Citation

Melmed ML, Santiago C. Am. J. Psychoanal. 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1057/s11231-022-09343-0

PMID

35260778

Abstract

This paper is an effort to locate blood magic in the age of psychopathy. Taking as a starting point Michael Eigen's observation that psychopathic tendencies can become cut off from balancing capacities and wreak havoc, we consider the ways in which practices of blood magic, including rituals surrounding menstruation have functioned variously across cultures to balance destructive tendencies and sustain relationship with the living surround. We argue that the lack of these practices and the attitudes fed by and feeding them has contributed to an upsurge in ultra-violent phenomena like mass shootings in our culture. Moreover, we consider the ways in which such phenomena are perverted expressions of a need for blood magic that, though twisted beyond recognition, nevertheless seek expression and wishes to be recognized in this age, which has as its backdrop an unrecognized, unfolding human-wrought ecological catastrophe.

Language: en

Keywords

Bion; blood ritual; climate change; magic; mass shootings; menstruation; sacred experience; sacrifice