WOKE, WOKISM, ERROR
& Philosopy of Différence - Counterpaths in Cognitive Capitalism
Catherine Malabou
This is a note taking page - where I am following the work and thought of French Philosopher Catherine Malabou.
Discussing Plasticity, Difference, and the philoosophical concept of ‘Awakening’ or ‘Wokeness’.
Catherine writes on the Ontological Error and the Invisble Clitoris... Counterpath
‘Across the essays gathered in 'Plasticity: The Promise of Explosion', Malabou carves a philosophical space between structuralism, deconstruction, cognitive psychology, psychoanalysis and speculative realism.
By demonstrating the plastic transformability at the heart of these disciplines, a change that always promises future explosion, Malabou, as a female philosopher, also articulates the need to ‘change difference’ within patriarchal concepts of tradition itself. ‘ - Plasticity: The Promise of Explosion
NOTES ON ‘ERROR’:
Feminist Philosophy:
Catherine Malabou’s concept of plasticity intersects with the notion of error—often framed as neurological damage, trauma, or patholigical deviation—primarily through her theory of destructive plasticity.
In works like The New Wounded and Ontology of the Accident, Malabou uses neurological "errors" or lesions to challenge purely positive, adaptive views of brain development.
Creative vs. Destructive Plasticity
Creative Plasticity: The standard, adaptive capacity of the brain to mould itself, learn, and respond to life experiences while maintaining a continuous identity (the autobiographical self).
Destructive Plasticity
(The Plasticity of "Error")
The capacity of the brain or psyche to receive a negative, annihilating form through trauma, lesion, or radical accident. Rather than simply malfunctioning, the system reconfigures into an entirely different, unrecognizable identity where form and being change together.
(MUTATION, Transmutation, Transformation)
Creative Plasticity: The standard, adaptive capacity of the brain to mould itself, learn, and respond to life experiences while maintaining a continuous identity (the autobiographical self).
Destructive Plasticity
(The Plasticity of "Error")
The capacity of the brain or psyche to receive a negative, annihilating form through trauma, lesion, or radical accident. Rather than simply malfunctioning, the system reconfigures into an entirely different, unrecognizable identity where form and being change together.
(MUTATION, Transmutation, Transformation)
Philosophical Stakes of the "Error"
Defying Psychoanalysis: Malabou argues that traditional psychoanalysis struggles to account for this total devastation because it tries to trace all psychic breaks back to repressed history or the pleasure principle, treating extreme trauma as a mere "glitch" rather than a catastrophic structural metamorphosis.
Critique of Neoliberal Flexibility, & WOKENESS
She warns against confusing true biological/political plasticity with capitalist "flexibility" (where an individual is expected to adapt without friction to systemic demands), noting that recognizing negative plasticity and systemic "errors" restores the critical, explosive edge of transformation.
Defying Psychoanalysis: Malabou argues that traditional psychoanalysis struggles to account for this total devastation because it tries to trace all psychic breaks back to repressed history or the pleasure principle, treating extreme trauma as a mere "glitch" rather than a catastrophic structural metamorphosis.
Critique of Neoliberal Flexibility, & WOKENESS
She warns against confusing true biological/political plasticity with capitalist "flexibility" (where an individual is expected to adapt without friction to systemic demands), noting that recognizing negative plasticity and systemic "errors" restores the critical, explosive edge of transformation.
"Error" and Cognitive Capitalism
Malabou points out that modern management theory borrows heavily from neuroscience. Just as the brain is seen as a decentralized, self-organizing network that constantly adapts to new inputs, the modern corporation is structured the same way.
Within this "cognitive capitalism," a failure to adapt is viewed as an individual error—a personal cognitive glitch, a lack of resilience, or a biological deficit.
Malabou fiercely rejects this.
She argues that viewing psychological burnout, depression, or structural exhaustion merely as individual "errors" hides the systemic violence of the environment.
REFUSALS, BOUNDARIES, AND LISTENING TO ERROR AS TEACHER
We refuse to be merely flexible.
To do this, we transition from a passive awareness of our brain's adaptability to an active consciousness of its ability to resist, transform, and say "no."
Malabou asserts that the brain is not a machine designed to smoothly absorb corporate stress until it breaks; it is a site of political resistance.
By understanding that our brains, (our identies, our memories, our archives), possess the plastic power to fundamentally rewrite their own rules, we can begin to imagine alternative ways of living that do not conform to market demands, and perpetuate the same violent and extractive systems onward.