A musical mix of rock ’n’ roll and some psychoanalytical silences at the Gaité Lyrique
A production by the ‘Ecole pratique des hautes études en psychopathologies’ (EPHEP) and Editions Odile Jacob
Featuring:
- Manuella Rebotini - psychoanalyst
- Marie-Charlotte Cadeau - philosopher, psychoanalyst
- Charles Melman - psychiatrist, psychoanalyst
- Nicolas Dissez - psychiatrist, psychoanalyst
- Marc Morali - psychoanalyst
- Lelo Jimmy Batista - Noisey
- Alexis Bernier - TSUGI
- Laurence Pierre
- Black Strobe
- Les Colettes
- Arnaud Rebotini
- Philippe Levy photographer
Managing to juggle two very different things isn’t for everyone - it requires suppleness and training. Manuella Rebotini could have been a ballet dancer at the Paris opera, but pink tutus and tiny white satin shoes aren’t her style. Actually, her style is much more to do with electric guitars and drum kits. She’s not your average psychoanalyst to be sure, and in order to bring together her loves (rock 'n’ roll and psychoanalysis) she has written "Totem and drum, a quick history of rock 'n' roll and some psychoanalytical thoughts". It’s a feisty little book (just 170 pages) published by Odile Jacob, a publisher of “ideas that move ideas forward”, and there are plenty of ideas here to clash, bounce off each other, go wild, get together and question the reader.
Not a tale for sensitive souls, the story of rock ‘n’ roll started on the crocodile-infested banks of the Mississippi river and the plantations where masters beat their slaves and only allowed singing to increase productivity. To get round the ban separating them from the intricate, rich, syncopated African rhythms where […] drums had always been used as a rhythmic writing object for communicating in a simple morse alphabet”, these slaves gave rhythm to the tapping of their tools in order to “reconstruct” and pass on to their children - born in captivity - the history of all ethnic groups in exile: for each totem exists a drum (or ‘tambour’ in French) - a sly reference to Sigmund Freud’s canonical work “Totem and Taboo”.
As for the story of rock ‘n’ roll that was to follow, we know how it goes: work songs, gospel, country ‘n’ western, blues, heavy metal, techno… rhythms with links to sex, alcohol, drugs, satanic sects, smoky dance joints, fans, idols, trance-like states - the fever of Saturday nights, juke joints and jukeboxes, places of exaltation where “[…] for a moment, the worries of phallic obligations could be suspended.” Jacques Lacan wrote as early as the 1960s that rock 'n’ roll “rips at your insides,” so it’s no surprise that the subject interests psychoanalysts - addiction is a daily fixture on their couches. Nevertheless, only after the first graduation of the ‘École pratique des hautes études en psychopathologies’ (Ephep), which included Manuella Rebotini, was a book published on the subject.
After the success of the book, it was inconceivable to stop there. On the 8th November 2014, from 3pm onwards, Manuella Rebotini returns to the Gaité Lyrique (3 bis rue Papin - 75003 Paris) with an idea in mind: bring together people who never, or rarely - rockers and psychoanalysts - in order to continue the lines of thought explored in ‘Totem et tambour’. There will be debates and showcase concerts - a few high-risk hours, warns Manuella Rebotini: “Rock ‘n’ roll liberates what we repress and breaks down barriers.” Get ready to have your mojo well and truly freed…