Make World

This episode returns to the interview with Kommune 1's Rainer Langhans for a close-up look at the critical role of personal psychology in producing lasting social change. From Adam Curtis' idea of over-administration of psychiatric drugs since the 1990s as a strategic means of producing normality, to Herbert Marcuse's earlier revelation that psychological and psychiatric techniques could become weapons to create revolutionary states of mind, this episode examines a shift that started to take place in the 1960s: -- towards the idea that change could be pursued from the inside out - first through radical interpersonal practices seen in Kommune 1 and later by meditation, trance and psychedelic drugs. What can Rainer Langhans' comments on his early autism tell us about the relationship between 'non-neurotypical' thinking -- and radical politics. And could we see Kommune 1 as an early attempt to manufacture an 'anti-neurotypical' individual, one with new needs and desires, so radical as to power a revolution?