Abstract

SUAREZ GOMEZ, Ainhoa. Catherine Malabou and Plasticity: A Philosophical Motif for the Contemporary World. Interpret. Rev. herméneut [online]. 2024, vol.9, n.2, pp.17-39.  Epub Oct 23, 2024. ISSN 2448-864X.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.irh.2024.2/010s2701wo572.

This article analyses French philosopher Catherine Malabou’s concept of plasticity in the transdisciplinary dialogue she establishes between Philosophy, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis in her books What Should We Do with Our Brain? (2004), The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain Damage (2007), and Ontology of the Accident. An Essay on Destructive Plasticity (2009). The survey of these works allows me to situate Malabou’s philosophy within the framework of a materialist thinking that touches on the (problematic) link between body and mind or, more precisely, between brain and psyche. It argues that her proposal, be it from the critique of the capitalist imperative that demands incessant flexibility from individuals, or from the reflection on the identity consequences of cerebrovascular accidents, offers a radical resignification of the contemporary subject, suggesting forms of action intended to effect significant political and social changes in response to the current global crisis.

Keywords : plasticity; brain; psyche; subjectivity; transformation.

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