Paul Preciado’s Dysphoria Mundi Criticized for Cringey Analogies and Political Troubles
Hannah Proctor reviews Paul Preciado's new book Dysphoria Mundi, criticizing its self-indulgent metaphors and politically troubling comparisons. Preciado, known for Testo Junkie, uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a lens to discuss gender dysphoria and planetary dysphoria, but his analogies—like equating lockdown to migrant detention—are called obscene. The book's theoretical framework relies on dated thinkers like Derrida and Foucault, ignoring recent queer scholarship. Proctor notes Preciado's privileged perspective as a middle-class European with secure work and housing, which undermines his claims of solidarity. The final section, a letter to activists, shows humility but comes too late. Published in ArtReview.
Key facts
- Paul Preciado's Dysphoria Mundi is reviewed by Hannah Proctor in ArtReview.
- The book is structured in three parts, mixing memoir and manifesto.
- Preciado reappropriates 'dysphoria' to describe the contemporary planetary condition.
- He compares his lockdown experience to migrant detention, calling homes 'prisons' and phones 'jailers'.
- Proctor calls the analogies 'cringey' and 'politically troubling'.
- Preciado's theoretical references include Derrida, Foucault, and Lyotard, seen as dated.
- The book's final section is a 'letter to an activist' expressing humility.
- Proctor is a historian of radical psychiatry at the University of Strathclyde.
Entities
Artists
- Paul Preciado
- Hannah Proctor
- Maxi Wallenhorst
- Jordy Rosenberg
- Jules Gill-Peterson
Institutions
- ArtReview
- University of Strathclyde
Locations
- Berlin
- Germany
- Wuhan
- China
- Greece
- Lesbos
- Calais
- Lampedusa
- Ceuta
- Tijuana
- United States