Object: QAnon is an online group consisting of a web of conspiracy theory, with the main premise being that there is a cabal of paedophilic, Satan-worshiping elites known as the \u2018deep state\u2019 controlling society from the shadows. The group began when an anonymous user named \u2018Q\u2019 started posting cryptic messages (\u2018Q drops\u2019) on the online messaging board \u20184Chan\u2019.<\/p>\n
Territory: A psychoanalytic interpretation through the works of Jacques Lacan and Slavoj \u017di\u017eek<\/p>\n
Aims and Key Concepts:
\n\u2022\tBirth of the Internet and the Death of the Author
\nI aim to investigate the impact the internet has had on conspiratorial thinking. What will also be made apparent is the fact that \u2018Q drops\u2019 present the implications of what Barthes calls \u201cthe death of the author\u201d.
\n\u2022\t\u2018Q drops\u2019 as a Text bound to jouissance
\nThrough Barthes and Lacan, it will be shown that framing the \u2018Q drops\u2019 as a Text allows us to see how they are bound to the Lacanian term jouissance: a term linked to the \u2018death-drive\u2019 that is beyond the pleasure principle.
\n\u2022\tQAnon: The Ultimate Hysteric Discourse?
\nWith the help of Lacanian psychoanalysis, it is evident that the hysteric discourse is at play for particular QAnon members. Moreover, there will be an exploration of how the discourse of the hysteric causes cynical distancing to hegemonic master signifiers, leading to what \u017di\u017eek defines as the \u201cdemise of symbolic efficiency.\u201d
\n\u2022\tThe Paranoic Fantasy of the \u2018Deep State\u2019
\nWithin QAnon, it is evident that there is a combination of perversion, psychosis and neurosis. I will attempt to show how the psychotic \u2013 the paranoid subject \u2013 formulates the belief in an \u2018Other of the Other\u2019 (the \u2018deep state\u2019), and this will be done with the aid of Slavoj \u017di\u017eek.<\/p>\n
Sources:
\n\u2022\tRoland Barthes, Image-Music-Text (1977)
\n–\tThe Pleasure of the Text (1975)
\n\u2022\tJacques Lacan, The Other Side of Psychoanalysis: Seminar XVII (1991)
\n\u2022\tSlavoj \u017di\u017eek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology (1999)
\n–\t\u2018The Matrix, or, the Two Sides of Perversion\u2019 (2006)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cameron Edek Poole, 2021, Stage 3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8792,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[311,22,123],"tags":[322,279,323],"class_list":["post-2250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-311","category-abstracts","category-stage-3-abstracts","tag-conspiracy-theory","tag-lacan","tag-zizek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8792"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}