We’re pleased to share a recent article by Prof. Caio Yurgel, just published in Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, a leading international journal in psychoanalytic and cultural studies.
The article, “The name of Haizi: the symbolic fiction of being alive,” looks at the relationship between the Chinese poet Haizi’s poetry and his suicide. Rather than reading his poems as foreshadowing his death, as is often done, I argue that they can be understood as an attempt to hold a sense of self together through poetry, love, and language.
In other words, the article asks: what if we stopped reading Haizi’s poetry as a prophecy of his death and instead read it as an attempt to remain alive? Drawing on psychoanalysis, theories of mourning, and Hegelian retroactivity, I explore how poetry can give form and temporary stability to a fragmented self.
Read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-026-00662-0
We congratulate Prof. Caio Yurgel on this important contribution to the field!
