The derailed decentered subject in Sarah Kane's 4.48 psychosis

Abstract EN

This article investigates the mental impairment in the postmodernist character/characters in Sarah Kane's play 4.48 Psychosis through the psychoanalytical theories of Jacques Lacan.

Sarah Kane is enlisted among the big three of In-Yer-Face theatre British dramatists who invaded our personal spaces with extremism of language and unsettled disturbing emotions shown on stage.

Prompted by the fragmented bizarre structure of 4.48 Psychosis and the perplexing and troubling demeanor of its characters, the study with track down the springs of such ruptures and the reasons of deviation from their past course.

The fragmented self in postmodern literature earns its distinction in history through this singular feature of being decentered and its drifting attitude towards the chaotic delusional world.

Lacan (1901-1981) is described by Marshall Alcorn in "The Subject of Discourse: Reading Lacan (and beyond) Poststructuralist Contexts" as the founder of the psychological structure of the self on "linguistic and discursive phenomena" and his talent in synthesizing psychoanalytical and poststructuralist concepts is immensely influential.

According to the entry on "Jacques Lacan" in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Lacan asserted a doctrine that human identity is "decentered" and when the subject's mind chains snap, vents are created by the missing signifier of the Name-of-the- Father, and psychosis is triggered.

Despite the loss of a center, the postmodern subject speaks violence out of a peaceful heart and brutality out of compassionate humanity.

In 4.48 Psychosis a destructive physical ache spreads in a subject yearning for love, scary medical notes sound funny and falling black snow, quiet screams and tearless weeps are symptoms of a psychotic subject.

The postmodern self is ontologically grounded in love which should be understood as a force that seeks to reunite that which has been separated.