Beyond Symptom Supression:
Psychoanalytic Perspectives and Alternative Approaches to Psychosis at Le 388
This booklet accompanies the currently unpublished social work research paper with the same titile, offering an alternative way into the conversation. My academic inquiry examines, Le 388 in Québec - an outpatient clinic that provides an innovative model for the treatment of psychosis, including interventions that prioritize humanization and subjectivity over symptom suppression. Le 388 is rooted in psychoanalysis, interpreting symptoms as meaningful expressions of psychic distress and underscores the importance of addressing the dynamic needs of individuals.
This visual-text booklet that weaves together interview dialogue and personal imagery into a poetic archive. The textual source is the 2019 interview with the Lacanian founders of Le388 by Chris Vanderwees. Given their expertise, it felt best to present their work and perspectives directly. Their interview has been disrupted visually and structurally, presenting only highlighted key statements from the text using a process of highlighting and erasure. Visually, I draw on footage from a 2014 journey I took with my brother (who suffers from schizophrenia) across the country, searching for alternative treatment facilities for psychosis. I’ve extracted screenshots (fragments of visual memory) and the images have been woven into the text. There are cut-outs within the images that mirror the opposite text, revealing patterns. I wanted to represent the sensations of erasure, accounting for those disappeared by our systems as well as the recent loss of Le 388 (closed March 2025). Together, the reworked text and images form a poetic, layered digital booklet. While working on this academic research eleven years later, my sibling (now living in a nursing home in Ohio) was front of my mind. This visual project became an attempt to merge time and space, while representing the key perspectives of Le 388.
Research advised by Daniel Garner (Ph.D SW, Hunter College). Iinterview with Christopher Chamberlin (Lacanian Psychoanalyst, La 388, Group for Independent Formation). Unpublished research can be provided upon request (Literature review including Moncrief, R.D. Laing, Institutional Psychiatry and La Borde, Danielle Knafo, GIFRIC, and the founders of Le 388).
*Looking for publishing for the booklet (online and print)
