Les théories du complot : l’envers du mythe totémique dans le lien social

Abstract

ObjectivesThe current explosion of conspiracy theories is an undeniable dimension of present-day social bonds. We aim to understand some of the unconscious stakes underlying the conspiratorial ideation and to shed light upon the reasons why it is a topical issue in our modern society. MethodsBy relying on psychoanalytical knowledge that allows us to study the psychic functions of the myth, we will compare different conspiracy formations to those of the mythical narrative to bring into resonance these two fictional modalities. Freud's totemic myth, through its structure, sheds a particular light on the functions that regulate jouissance and that organize history, as well as social bonds. ResultsThe conspiracy discourse will prove to be the underside of the Freudian myth of Totem and Taboo. The text presenting the myth of the primal horde will reveal the structure of the conspiracy discourse as its negative. Indeed, this myth offers a symbolic ur-fiction, and its imaginary counterpart determines the conspiratorial grammar based on the question: “who profits from the crime?” As in a hall of mirrors, the countless conspiracies will appear as the shadow of a crime, always returning in an imaginary mode due to a lack of symbolization. The system that the conspiracy theory seeks to unveil will then be regarded as the reverse of an arrangement structured by the myth. DiscussionWe discuss the link between scientific discourse and the intensification of conspiracy theories’ presence in our modern society. Indeed, Lacan notices how the mythical dimension is repressed by scientific discourse. Such repression would produce, as a result, imaginary versions of the myth. Thus, the conspiracy theory will be regarded as a structural effect of scientific discourse rather than as anti-science. ConclusionsThe conspiracy theory turns out to be a social symptom linked to scientific discourse. It is the social staging of damage suffered that transforms the coordinates of a symbolic loss, no longer organized by a myth, into an imaginary stolen jouissance.