Research Seminar With Thomas Moynihan Author of Spinal Catastophism: A Secret History
18th of March, 2020 from 3pm-5pm in UL102 (University Library)

A fascinating opportunity to talk to the author of one of the most cutting edge books recently released in the stranger aspects of philosophy. Drawing on cryptic intimations in the work of J. G. Ballard, Georges Bataille, William Burroughs, André Leroi-Gourhan, Elaine Morgan, and Friedrich Nietzsche, in the late twentieth century Daniel Barker formulated the axioms of spinal catastrophism: If human morphology, upright posture, and the possibility of language are the ramified accidents of natural history, then psychic ailments are ultimately afflictions of the spine, which itself is a scale model of biogenetic trauma, a portable map of the catastrophic events that shaped that atrocity exhibition of evolutionary traumata, the sick orthograde talking mammal.

The seminar will operate on 2 primary areas. The theory of spinal geotraum itself and its nature as a quasi theory-fictional work. The intersection of these two regions promises to unlock fascinating vistas for discussion.If interested in attending please email Graham at gfreestone@lincoln.ac.uk.