Syncope

The Philosophy of Rapture by Catherine Clement

Syncope is a temporary absence of self or suspension of movement, a hesitation or dissonance. Clement’s examples include fainting, the backward dip in the Tango, a weak musical beat between two strong beats, the spin of dervishes, sneezing, coughing, hiccuping, uncontrollable laughter, screaming, facial spasms and tics, squinting, tremors, heart palpitations, choking, uncontrolled excretion, cold sweats, tears, tingling, prickling, tickling, wheezing, auditory hallucinations, orgasm, visions of gods speaking, religious ecstasy, falling in love, and enjambment in poetic metrics. “Where is the lost syllable,” she writes, “the beat eaten away by the rhythm? Where does the subject go who, later comes to, ‘comes back?’ Where am I in syncope?”