Dysphoria Mundi

A revolutionary book tracing the collapse of the paradigms that have organized the world for centuries

In Dysphoria Mundi, Paul B. Preciado, best known for his 2013 cult classic Testo Junkie, has written a mutant text assembled from essays, philosophy, poetry, and autofiction that captures a moment of profound change and possibility. Rooted in the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, and taking account of the societal convulsions that have ensued, Preciado tries to make sense of our times from within the swirl of a revolutionary present moment.

The central thesis of this monumental work is that dysphoria, to be understood properly, should not be seen as a mental illness but rather as the condition that defines our times. Dysphoria is an abyss that separates a patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist order hurtling toward its end from a new way of being that, until now, has been seen as unproductive and abnormal but is in fact the way out of our current predicament.

With echoes of visionaries such as William S. Burroughs and Kathy Acker, Preciado’s theoretical writing is propelled by lyric power while providing us with a critical toolbox full of new concepts that can guide our thinking and our actions: transition, cognitive emancipation, denormalization, disidentification, “electronic heroin,” digital coups, necro-kitsch. Dysphoria Mundi is Preciado’s most accessible and significant work to date, in which he makes sense of a world in ruins around us and maps a joyous, radical way forward.

Review

“Preciado’s monumental work brings the commitments of the bibliophile to bear on a time and a world now irreversibly out of joint. Drawing on theories of language, mind, technology, immunology to retell a story of this world, Preciado’s work more firmly shatters the binaries responsible for the destruction of love and futurity. Here a song, there a poem, this is thinking across both genre and gender, undoing us in the best sense, and fighting against the worst forms of undoing.” ―Judith Butler

“How lucky we are to have Paul Preciado as companion and interpreter of all we’ve just been through, with a global pandemic―luckier still is the gift of his revolutionary optimism, which runs through his thorough, gritty analysis of our current predicament. If you’re tired of ricocheting between neofascists and doomer dudes, here comes Dysphoria Mundi to recast our situation as ‘the most beautiful (or devastating) collective adventure we have ever embarked on,’ and give us new strategies and inspiration to reconceptualize―and stay on―the ride.”―Maggie Nelson

“Paul Preciado’s singular genius is for writing vividly within the immediacy of everyday life, and then also unraveling from there the deeper historical forces that shape those moments. In Dysphoria Mundi we learn how the invisible traces of a virus thread bodies and societies together, lacing us into shifting regimes of power and commodification. Preciado has that rare ability to lead the reader through familiar situations to unexpected conceptual insight. An essential thinker for the contemporary world.”―McKenzie Wark