The societies of control and the agitation of the bodies

Abstract

This project proposes a combination of two theoretical perspectives that deal with contemporary issues: psychoanalysis and what Gilles Deleuze proposes about societies of control. These societies are characterised by the constant change in behaviour, thoughts, attitudes, etc. that are imposed on their subjects. Deleuze calls this process ‘modulation’, which opposes the ‘molded’ concept described by Foucault which doesn't need "confinement" to operate. The surveillance isn't applied to bodies, but to "information" and its subject actively participates in it. We affirm that this weakening of the identifications produced by these methods of control, cause suffering, anguish and new symptoms in the body, as well as in subjectivities. From psychoanalysis I propose to question the particular answers that take "bodies" as fundamental support, especially in relation to tattoos and piercings. In psychoanalysis, the body is fundamental in the constitution of subjectivity and its architectural foundation. As a reservoir, where the libidinal charge is never abandoned and a place for writing what is impossible to say, do tattoos and piercings constitute an appropriate way for a body to feel a unique permanence in an ephemeral world? Perhaps they are a personal unique ‘piece of work’ that tries to stop the subjective deviation? Or maybe, these are ways of dealing with the invasive, enigmatic and fragmented pleasure that we experience? A number of hypotheses that I wish to discuss are awaiting resonance in other areas of investigation.