Psychotic versus political time: Lacan and Fanon on the potential for a decolonial humanism

This article analyzes the relationship between speed, identity, and collective action, incorporating insights from Lacan and Fanon into social movements studies. I make this intervention given that social movement scholarship has not adequately theorized how the accelerated pace of political communication impacts identity formation. As I argue, Lacan’s conceptualization of psychosis is apropos for exploring how the speed of information circulation can impede coherent identities to take shape. Fanon makes Lacan’s work on psychosis explicitly political, offering a way to conceive of collective action that emphasizes forging a humanist identity through struggle. Combining his political and clinical writings, especially from Alienation and Freedom , I develop Fanon’s humanist identity work by emphasizing the dialectical nature of relationship building that challenges how colonialism engenders alienation and depersonalization. Fanon’s emphasis on sustained work through oppressive institutions, I call political time, while Lacan’s understanding of momentary episodes of delusion, are indicative of psychotic time.