ABSTRACT
This commentary introduces the seminar series given by Robin Bagai on Michael Eigen’s book The Psychotic Core. Eigen conveys madness from experiential and conceptual points of view. The author’s commentaries will examine Eigen’s categories and conceptual dynamics on psychosis, while also broadening perspective by exploring examples of psychotic operations in ordinary life. The author approaches the subject through “doubleness” and the multiple nature of being human. This commentary highlights the importance of relationships between binaries, rather than simple dualisms. Our mental self and physical self, psyche and soma, form an interwoven doubleness. Our physical bodies are finite, but our mind and psyche seem to be part of a fabric woven from infinity. Psychosis is linked with creativity as well as delusion. We possess both sane and insane tendencies. During infancy and throughout life, we remain partly hallucinatory and must develop anti-hallucinatory capacities.
