Psychopathology, Inner Space and the Automotive Death Drive: J.G. Ballard

Abstract

This paper uses a detailed reading of the 1973 novel Crash!, a work of dystopian science fiction by British author J.G. Ballard, to outline a new theory of psychopathology in a thoroughly technologised culture. The paper proposes that, in the light of the evidence of the novel, it may be possible to reconceptualise both trauma and the somatic relationship to pathology, through the mediation of a saturated technoculture, at least in the sense of a closer investigation of the relationship between perversity and aesthetic expression. The argument concludes that there is a privileged relationship between such extreme forms of pathological symptom as are presented in the novel, and the aesthetic form itself, which leads to a more productive understanding of psychopathology.