The human as a danger to itself : murder in the 180th degree

This article examines Generative Anthropology with respect to its hypothesis that deferral is at the foundation of the human and draws out elements of GA as a lived philosophy or “spiritual discipline.” To this end, it examines the centrality of different modes of deferral in the successful treatment of addiction and the rôles of both deferral and resentment in facets of human psychopathology. It uses this preliminary discussion to reopen questions regarding the idea of the human as a “danger to itself,” and to ask whether our conception of intraspecific violence needs to include not merely those harms incurred by humans against others (exogenous), but those that include self-harm (autogenous), which is the leading cause of violent death in the contemporary world. It concludes by asking questions as to the potential relation between these forms of intraspecific violence and calls for further investigation into GA’s “ethics of deferral.”