The unconscious itself is exposed to irreversible destruction

Evidence

The compleocity of the concept of a cerebral unconscious inheres within the relationship of the cerebral psyche to its own destruction. The idea of destructible psychic life gives body to the threat of irreversible damage—a threat that Freud does not recognize—that weighs upon unconscious functions. The fact that the entire brain—both “old” and “modem” regions—is exposed to lesional events, that mere accidents or raw shock can have decisive psychic repercussions that manifest themselves primarily in the form of changes in personality, all of these phenomena thoroughly transform the traditional psychopathological concept of causality and call for new etiological principles. — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 1418

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with the reader’s stated debate: this is the exact point where Malabou parts with Lacan and Freud — a destructible unconscious rather than the symbolic/imperishable one. — connects to: Destruction provides the only proof that cerebral auto-affection exists — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 1070; Neurological suffering poses the question of the psyche surviving its own annihilation — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 1289; enlightenment is indefatigably self-destructive in its own tendencies (+2 more)
• QUESTION: What would ‘new etiological principles’ actually look like? Malabou gestures here but the chapter doesn’t yet deliver the mechanism.

Broader Connections

• Neurological suffering poses the question of the psyche surviving its own annihilation #expands (0.75) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 1289