Entretien avec Louis Sass par Jérôme Englebert. Réalisé à Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA) le 21 mars 2023

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this paper is to present an interview with Louis Sass, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University, USA. His work is recognized worldwide, and he has been a visiting professor at several institutions, notably in Paris in 2008–2009, and in Belgium in Ghent, Brussels, and Liège in 2023–2024 (as part of the Chaire Francqui program). The interview was conducted in French during Jérôme Englebert's academic stay in New York and at Rutgers University.

Method

The method consists of an interview with Louis Sass. The questions concern his main influences and the original readings he makes of authors essential to his work. The transdisciplinary dimension of his work is also highlighted and discussed.

Results

Louis Sass is one of the leading specialists in the phenomenological understanding of schizophrenia. He has published numerous articles and several books on psychopathology, the most famous of which is Madness and Modernism: Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature, and Thought (Revised edition, Oxford University Press, 2017). This book is an attempt to understand the schizophrenic mind by exploring its parallels with the avant-garde art and thought of 20th century “modernism” and “postmodernism.” Madness and Modernism introduced the concept of hyper-reflexivity, which is today considered, in the field of phenomenological psychopathology, as a crucial element of schizophrenic experience and a characteristic sign of this existential condition. In addition to psychopathology, Professor Sass's contributions are also to be found in the fields of philosophy, psychoanalysis, art, anthropology, and ethnography. He is also interested in the Rorschach test, which he teaches to clinical psychology students at Rutgers University.

Discussion

One sentence in this interview neatly sums up Sass's interest in developing original ways of understanding complex phenomena such as psychopathological conditions, but also various forms of literary and artistic expression or, more recently, different ontologies encountered in ethnographic fieldwork: “What interests me is appreciating the sophistication of others who have been seen in an overly simplistic way.”

Conclusion

This interview provides an overview of the work of this important author of phenomenological psychopathology.