This year Les Laboratoires d’Aubervillers will once again be running reading workshops held every two weeks which invite the public to collectively conduct research and a reflection on a specific problematic approached from various disciplinary angles (art, humanities, politics). These workshops contribute to developing “Le Printemps des Laboratoires”, a programme which unfolds all year long, via workshops, round-table discussions, screenings, and culminating in an intense public gathering. Scheduled to take place on June 4-5 2016, this public event, with an international dimension, will offer a presentation of the projects carried out throughout the year. Each year the programme engages with a specific notion; this year it will be investigating the “Psychotropification of society”. 

This expression combines the terms “psychopharmacy” and “tropism” and refers to the exponential rise in the prescription and use of medication for the treatment of mental health disorders. By highlighting this “tropism” our intention is to show that, behind the normalisation of such prescriptions, a fascistic ideology is at work, infiltrating and governing Western societies — more concerned with the freedom of action of pharmaceutical companies than with the freedom of action of the individuals that make up society.

In order to bring to fruition this collective reflection which will engage at once with the normalisation underlying the phenomenon we have described, with the current state of psychiatry and the place given to mental illness in today’s society, we invite you to join us every other Thursday, from October 22nd 2015, from 4-6 pm. Each session, one or several texts will be proposed or selected for the following session.

Workshop #2

At this second reading group, we will study with Josep Rafanell i Orra, two excerpts of his book En finir avec le capitalisme thérapeutique, soin, politique et communauté the introduction and the second chapter of the second part of the book.

The book, written by the clinical psychologist Josep Rafanell i Orra wants to establish the therapeutical act as a relation. The relation constitutes a community and therefore politics. As he puts it: « All relationship is therapeutical and the therapeutical potential of a relationship is called community ».
In this neoliberal time, the authoritarian health system and its derives prevent this therapeutical « moment ». Josep Rafenell i Orra, working with marginalised persons, gives us a precise and sharp analysis of what treatment means. His reflexion surpasses the sphere of medicine to give a definition of politics.

The introduction to the second part of the book, « Le soin ou la fabrique des communautés » gives us the keys to understand this complex line of thought. We found it interesting to define the terms of « institution » and « system ». The chapter « Fragments : Le communisme de la guérison » appears to be a continuation of the first reading group, where we have asked ourselves, what does it mean to be « ill » and what does it mean to « heal ».

The texts are selected by the group and read in preparation for each workshop. The workshops are free of charge and open to all; they will run every other Thursday from 4 to 6 pm. Enrolment is required. To receive the texts studied, session notes, and to enrol, please contact Clara Gensburger: c.gensburger@leslaboratoires.org

Workshops will be held on the following Thursdays: November 5th and 19th, December 3rd and 17th, January 7th and 21st, February 4th and 18th, March 10th and 24th and April 7th (4-6 pm).