Les heuristiques paradoxales du malentendu

Abstract

Misunderstanding is unsettling because it is very similar to paradox. Indeed, paradox appears as an aporia for thinking itself. It gathers inconsistent demands, in particular when logical typings are confused. When it is endured, logical inconsistency causes an existential malaise. Misunderstanding can thus induce a pathological dimension. That is its negative heuristic. But misunderstanding doesn’t boil down to this malaise. Misunderstanding can also get a positive dimension. Indeed, unconscious psyche may turn out to be fertile and fuel itself with the dark side of the image. That is the positive heuristic of misunderstanding. It invigorates a world impoverished by the clarity of analysis. The purpose of this article is, on the one hand, to present misunderstanding as a change operator, and on the other hand, to assess the richness of misunderstanding, opening the field of possibilities.