The Neurotic Turn

Taking their cue from the work of Charles Johns, who has argued that, far from being an ailment, neurosis is in fact the dominant condition of our society today, an array of thinkers have gathered in The Neurotic Turn to address the question: what can ‘neurosis’ tell us about our current social impasse?

What emerges in The Neurotic Turn is the awareness that the medicalization of neurosis was merely provisional. Today, to understand our increasingly synthetic, digitized world, we cannot retreat from neurosis, or pretend to offer its cure. Instead, we must confront it — dispensing with the conventional idea of ‘reality’ in order to redefine it.

Charles Johns studied Fine Art at Goldsmith's College and progressed to do a Masters in Contemporary Art Theory under Professor Simon O' Sullivan, submitting his final thesis on the resurgence of nihilism in contemporary philosophical discourse.

Charles then went on to join The Collective arts committee in Lincoln (sponsored by Arts Council UK) and coordinated several events, including an exhibition curated by Tom Morton (Frieze magazine), which involved works by Sarah Lucas and Anthony Caro. 

Charles has just finished a year working at the University of Lincoln within the Art & Design department, and is a current member of the Lincoln Philosophy Forum assisting in research matters specializing in Continental philosophy and various forms of Nihilism (metaphysical, epistemological, literary and political).

Charles has presented and published many articles on aesthetics and Continental philosophy, including work for Ephemera (Moscow), Goldsmiths College (London), The Collection (Lincoln), University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), Camberwell College (London) and The National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Moscow). Charlie also has an ongoing blog entitled Mobilising Nihilism which you can follow at http://cwjohns.wordpress.com. 

Charles' debut book, Incompatible Ballerina and Other Essays, published by John Hunt Publishing, has been heralded as "ground-breaking", "an intensification of thinking" and "informed with rare philosophical intelligence and insight".