Figures of Space: Subject, Body, Place

The paintings of hands, Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands), Santa Cruz, Argentina, 9300 BP (about 7300 BC).

FIGURES OF SPACE explores the implications of Freud’s assertion that the “psyche is extended,” and gives a novel approach to the understanding of the subject’s relation to the world. In Mieli’s words, the subjective landscape is, given its origins, intrinsically libidinized. Topics range from humor, defined as the “making of space where there is none”, to angst, phobia and the uncanny, from sexual difference to hatred. Diverse examples are drawn from art, literature and cinema, including the works of Poe, Melville, Pontormo, Marina Abramovich, Otto Wagner, Charlie Chaplin and Philippe Petit.

Author Bio:

Paola Mieli is a psychoanalyst practicing in New York. A founding member and president of Après-Coup Psychoanalitic Association, she has written on psychoanalysis, psychoanalysis and culture, literature, art, and politics. Her essays have been published in the US, South America, and Europe.

Translated from the French by Jacques Houis.

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