THE CONCURRENT RISE OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BIOFICTION

There were certainly biofictions in and before the nineteenth century, but the literary form, Michael Lackey contends, came to fruition with the publication of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-1885), and that was the case because Nietzsche, when writing it, was so attentive to major transformations in theories of knowledge as a consequence of the rise of psychology. Specifically, Nietzsche is famous for his deconstruction of metaphysical and ontological truth, but what ultimately made that idea so compelling was his careful engagement with psychology’s theory of the subconscious, which led him to conclude that truth is constructed rather than discovered. This development in the world of ideas mandated the emergence of a literary form that would model a process of creating truth in a healthy and responsible manner. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is that work. As a biofiction, it gives readers an existential map for diagnosing psycho-epistemological ailments and offering readers healthier and more just ways of thinking and doing in a world in which truth, rather than being an ontological fact of being, is seen as a conceptual illusion that shifts and evolves in relation to those who control the intellectual means of production.