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God of Psychotics: The Case of Judge Daniel Paul Schreber and Beyond
Natalia Luiza Carneiro Lopes Acioly
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2020.12.005
University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Schreber’s doctor, Professor Flechsig, believed that his patient was a sick and irrational man that should be deprived of his legal capacities. The assessment prevailing at that time of people afflicted with psychoses was that they are uncontrollable and unable of logical thinking. This condition widely remained medically undefined. However, a certain awareness can be detected in Schreber’s manner of dealing with his repressed desires—homosexuality, narcissism, and megalomania. We assume that his conviction came from using God as a filter for the thoughts that were consuming him and as a tool in reaching a sort of acceptance towards his condition. At the root of his problems was the conflicted relationship with his father (his inability to establish the Master of Signifier). Perceiving God as a super-father figure was a vital strategy for Schreber in his search for a cure. The larger issue of psychosis is its invisibility and our tendency as a society to sideline people afflicted with this type of mental issue and not seeing them as regular citizens. Whilst analyzing the case of Judge Daniel Paul Schreber and relating it to the concept of God, the conclusion that stood out the most was how God was a key strategy in resolving and accepting his delusions towards the establishment of a signifier: the Name-of-the-Father.
father, God, Master of Signifier, paranoia, psychoses
Natalia Luiza Carneiro Lopes Acioly. (2020). God of Psychotics: The Case of Judge Daniel Paul Schreber and Beyond. Philosophy Study, December 2020, Vol. 10, No. 12, 807-817.
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