critiques of The Order of Things

Speaking of extreme critiques of The Order of Things, this is one of 
my favourites!

The critic in question (Gérard Mendel) talks about a desire in 
contemporary society (the late 60s) to return to a time 'before 
History and before the Father' which he describes as 'a myth which is 
impossible to realise, a myth which underlies Mein Kampf as much as 
The Order of Things, the myth of a quasi suicidal return... to a type 
of magical, irrational, 'maternal' relation to the environment. It is 
a question here of a psychotic "solution".' (p. 194)

He goes on
'The success of this work is a sign of the great contemporary 
confusion of minds. Its ideology of the irrational is closest to the 
analyses contained in Mein Kampf' [footnote follows] Both [works] 
express a nihilist revolt against aspects of the paternal figure, 
both express the paradestructive and finally suicidal violence of a 
death of man as a specific being...
In a certain way this book can be compared to the description in a 
manual of infectious pathology of the effect of a bacteria on an 
organism [ ie contemporary society] which has no capacity for 
resistance left' (pp. 334-335).

To be fair Mendel does refer at one point to 'the extreme 
intelligence of the author [Foucault]' and the 'collection of new and 
enlightening perspectives' in the book but quickly goes on to say 
that Foucault continually undermines these himself. (p. 324)

Gérard Mendel (1969). La Révolte contre le père: une introduction à 
la sociopsychanalyse, 2nd ed. Paris: Payot.
--
Clare
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Clare  O'Farrell
email: panoptique@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.foucault.qut.edu.au
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