Publications
The Patient-Enemy
Jacques Derrida developed a novel theory of hospitality as inextricably linked to hostility. When we welcome someone in our space, we immediately begin to guard ourselves against him. We monitor him, we sequester him, we scruntize him. The act of welcoming becomes as much an act of cruelty as it is of kindness. In this essay, I explore the implications of such "hostipitality" to psychiatric hospitalization.
Jacques Derrida developed a novel theory of hospitality as inextricably linked to hostility. When we welcome someone in our space, we immediately begin to guard ourselves against him. We monitor him, we sequester him, we scruntize him. The act of welcoming becomes as much an act of cruelty as it is of kindness. In this essay, I explore the implications of such "hostipitality" to psychiatric hospitalization.