Leftist Reading: The Wretched of the Earth Part 18

Leftist Reading

Episode 72:

This week we’re continuing with The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
The full book is available online here:
https://monoskop.org/images/6/6b/Fanon_Frantz_The_Wretched_of_the_Earth_1963.pdf

[Part 1-5]
Concerning Violence

[Part 6]
Violence in the International Context

[Part 7 - 9]
Spontaneity: Its Strength and Weakness

[Part 10 - 14]
The Pitfalls of National Consciousness

[Part 15-17]
On National Culture
-Poem
-Reciprocal Bases of National Culture and the Fight for Freedom

[Part 18 - This Week]
Colonial War and Mental Disorders - 01:35
Series A - 09:57
Case 1 [CW Sexual Assault, Animal death] - 10:07
Case 2 [CW Violence and Violent Impulses] - 20:04
Case 3 [CW Suicide] - 25:10
Case 4 [CW Torture] - 30:57
Case 5 [CW Spousal abuse, child abuse, torture] - 36:14

[Part 19?]
Series B

[Part 20?]
Series C

[Part 21?]
Series D

[Part 22?]
Conclusion

Footnotes:

1) 6:57
In the unpublished introduction to the first two editions of L’an V de la Revolution Algerienne, we have already pointed out that a whole generation of Algerians, steeped in wanton, generalized homi­cide with all the psycho-affective consequences that this entails, will be the human legacy of France in Algeria. Frenchmen who condemn the torture in Algeria constantly adopt a point of view which is strictly French. We do not reproach them for this; we merely point it out: they wish to protect the consciences of the actual torturers who today have full power to cany on their wort; they wish at the same time to try to avoid the moral contamination of the young people of France. As far as we are concerned we are totally in accord with this attitude. Certain notes here brought together, especially in Cases 4 and 5 in Series A, are sad illustrations and justifications for this obsession which haunts French believers in democracy. But our purpose is in any case to show that torture, as might well be ex­pected, upsets most profoundly the personality of the person who is tortured.

2) 9:17
The circumstances surrounding the appearance of these disorders are interesting for several reasons. Some months after his country's independence was declared, he had made the acquaintance of certain nationals of the former colonial power, and he had found them very likeable. These men and women greeted the new independent state warmly and paid tribute to the courage of the patriots who had fought in the struggle for national freedom. The former militant therefore had what might be called an attack of vertigo. He won­dered with a feeling of anguish whether among the victims of the bomb there had been people like his new acquaintances. It was true that the café that it was aimed at was a meeting place for notorious racists; but there was nothing to prevent a quite ordinary passer-by from going in and having a drink. From the first day that he suf­fered from vertigo the man tried to avoid thinking of these former occurrences. But paradoxically, a few days before-the crucial date, the first symptoms made their appearance. After that, they reap­peared with great regularity.

In other words, we are forever pursued by our actions. Their order­ing, their circumstances, and their motivation may perfectly well come to be profoundly modified a posteriori. This is merely one of the snares that history and its various influences sets for us. But can we escape becoming dizzy? And who can affirm that vertigo does not haunt the whole of existence?

3) 29:26
After considering the medico-legal experts' report which empha­sized the pathological character of the action, the legal proceedings which had been set in motion by the General Staff were closed.

4) 41:36
With these observations we find ourselves in the presence of a coherent system which leaves nothing intact. The executioner who loves birds and enjoys the peace of listening to a symphony or a sonata is simply one stage in the process. Further on in it we may well find a whole existence which enters into complete and absolute sadism.