Heterotopias, or the desire to be otherwise

Abstract

On the centenary of Michel Foucault, this paper proposes a radical extension of the concept of heterotopia, transposing it from the analysis of concrete spaces to the very core of subjectivity. It argues that heterotopia, beyond its canonical definition as an “other space,” constitutes a powerful ethico-political practice of becoming-other within the very fabric of social life. Such a practice operates as an active response to a double modern capture: the redemptive promise of a future utopia and the coercive fiction of a stable, transparent identity. In order to articulate this operative dimension of heterotopia, the text engages in a critical dialogue with Giorgio Agamben’s notion of “profanation,” understanding self-invention as a gesture that deactivates the dispositifs that sacralize specific forms of life. It further investigates the driving force of this transformation in the theories of desire developed by Jacques Lacan and Gilles Deleuze/Félix Guattari, exploring both the path of constitutive lack and that of positive production as antagonistic forces to identity crystallization. Finally, it examines the psychoanalytic setting as a paradigmatic heterotopic laboratory in which subjectivity is destabilized and reinvented. The ultimate aim is to forge heterotopia as a key operator for a micropolitics of existence, capable of grounding modes of resistance and freedom in the present.