Cette thèse interroge un phénomène historique particulier, entre autres observé dans l'actualité : l'imitation massive d'un comportement de défiance politique prenant une forme démonstrative d’annihilation du vivant face à un symbole de pouvoir, que cette dernière soit auto-sacrificielle comme dans le cas de l'immolation de soi par le feu ; ou qu’il s’agisse, plus récemment encore, d’une tuerie de masse souvent indiscriminée, assimilée par nombres d’auteurs à une forme moderne de la course de l’Amok. L'étude porte l’examen sur certaines hypothèses cliniques usuelles à ce sujet et questionne les tenants théoriques classiques : peut-on parler de processus identificatoires ? L’étiologie psychanalytique renvoie-t-elle, dans le cas d’acting-out politiques, nécessairement à un fantasme de parricide? Un premier pan de cette étude s’intéresse aux signifiants qui ont émergés dans le champ social lié auxdits actes, notamment « martyr » et « dignité » pour ce qui est de l’immolation par le feu, et « radicalisation » pour ce qui est de l’Amok. Quel imaginaire y est convoqué ? Qu’est-ce qui est dit dans ces actes qui ne parvient à être dit autrement ? Qu’est-ce que cela vient révéler de la modernité en tant que discours de pouvoir ? L’apport clinique et théorique de ce travail propose l’argument qu’une certaine phénoménologie politique moderne ne relève pas de l’acte, mais du geste ; qu’elle ne s’oriente pas d’un idéal, mais d’un hors-sens ; et qu’elle ne produit pas une réadaptation sociale de la collectivité, mais une mise à nu d’un réel indicible au centre de la culture. Une clinique dite du vide et de l’ab-sens est ainsi mobilisée pour étayer ces propos. Les conclusions sur lesquelles débouche cette clinique proposent, aux moyens d’une approche topologique, une conceptualisation psychanalytique originale des processus identificatoires, de la fonction paternelle et de la forclusion radicale du sens, comme socle « troumatique » de la structure. Les conclusions de cette thèse engagent une pensée de la répétition comme empreinte temporelle et logique du sujet, du symptôme et du lien social, dans laquelle trouve à s’exprimer un antagonisme, aussi impossible qu’inévitable, entre mêmeté et altérité. / This thesis questions a particular historic phenomenon, mainly observed in recent events: the mass imitation of a behaviour of political protest embodied in a life-annihilating act in front of a symbol of power, whether it is self-sacrificial as in the case of a self-immolation by fire, or, as even more recently seen, indiscriminate mass killings, that many authors assimilate as a modern form of running amok. The study verifies some usual clinical hypotheses on this matter: and questions the classic theoretical basics: are we dealing with process of identification? Are we dealing with a fantasy of parricide based identification? Does psychoanalytic aetiology always lead to the phantasy of parricide when it comes to political acting-outs? A first part of this study shows interest for the signifiers, which have emerged amongst the social field related to these acts, namely “martyr” and “dignity” when it comes to self-immolation by fire and “radicalization” when it comes to amok. What collective imaginary is summoned by the latter? What is being said throughout these acts that cannot be said any other way? What does it reveal about modernity understood as a discourse of power? The clinical and theoretical material made available for this work proposes following argument: a certain modern political phenomenology does not fall within the concept of act but of gesture; it is not oriented by an ideal but by an outside of meaning; as well as it does not produce social rehabilitation of the group but the exposing of an unutterable real in the heart of the culture. In this manner, a singular so-called clinic of void or of ab-sense is mobilized to back up these assertions. The conclusions, which it leads to, propose by the means of a topologic approach an original psychoanalytical conceptualization of the process of identification, of the paternal function as well as the radical foreclosure of meaning,, as the “troumatic” foundation of the structure. The conclusions of this thesis engage a reflection whereby repetition appears as a temporal and logic print of the subject, of the symptom and of the social bond, in which it finds to express an impossible but inevitable antagonism between sameness and alterity.

Kassel, Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.

In the Philippines, amok is often viewed as a form of homicidal behaviour to which Muslim Filipino or Moro men are prone. Various assumptions about contemporary Filipino perceptions of amok are challenged in this thesis. It is assumed that this perception corresponds with the actual occurrence of amok in the Philippines, and this is challenged by the demonstration that the perception is merely a construct. The perception of amok is assumed to be the culmination of attempts by Spaniards, Americans and Filipinos to discern the true nature of amok, and this is challenged by the fact that discrepancies exist between recognition of amok by the Spanish on one hand and the Americans and Christian Filipinos on the other. It is argued that contemporary Filipino understanding of amok is the product of two factors: the American drive to acquire information about Filipinos that would enable them to control their newly acquired subjects, and the conflict between Americans and Filipinos generated by this attempt at control. The association of amok with Muslim Filipinos is the outcome of the mistaken conflation of amok with the juramentado convention of the Moros, and the idea that the Muslim Filipinos were the most Malay of the Malay ‘subraces’ in the Philippines and thus most likely to run amok. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)