Messiah complex

Abstract: This chapter explores how Brand is positioned in the history of British comedy and by the distinctions in taste that structure this cultural field. It identifies his ‘signature practices’ through analyses of his major stand-up performances placing particular emphasis on the way he uses self-reflexive autobiography, language and wit, bodily expression and therapeutic discourses to develop a distinctive style of comedy that crosses class boundaries. It culminates with a detailed analysis of the Messiah Complex show in which he marshals these comedic techniques to create a quasi-shamanic ritual of spiritual and political transformation. Whether his comedy should be condemned as exploitative entertainment or admired as an audacious form of truth-telling divides the judgements made about Brand’s cultural value as a performer, thereby creating an unstable assemblage with diverse effects.

Abstract: After suggesting that religio-egocentricity and the messiah-complex may be a universal pattern in the psychoses, this paper briefly addresses three questions. First, in general, what is the relationship between religious emotions and schizophrenia? Second, why is it that the messiah-complex surfaces so often in the psychoses? Finally, what is the healthy dimension of religiosity?

Abstract: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had only just fired the starting gun on the 2013 election campaign, but commentators were already in no doubt about the nature of the campaign that would unfold during the ensuing five weeks: ‘This federal election will be the most presidential in style, communications and frenzy in our history’ (Dusevic 2013). In Australia we have grown accustomed over recent decades to media representations of each national election as a new high water mark in ‘presidential’ campaigning. The 2013 campaign was certainly no exception; the term ‘presidential’ was a ubiquitous reference point for journalists, especially in their descriptions of the Labor Party’s pitch for reelection (see the controversy between Kefford and Dowding in the Australian Journal of Political Science 2013).