Following the Psychopath: Between Epistemological Errors and Cultural Patterns

FOLLOWING THE PSYCHOPATH: BETWEEN EPISTEMOLOGICAL ERRORS AND CULTURAL PATTERNS by Bjorn Ekeberg BA, Concordia University, 2003 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In the School of Communication O Bjorn Ekeberg, 2005 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2005 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL NAME: Bjorn Ekeberg DEGREE: TITLE OF Following the Psychopath: Between Epistemological THESIS: Errors and Cultural Patterns EXAMINING COMMITTEE: CHAIR: Dr. Catherine Murray Associate Professor, School of Communication Dr. Gary McCarron Senior Supervisor Assistant Professor, School of Communication Dr. Shane Gunster Supervisor Assistant Professor, School of Communication Dr. Jerry Zaslove Examiner Professor Emeritus, Humanities, SFU Date: 29 July 2005 i i SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author's written permission. Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of this work, may have been granted by the author. This information may be found on the separately catalogued multimedia material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. W. A. C. Bennett Library Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC, Canada ABSTRACT Experience and theory form a textual symbiosis in this thesis, which traces patterns of a cultural pathology enveloping individual and social existence. The experiential narrative follows one year in the author's life as he comes to share an apartment with a charming stranger who turns out to be a psychopath with a criminal past, resulting in dramatic changes in the author's environment. The theoretical narrative provides a critical analysis of those events through Sigmund Freud's account of the narcissistic wounds of our civilization and Gregory Bateson's theory of mental systems in order to connect the author's experience to larger psychopathic patterns of our culture. The thesis argues that in a period of imminent disaster, we need to recognize and understand ourselves as organisms within a larger cultural ecology and demystify the deeply political relations by which we are connected to, and embedded in, our social world. To Sean, you motherfucker, wherever you are for you are everywhere ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Like any self-proclaimed creative and independent experiment, this thesis was utterly dependent on a healthy, structured and nourishing mental environment. 1 am indebted to Dr. Gary McCarron for the deeply necessary trust, freedom and inspiration he always provided like a true mentor. Dr. Shane Gunster tackled the project with conscientious enthusiasm and insightful, critical questions that had a formative impact on my thinking. Outside my committee, Dr. Catherine Murray's lively support was warmly felt and appreciated in the final stages of the writing process. And 1 am grateful for Dr. Jerry Zaslove's time in engaging with a work that was always meant to challenge the reader as well as the writer. Among my friends, Matthew Powers was indispensable in pushing the project past its conceptual infancy and considering central characters, including my own, in increasingly fictional terms. Without Rob Prey at the delivery stage, I fear that many things could have gone seriously wrong. Roy Bendor provided highly appreciated support in ways he may not be aware of. And then there's Kelsey, my muse - you remain the true heroine of this work. TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Approval ............................................................................................................................11 ... Abstract ............................................................................................................................111 Dedication ........................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................v Table of Contents ...........................................................................................................vi PROLOG ..........................................................................................................................1 SUMMER ...........................................................................................................................9 Cat ......................................................................................................................................................................................9 Hasselblad ...................................................................................................................................................................11 Self ...................................................................................................................................................................................15 Bitch ...............................................................................................................................................................................17 The Uncanny ..........................................................................................................................................................21 Orca Place .....................................................................................................................................................................25 FALL ..............................................................................................................................26 The first wound .........................................................................................................................................................26 Virtual Sean ...............................................................................................................................................................26 Real Sean....................................................................................................................................................................... 29 The Orca Place Show 2003....................................................................................................................................... 33 Mind / Body ..................................................................................................................................................................35 Furniture .......................................................................................................................................................................36 Abstraction .................................................................................................................................................................39 Space / Time .................................................................................................................................................................45 Fucked ............................................................................................................................................................................47 Halloween..................................................................................................................................................................... 49 Anchoring .....................................................................................................................................................................50 A Lake run dry .............................................................................................................................................................51 Double bind ................................................................................................................................................................55 WINTER ..........................................................................................................................59 The second wound ......................................................................................................................................................59 Escalation ....................................................................................................................................................................60 Schismogenesis ............................................................................................................................................................62

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