Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide

by Franco "Bifo" Berardi

Overview

What is the relationship between capitalism and mental health? In his most unsettling book to date, Franco “Bifo” Berardi embarks on an exhilarating journey through philosophy, psychoanalysis and current events, searching for the social roots of the mental malaise of our age.

Spanning an array of horrors – the Aurora “Joker” killer; Anders Breivik; American school massacres; the suicide epidemic in Korea and Japan; and the recent spate of “austerity” suicides in Europe – Heroes dares to explore the darkest shadow cast by the contemporary obsession with relentless competition and hyper-connectivity. In a volume that crowns four decades of radical intellectual work, Berardi develops the psychoanalytical insights of his friend Félix Guattari and proposes dystopian irony as a strategy to disentangle ourselves from the deadly embrace of absolute capitalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781685785
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	02/03/2015
Series:	Futures
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Franco “Bifo” Berardi, founder of the famous Radio Alice in 1976 and one of the most prominent members of Autonomia, is a theorist and media activist. His recent books in English include The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy and After the Future.

Table of Contents

Four Notes in Guise of a Prologue 1

1 The Joker 9

2 Humanity Is Overrated 29

3 Winning for a Moment 45

4 Cho's Psychosphere 59

5 What Is a Crime? 75

6 The Automaton 93

7 Memory 119

8 You People Will Never Be Safe 137

9 Suicidal Wave 155

10 A Journey to Seoul 185

11 What Should We Do When Nothing Can Be Done? 199

Bibliography 227

Filmograpby 232

Editorial Reviews

An exquisite reading of our historical situation.”
—Michael Robbins, Chicago Tribune

“Does more than merely scratch the surface...ultimately, Bifo advocates for the limitless power of imagination and irony as the only antidotes in a world urging to be rebuilt from scratch”
—Bookslut

“The sting of this hollow present is felt most acutely in our emotional life, a point driven home by Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi in Heroes … a densely packed work of political theory.”
—Michael Schapira, Full Stop

Praise for Franco “Bifo” Berardi:

“Bifo is a master of global activism in the age of depression. His mission is to understand real existing capitalism. Sense the despair of the revolt, enjoy this brilliant ‘labour of the negative’!”
—Geert Lovink, Founding Director of the Institute of Network Cultures

“As a diagnostician, Berardi is among the sharpest.”
—Slate

From the Publisher