Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide

By Franco "Bifo" Berardi

What is the relationship between capitalism and mental health? In his most unsettling book to date, Franco “Bifo” Berardi embarks on an exhilarating journey through philosophy, psychoanalysis and current events, searching for the social roots of the mental malaise of our age.

Spanning an array of horrors – the Aurora “Joker” killer; Anders Breivik; American school massacres; the suicide epidemic in Korea and Japan; and the recent spate of “austerity” suicides in Europe – Heroes dares to explore the darkest shadow cast by the contemporary obsession with relentless competition and hyper-connectivity. In a volume that crowns four decades of radical intellectual work, Berardi develops the psychoanalytical insights of his friend Félix Guattari and proposes dystopian irony as a strategy to disentangle ourselves from the deadly embrace of absolute capitalism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781781685792

Reviews for Heroes

[jonfaith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What most impressed me was the metaphorical density of an act that could be interpreted as breaking the separation between spectacle and real life (or real death, which is the same). I doubt that James Holmes has ever read Guy Debord. Often, people act without reading the relevant texts.

Despite the often glib treatment of the grisly, Heroes is an astonishing examination of our times. It is engaging and often raw. Semiocapitalism has arrived and folks there aren't a lot of options (read remedies), particularly the traditional ones.

Now, it is finally crystal clear: resistance is over. Capitalist absolutism will not be defeated and democracy will never be reinstated. That game is over.

Heidegger was prescient. Being, dreaming, sleeping and dwelling have all been absorbed and refigured by The Machine. We are left estranged, desperate and yet alone -- despite the common straits. I wasn't expecting to be so affected when I picked this up from the Philosophy table at the Strand.