In Defense of Secrets

Anne Dufourmantelle

Book

In Defense of Secrets

Anne Dufourmantelle
Translated by: Lindsay Turner and Lindsay Turner

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2021

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About this book

Finalist, French-American Foundation Translation Prize

In an age that prizes political and personal transparency, In Defense of Secrets champions the secret as what permits relation and ensures our humanity.

Psychoanalyst and philosopher Anne Dufourmantelle drowned in 2017 in an attempt to rescue two children caught in the ocean. Her work lives on, though, in this provocative and necessary book. Through etymologies and case studies, personal history and incisive commentary on contemporary society, In Defense of Secrets returns us to the fundamental psychic scene of the secret. The secret, for Dufourmantelle, is not a code to be cracked or a firewall to be penetrated but a dynamic and powerful entity that permits relation and that ensures our humanity.

Tracking the secret though art and literature, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and sociology, from the Inquisition to the present, Dufourmantelle’s writing spirals around the question of the secret’s value. In our age, when political and personal transparency seem to be prized above all—lives posted on the Internet, information leaked, whistles blown, taboos absent except with respect to the secret itself—In Defense of Secrets champions what remains hidden, private, veiled, hushed, just out of sight. The secret is on the side of nature, not science; organic growth, not technology; love’s generosity, not knowledge’s grasp.

For Dufourmantelle, the secret is a powerful and dynamic thing: deadly if unheard or misused, perhaps, but equally the source of creativity and of ethics. An ethics of the secret, we can hear her say, means listening hard and sensitively, respecting the secret in its secret essence, unafraid of it and open to what it has to say.

Dufourmantelle shot to international fame when she died in 2017, white trying to save two children caught in a riptide, with stories in the New York Times, the BBC, and elsewhere.

Author / Editor information

Contributor: Anne Dufourmantelle Anne Dufourmantelle (1964–2017), philosopher and psychoanalyst, taught at the European Graduate School and wrote monthly columns for the Paris newspaper Libération. Her books in English include In Praise of Risk; Power of Gentleness; Blind Date; and, with Jacques Derrida, Of Hospitality. --- Contributor: Lindsay Turner Lindsay Turner is Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Case Western Reserve University. She is the author of two collections of poetry and has translated books by Stéphane Bouquet, Éric Baratay, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Anne Dufourmantelle, Richard Rechtman, Ryoko Sekiguchi, and others.

Reviews

In an epoch when transparency, openness, and candor are constantly enjoined on us, and in which the message ‘Secrets Kill’ is driven home by everything from twelve-step groups to Lifetime TV, Dufourmantelle shows the powers that secrecy continues to hold. This urgent book will open new perspectives on a world marked by the rise of Wikileaks, Big Data, and social media.---Michael Moon, Emory University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preamble Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
I. Memories of the Secret
Origins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
In the Crypt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	6
Etymology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	8
When the Secret Appears Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	10
Occult Force Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	14
II. The Secret’s Passions
Lifting the Veil Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	19
The Unavowable Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	22
A Treasure, a Poison Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	25
Genesis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	27
Storia I Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	29
III. Being or Having
The Last Secret Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	39
The Body au secret Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	41
Eroticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	44
Storia II Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	47
Storia III Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	53
IV. Transparency and Truth
Violations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	59
Dissimulations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	63
Surveillances Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	65
Adaptations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	67
Mirages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	69
Big Data, Hyperconnection, Speed: The Spiral Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	72
Archives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	74
Secret Societies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	77
The Unifying Secret Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	81
V. An Ethics of the Secret
Panopticum: Bentham, Kant, Constant Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	85
Inappropriable Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	88
Creative Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	90
The Secret of Dreams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	92
Sex and Prayer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	95
Secret Sideration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	97
Jealousies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	102
The Conspiracy Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	105
VI. Toward Mystery
Secret Nature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	109
Veils Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	111
Legacies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	114
Aside Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	117
A Part of One’s Own Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	123
Secret of the Prophetic Voice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	125
Sacrifice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	129
Mystery’s Share Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	133
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	139
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	141

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

January 20, 2021

eBook ISBN:

9780823289257

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780823289257

eBook ISBN: 9780823289257

Keywords for this book

Secret; surveillance; technology; desire; sexuality; psychoanalysis

Audience(s) for this book

For a non-specialist adult audience

In Defense of Secrets

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data