Marechera's shamanism is actually a metacritical approach to the experience of intersubjectivity and the strong political ramifications entailed in having intersubjective experiences.
A naturalistic feeling of intersubjectivity in adult spheres (which is not earned by verbal communication) rides upon the so-called pre-Oedipal (very early childhood) processing and pre-Oedipal functions, psychologically akin to the ocean's hidden undercurrents, that influence our social behaviour. These include: dissociation, ego splitting, projective identification,and magical thinking. These pre-Oedipal functions come into existence on the basis of primordial mutuality and nurturance as well as on the basis of a primordial struggle between the infant's feelings concerning its needs of gratification and the infant's idea of the mother, represented in its psyche as both sameness and as primordial "other". They are a way of mediating and resolving these tensions at the level of the bodily push and pull the infant experiences in relation to its mother, as it seeks to assure its own survival. They enable an immature consciouness to reassure itself that all is well, under variable circumstances. They function to create the feeling of wellbeing that will regulate the infant's nervous system in a way that best assures survival. Thus pre-Oedipal intersubjectivity is a mystical basis for fictions -- with very direct materal consequences -- which serves a survival function.
We experience the non-rational currents of vestigal pre-Oedipal dynamics driving and determining our directions within the social sphere (as animals experience the pull of forces that drives their migratory patterns), as we react to them at a pre-rational or intuitive level according to what feels natural. Thus, in certain kinds of societies, being cruel to women and blacks just FEELS natural. This is facilitated by ideology, obviously. However ideology cannot cause anything to FEEL natural -- although it may give well-sounding reasons as to why some mode of prejudice or discrimination is indeed natural. What makes it FEEL natural is the facility of intersubjectivity, driven by pre-Oedipal dynamics.
Intersubjectivity has an effect on the pre-conscious level which is read subliminally. Just as the communication between the young baby and its mother is preverbal, so pre-Oedipal dynamics (vestiges of our past manner of relating as a child) are also registered non-verbally. (Although language may be used to convey their meanings, pre-Oedipal messages normatively and logically entailed in pure linguistics.)
Needless to say, the pre-Oedipal realm is not experienced by most people metacritically. Marechera's writing, however is different, and I will argue that it is shamanistic in that he ascertains the hidden currents driving people in particular political directions (shamanistic knowledge). His writing also tries to use knowledge concerning how pre-Oedipal dynamics work, to redirect the currents underlying society into different forms that serve to exert intersubjective pressure that will bring about the writer's preferred anarchistic model of society. This metacritical approach -- which ascertains and redirects the hidden social currents --is what is entailed in Marechera's attempt at a shamanistic healing of societies.
A naturalistic feeling of intersubjectivity in adult spheres (which is not earned by verbal communication) rides upon the so-called pre-Oedipal (very early childhood) processing and pre-Oedipal functions, psychologically akin to the ocean's hidden undercurrents, that influence our social behaviour. These include: dissociation, ego splitting, projective identification,and magical thinking. These pre-Oedipal functions come into existence on the basis of primordial mutuality and nurturance as well as on the basis of a primordial struggle between the infant's feelings concerning its needs of gratification and the infant's idea of the mother, represented in its psyche as both sameness and as primordial "other". They are a way of mediating and resolving these tensions at the level of the bodily push and pull the infant experiences in relation to its mother, as it seeks to assure its own survival. They enable an immature consciouness to reassure itself that all is well, under variable circumstances. They function to create the feeling of wellbeing that will regulate the infant's nervous system in a way that best assures survival. Thus pre-Oedipal intersubjectivity is a mystical basis for fictions -- with very direct materal consequences -- which serves a survival function.
We experience the non-rational currents of vestigal pre-Oedipal dynamics driving and determining our directions within the social sphere (as animals experience the pull of forces that drives their migratory patterns), as we react to them at a pre-rational or intuitive level according to what feels natural. Thus, in certain kinds of societies, being cruel to women and blacks just FEELS natural. This is facilitated by ideology, obviously. However ideology cannot cause anything to FEEL natural -- although it may give well-sounding reasons as to why some mode of prejudice or discrimination is indeed natural. What makes it FEEL natural is the facility of intersubjectivity, driven by pre-Oedipal dynamics.
Intersubjectivity has an effect on the pre-conscious level which is read subliminally. Just as the communication between the young baby and its mother is preverbal, so pre-Oedipal dynamics (vestiges of our past manner of relating as a child) are also registered non-verbally. (Although language may be used to convey their meanings, pre-Oedipal messages normatively and logically entailed in pure linguistics.)
Needless to say, the pre-Oedipal realm is not experienced by most people metacritically. Marechera's writing, however is different, and I will argue that it is shamanistic in that he ascertains the hidden currents driving people in particular political directions (shamanistic knowledge). His writing also tries to use knowledge concerning how pre-Oedipal dynamics work, to redirect the currents underlying society into different forms that serve to exert intersubjective pressure that will bring about the writer's preferred anarchistic model of society. This metacritical approach -- which ascertains and redirects the hidden social currents --is what is entailed in Marechera's attempt at a shamanistic healing of societies.
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