ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies that the notion of violence at play within Cornelius Castoriadis’s thought is particularly broad, being synonymous with the experience of any other that impinges on the enclosure of the psychic monad. It argues that the violence encountered during the socialization process is not necessarily a physical violence, but describes any imposition—whether this emanates from the somatic, social, or symbolic spheres—onto the psychic monad. According to Castoriadis, the psyche must become an individual if it is to survive, with this being dependent on the taming of the ‘little screaming monster’ that is the psychic monad; the initial, ontological core of the psyche. For Castoriadis violence plays a fundamental, necessary, and, crucially, creative role in the development of the psyche and, by extension, the survival of the human being. The psyche must participate by responding in a particular way to the violence imposed onto it by its social imaginary and somatic needs.
