In Praise of Risk

Description

When Anne Dufourmantelle drowned in a heroic attempt to save two children caught in rough seas, obituaries around the world rarely failed to recall that she was the author of a book entitled In Praise of Risk, implying that her death confirmed the ancient adage that to philosophize is to learn how to die. Now available in English, this magnificent and already much-discussed book indeed offers a trenchant critique of the psychic work the modern world devotes to avoiding risk. Yet this is not a book on how to die but on how to live. For Dufourmantelle, risk entails an encounter not with an external threat to life but with something hidden in life that conditions our approach to such ordinary risks as disobedience, passion, addiction, leaving family, and solitude Keeping jargon to a minimum, Dufourmantelle weaves philosophical reflections together with clinical case histories. The everyday fears, traumas, and resistances that therapy addresses brush up against such broader concerns as terrorism, insurance, addiction, artistic creation, and political revolution. Taking up a project than joins the work of many French thinkers, such as Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, Hélène Cixous, Giorgio Agamben, and Catherine Malabou, Dufourmantelle works to dislodge Western philosophy, psychoanalysis, ethics, and politics from the redemptive logic of sacrifice. She discovers the kernel of a future beyond annihilation where one might least expect to find it, hidden in the unconscious. In an era defined by enhanced security measures, border walls, trigger warnings, and endless litigation, Dufourmantelle’s masterwork provides a much-needed celebration of the risks that define what it means to live. Cover In Praise of Risk Title Copyright Dedication CONTENTS Translator’s Introduction: The Risk of Reading To Risk One’s Life Eurydice Saved Minuscule Magical Dependencies Voluntary Servitude and Disobedience In Suspense At the Risk of Passion Leaving the Family Forgetting, Anamnesis, Deliverance Incurable (In)fidelities Zero Risk? How (Not) to Become Oneself . . . Being in Secret Befriending Our Fears At the Risk of Being Sad At the Risk of Being Free The Time They Call Lost Dead Alive Of a Perception Infi nitely Vaster . . . Anxiety, Lack—Spiritual Hunger? Farewell Magic World: Beyond Disappointment Life—Mine, Yours At the Risk of the Unknown At the Risk of Being Carnal May There Be an End to Our Torment . . . Breaking Up At the Risk of Speech Solitudes Laughter, Dreaming—Beyond the Impasse Hope No More Once Upon a Time, the “Athenaeum” . . . or, Why Risk Romanticism? Risking Belief Risking Variation The Event: Hyperpresence Intimate Prophecy At the Risk of Bedazzlement Desire, Body, Writing Healing? An Other Language Risking Scandal Taking the Risk of Childhood Assiduity Risking the Future At the Risk of Beauty At the Risk of Spirit Risking the Universal? Hauntings Spirals, Ellipses, Metaphors, Anamorphoses Envisaging Night Revolutions At the Risk of Going Through Hell (Eurydice) Notes