Attending to Macbeth : Cultural therapy or therapy for culture?

Abstract

A version of education conditioned by a focus on measurable outcomes contributes to the unhappiness of children. Using an approach that relates the current crisis in mental health to Simone Weil's concept of affliction, I argue that culture, suffering from its own instrumentalisation as cure, needs itself to be healed. Using a case study of Macbeth, a performative approach to education is elaborated with the help of Stanley Cavell's understanding of projection in language. By participating in the process by which meaning comes about, rather than being its passive recipients, students achieve a creative and critical authority that transforms disquiet into discovery.