Rhetoric Society Quarterly Mar 2018

Psychotic Discourse: The Rhetoric of the Sovereign Citizen Movement

Calum Lister Matheson

Abstract

Reactionary conservative groups such as the sovereign citizen movement are increasingly prominent—and violent—in the United States. These groups cohere around their own unique discourses of law, language, and history, which are often dismissed as meaningless, or even “crazy.” Following Jacques Lacan’s injunction that the analyst must “let the subject speak,” this essay will examine sovereign citizen rhetoric as a coherent, internally consistent field of meaning exhibiting the traits of psychotic discourse in which the metaphorical operation of the law-as-signifier is disavowed. Doing so illustrates not only the powerful intersection of communication and psychoanalysis but also the potential for a rhetorical reading to challenge the most violent collective psychoses.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2018-03-15
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2017.1306876
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis
Export
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Kelly (2026)
    Alt-Sports: Power Slap as Far-Right Discourse
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Wagner (2021)
    The Obscure Object of Rhetoric
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
  3. Matheson (2019)
    Stasis in the Net of Affect
    Philosophy & Rhetoric

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