L’aile brisée du papillon : le concept contemporain de métamorphose au prisme des mises en récit des neurotraumatisés

In Catherine Malabou’s The New Wounded : From Neurosis to Brain Damage (2007), the suffering that follows a senseless traumatic event (an accident) is theorized through a deconstructionist, neuroscientific lens. Centering her work on the lived experiences of brain lesions patients who are no longer recognizable to themselves or others, Malabou explores destructive neural plasticity as a driver for modern suffering: the indifference of the “moi” to its own annihilation. This project undertakes a translational analysis of Malabou’s theories to characterize identity metamorphosis among survivors of neurotraumatic events: embodied experiences where neural circuitry and the passage of time is ruptured during the event and the recovery process that follows. Using patient narratives and contemporary philosophy, as well as cellular and cognitive neuroscience, the following questions are undertaken: what are the physical and mental capacities that help us imagine and describe indescribable experiences? How does destructive plasticity drive identity metamorphosis following a neurotraumatic event? What is our responsibility for understanding this transformation from an interdisciplinary perspective?