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Wittgenstein's Folly: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis and Language Games

Author(s) : Francoise Davoine

Reviews and Endorsements

Trauma speaks to trauma’. This powerful statement guides the reader through　Françoise Davoine's brilliant and evocative book. In Wittgenstein's Folly, she takes the philosopher as her imaginary companion on a psychoanalytic and philosophical journey to examine and reveal the broken links that stand for the various forms of private and social madness throughout history in society. A book not to be missed.
Jeanne Wolff Bernstein, Ph.D., Member and Board Member, Wiener Arbeitskreis für Psychoanalyse, Chair, Advisory Board of the Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna, Austria

Françoise Davoine is a central figure in the psychoanalytic understanding and treatment of trauma, madness and the aftershocks – personal, social and historical – of historical catastrophes. Central to her work is the unspeakable, the site of trauma and of madness, la folie. Les folles, the mad aka the Fool, are those who attempt to remind us of the unspeakable, by translating it into show. This "forgotten" unspeakable speech is, for Davoine, at the heart of psychosis/madness - the unspeakable, simultaneously maddening, of which it would be mad to speak. For Davoine the central, but often suppressed, task of psychoanalytic work, for which she enlists the help of philosophers, writers and medicine men, is the returning of this madness to speech, to a proper place in the social and political order.
Dr Roger Bacon, MA, PhD (Cantab); independent psychoanalyst, Edinburgh, UK

With its profound sense of reflexive enquiry into the conditions of and for shared knowledge concerning symptoms of psychic distress, Wittgenstein’s Folly deepens our understanding of Davoine’s important contributions to research addressing the impact of trauma in social relations. Her highly original approach to rethinking the therapeutic explores the limits of such knowledge in creative dialogue with Wittgenstein, presenting a vital example of what such research can be rather than what, institutionally, it is supposed to be.
Mischa Twitchin, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

This book makes a unique bridge between madness, trauma, psychoanalysis and philosophy, showing the central role of the language, its use and its loss. Moreover, the enigmatic role of transference in psychosis is described in an understandable way, a walk along with Wittgenstein, his thoughts and his personal history. Françoise Davoine is known worldwide for her original, in-depth books and lectures on madness and trauma.
Dag Söderström, psychiatrist and IPA psychoanalyst, vice-chair of ISPS