On Repetition

On Repetition: Writing, Performance and Art aims to unpack the different uses and functions of repetition within contemporary performance, dance practices, craft and writing. This edited collection explores repetition in relation to intimacy, laughter, technology, familiarity and fear - proposing a new vocabulary for understanding what is at stake in works that repeat. Drawing on psychoanalysis, philosophy, linguistics, sociology and performance studies, and with case studies from a range of practices, the essays in On Repetition combine to form a unique interdisciplinary exploration of the functions of repetition in contemporary culture.

From the French master of the avant-garde: “A spy tale whose prime puzzle lies in the philosophical intricacies of its own construction” (Entertainment Weekly). We are in the bombed-out Berlin of 1949, after the Second World War, rendered with an atmosphere reminiscent of Orson Welles’ The Third Man. Henri Robin, a special agent of the French secret service, arrives in the ruined former capital to which he feels linked by a vague but recurrent childhood memory. But the real purpose of his mission has not been revealed to him, for his superiors have decided to afford him only as much information as is indispensable for the action expected of his blind loyalty. But nothing is what it seems, and matters do not turn out as anticipated . . . “Exhibits a sensibility as nervous and contemporary—not to mention witty—as that of any novelist working today.” —The Los Angeles Times “Mirrors, doubles, double agents, repetitions, trompe l’oeil war paintings, dream sequences, sexual torture, a criminal mafia of postwar Nazis and murky memories add to the disquieting, disorienting literary puzzle.” —San Francisco Chronicle “A Gothic masterpiece . . . Repetition is fearfest like no other, and a rewarding text that demands to be reread again and again. The master hasn’t lost his touch.” —The Avon Grove Sun

This fascinating book by Doris Eliana Cohen, Ph.D., was written to help us create a shift in our own consciousness as well as that of humanity. In order to heal from traumas, we unknowingly repeat the stories of our lives again and again, reliving them in different scenarios in this life as well as in other lifetimes. This repetition of our behavior patterns is neither neurotic nor pathological. It is absolutely necessary, because painful though it may be, repetition offers us multiple opportunities for facing our issues, making new choices, and healing ourselves at last. All of us have a God-given gift of free choice, although we may be unaware of it at times. Only when we acknowledge and take full responsibility for the choices we’ve made in our current and past lives can we begin to change our stories and end the suffering we’ve been causing ourselves. This material is based on Doris’s 30 years of clinical experience with patients, using traditional therapy techniques combined with past-life regression therapy. It is guided and inspired by her communication with Guides and Angels of the Light, who have accompanied her for many years. Within these pages, Doris presents the 7 Steps of Rebirth, which provide a profound yet swift and simple route to change our lives and heal ourselves. Her 4 Steps of Joy offer a powerful tool for accessing the Light swiftly and easily. Remembering the events of our past lives provides a rich and fascinating tapestry of our journey, resulting in the humbling and uplifting realization that our souls are on a grand adventure. In owning our stories, we move from seeing ourselves as victims of life to empowering ourselves as co-creators of our destiny.

On Repeat offers an in-depth inquiry into music's repetitive nature. Drawing on a diverse array of fields, it sheds light on a range of issues from repetition's use as a compositional tool to its role in characterizing our behavior as listeners, and considers related implications for repetition in language, learning, and communication.

A new edition of this introduction to Deleuze's seminal work, Difference and Repetition, with new material on intensity, science and action and new engagements with Bryant, Sauvagnargues, Smith, Somers-Hall and de Beistegui.

Repetition, the Compulsion to Repeat, and the Death Drive—a critical examination of Freud’s uses of repetition as they lead to the compulsion to repeat and his infamous death drive—is in effect the first scholarly attempt to ground Freudian psychoanalysis on the concept of repetition. Like perhaps no other concept, repetition drove Freud to an understanding of human behavior through development of models of the human mind and a method of treating neurotic behavior. This book comprises three parts. Part I, “Some Early Uses of ‘Repetition’ in Psychoanalysis,” examines repetition both in clinical therapy and in Freud’s use of phylogenetic explanation. Part II, composed of three chapters, outlines Freud’s journey to his vaunted death drive, examines Beyond the Pleasure Principle, and analyzes Freud’s use of compulsion to repeat and the death drive post 1920. Last, Part III is a critical analysis of Freud on repetition and the death drive, discusses why Freud was so wedded to his controversial death drive, and what can be salvaged from Freud’s observations and speculations. Here readers will find that Holowchak, qua philosopher, and Lavin, qua clinician, have different answers when it comes to the death drive.

Repetition, Difference, and Knowledge dialogues with novels, theatre, philosophy, and literary theory in order to explore how three thinkers - Samuel Beckett, Jacques Derrida, and Gilles Deleuze - employ repetition as a means with which to radically unsettle some of the most fundamental notions of the human experience (among them, time, presence, originality, and being). Due to its interdisciplinary scope and its focus on repetition as an epistemological concept, this book will attract a broad audience of academic specialists across the humanities from the fields of literary criticism, philosophy, French studies, and poststructural studies. Its simplicity of style, deliberate avoidance of complex jargon, and clarity of argument - particularly when dealing with complicated theoretical ideas and texts - also makes it an invaluable tool for use in both graduate- and undergraduate-level literature and philosophy courses. Repetition, Difference, and Knowledge provides experienced and beginning scholars alike with greater insight into the works of Beckett, Derrida, and Deleuze and into the role that repetition has played and continues to play in determining how we read our world and come to meaning.