Kaiak (Jul 2019)
Benjamin e il gioco dell'oppio
Abstract
In the late, roaring Twenties and the early, uncanny Thirties of the 20th Century, German philosopher and essayist Walter Benjamin went through a considerable series of experiments with drugs. Not only the renowned ones on hashish (he promised a ‘very important book’ on that matter), but also opium, opioids and mescaline. Each experiment, except those with opium (which he took in Ibiza with his French friend, Jean Selz), were surveyed by specialist physicians, who documented the results together with the Versuchsperson, the experiment subject. An on-the-field study on the potential of intoxication, these writings are filled with keywords such as ‘ornament’, ‘play’, ‘series’, which the reader can find in all his contemporary production. His notes on those experiences are a true milestone to penetrate both his understanding of the ‘altered perception’ and the social role of legal opioids in democratic Germany first, and in Nazi Germany later on. Benjamin’s remarks open new perspectives on the function of intoxicated alienation in the bourgeois society from Baudelaire on. Moreover, he offers truly insightful comments on the reasons why the building of comfort-zones for addicted individuals and groups have ‘economic’ roots in the psychological aftermath of the “struggle for existence”.
