Mark Schmitt

Dysfunctional capitalism: Mental illness, schizoanalysis and the epistemology of the negative in contemporary cultural studies

In cultural studies, neoliberal capitalism has been critically discussed in connection with a rise of mental illness. Within this discourse, psychology and psychoanalysis are being ambivalently debated as either complicit with the capitalist representational system or as potential tools to critically interrogate it. This paper traces these arguments in publications by writers such as Mark Fisher and Franco Berardi, and examines their relationship to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of schizoanalysis. It re-assesses Deleuze and Guattari’s ideas and concludes with an outline for the complementary use of psychoanalytic theory and schizoanalytic ideas as a meta-discourse within cultural studies.