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.
What is the relationship between capitalism and mental health? Through an exhilarating mix of philosophical and psychoanalytical theory and reportage - from the suicide epidemic in Korea to the wave of American mass murders - the prominent Italian thinker Franco Berardi Bifo traces the social roots of the mental malaise of our age. His darkest and most unsettling book to date, Berardi proposes dystopian irony as a strategy to disentangle ourselves from the deadly embrace of the neoliberalism.
“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
