believe that those of us interested in progressive critical theory and political practice need an affirmative lens through which to analyze the realities of hegemonic power" (33).

Ruti suggests the soul is "a dynamic entity that connects the individual to the world at the same time as it provides a space for self-reflexivity" (20). This definition departs from many religiously-inflected connotations of the soul. For Ruti, the soul is not a part or piece of one's identity that one protects aggressively and vigorously (i.e., the transcendent self housed in a material meat sack). Like language, the soul is socialization, and like language, the soul is a site of lack and affirmation. Ruti continues, "I also like to think of the soul as being indicative of the subject's ability to meet its internal tensions and conflicts in such a manner that they do not deplete its psychic resources, but instead generate energy" (20). This reads like a distinctly psychoanalytic formulation of lack. That is to say, recognizing one's lack is far from a debilitating sensation. On the contrary, lack produces action and agitation. In a sense, "abundance at times flows from lack, opportunity from loss" (21).

One of the most important ideas Ruti explores, especially regarding the soul, is fragmentation. She writes, "rethinking interiority in the posthumanist era would entail, among other things, highlighting the psychic processes that enable the subject to come to terms with the ambiguity and fragmentation of its existence without losing its capacity for transformation" (70). Here, Ruti understands the soul in non-binary, dialectical terms. The soul is neither lack nor abjection, abundance nor excess. Instead, the soul is a philosophical expression of excess from lack and also lack from excess. The Nietzschean formulation for this idea is amor fati, which Ruti characterizes as loving "one's fate regardless of what this fate holds in store" (214). She continues, "The fate-loving subject accepts experiences as they come, without any attempt to deny or negate them, for it knows that what appears unbearable in the present moment may in the future turn out to be a source of existential wonder" (214).

Perhaps Ruti's most succinct description of the soul in Reinventing the Soul is her formulation of the individual subject's relationship to the collective, which is to say, social and communal relations. She writes, "It is when we are able to cultivate meaningful social and communal ties without losing our sense of being rooted in our own 'being' that we approach the soul—that we approach a way of inhabiting the world that remains open to it without being overly dependent on it" (105). Todd McGowan makes a similar point about the subject's relationship to the collective by suggesting that the subject can only understand itself as an individual by embracing collective relations, not avoiding them. Once again, what I like about this formulation is its non-binary, dialectical contours. Ironically enough, despite Freud's influence, Ruti adopts what Freud, far too often, seems incapable of adopting: dialectical formulations instead of binary ones.

[Goatboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well needed examination of whether there is personal meaning still to be found in our post-humanist, post-structuralist world. After you've stripped away any promised totality or wholeness from the Subject, how is that Subject supposed to continue in the world in full consciousness of where she stands in relation to the hegemonic systems said to control her every move and thought? Ruti does a beautiful job of demonstrating the possible freedoms to be found within the cracks of the System. If I fault her at all, it's in the slight repetitiveness of her writing and her defensiveness in continually fending off perceived attacks against her thoughts (especially in the first half of the book). As I believe this is her first main work - and assumed some derivation of her thesis - I think it can be understood as part of her process of breaking free from the ironic hegemony of post-structuralism.

When I was a graduate student in Anthropology my thinking was caught in a war between a cognitive theorist and a post-structuralist, both of whom I respected immensely, both of whom couldn't vouch for the beliefs of the other, and both unable to see that they could both be right in a nuanced combination of ideas. Forever we are caught in the web of our always calcifying ideals, defining ourselves by always pushing further away from the center of what is probably true.

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great deal of this book is fantastic, inspiring, and thought provoking. Every time I read the word 'potential,' I get shudders thinking about her thoughts therein.

I think Ruti's chapter on despair and melancholy and their necessary ties to creativity is a bit narrow in scope. But, for the mission she set out on and for room she gave herself to work, I think this book is quite good.

[Kay Chai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruti provides a soulful and constructive take on posthumanist theories that brilliantly reconciles the notion of a constructed, narrative/metaphorical self made up of externally obtained fictions, with the possibility of agency and autonomy. She argues that it is precisely because the self is constructed with metaphors that one is able to reconstruct it, by taking in newer, more enabling metaphors that prevent old, fossilized, and oppressive metaphors from running the show alone. This is what makes it possible to resist oppression and create a viable life for oneself, as opposed to the picture that many posthumanist thinkers have painted of humans as inevitably doomed to hegemonic suppression by dehumanizing dominant narratives. In her words, subjectivity, although constituted with pieces obtained externally, does not always equal subjection.

Ruti also provides a much needed distinction between harmful and loving forms of sociality, arguing that even though individualistic notions of the self that disdain the "masses" and communities are problematic, communities and relationships are not always conducive to one's wellbeing either, and health does not depend on our being alone or being with others, but on our ability to experience both our solitary, contemplative moments and our time with others as deeply satisfying.