Between sympathy and the glitch : study of magic, magicians and the disruptive subject

Abstract

This dissertation examines the potent presence of sympathy in popularised discourses that seek to construct and/or position the contemporary western subject. I develop a concept of modern sympathetic magic derived from anthropological literature, where it has been predominantly associated with the laws of primitive cultures, and recontextualise it within the contemporary western world. In particular, I focus on an analysis of sympathetic magicians, or masters of sympathy, with the aim of showing how sympathy is a driving force behind popular uses of the body, mimesis and affect in the construction of the idealised or normalised subject and the disruptive other in the form of the glitch. I analyse four case-studies which embrace sympathetic magic, albeit unintentionally. In Chapter Two, I address a Cartesian sympathetic model produced by Dr Phillip McGraw, aka Dr Phil, in his self help text Self Matters (2001), where the ideal subject is understood in terms of a discrete and pre-determined ethereal mind. In Chapter Three, I examine the dissolution of origin and singularity in the becoming of the imagistic celebrity artefact, Michael Jackson. In Chapter Four, I discuss neuropsychologist, Dr Oliver Sacks', medical biography Awakenings (1993). My discussion involves an examination of Sacks' construction of post-encephalitic Parkinsonism as a series of bodily glitches that exile the patients in isolated territories of altered function or neuropsychological Wonderlands. In Chapter Five, I analyse neurophysiologist, Dr Jonathan Cole's, medical biography Pride and a Daily Marathon (1995). In this case, I examine a subject, Ian Waterman, who experiences a pathological and antipathetic Cartesian experience as the result of a sensorial breakdown. I explore how Waterman implements ingenious sensorial and cognitive sympathetic substitutes in order to affirm himself as a sensate subject.

Date of Award	2010
Original language	English