man who believes he is a grain of corn / the chicken
joke · psychiatric joke (classic) ·
retold in 8 talks
A mental patient is cured of believing he is a grain of corn and released, but immediately returns trembling, there is a chicken outside. When told he knows he is not a grain, he replies: 'Of course I know that, but does the chicken know?' Žižek applies this to psychoanalysis, commodity fetishism, and God.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 8
“Of course I know that, but does the chicken know?”
“I know this, but does the chicken know that I am now a man?”
“yes, i know it, but does the chicken know it”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 4 jobsuses
the big Other
×5
commodity fetishism
×4
subject supposed to believe
×3
the chicken
×2
Its cast and sources
populated by
Wilhelm Reich3Jorge Semprún2Graham Greene2Tenzin Gyatso4Donald Davidson2Josip Broz Tito3Ágnes Heller2Terry Eagleton2
alongside works
Every retelling 8
A mental patient is cured of believing he is a grain of corn and released, but immediately returns trembling, there is a chicken outside. When told he knows he is not a grain, he replies: 'Of course I know that, but does the chicken know?' Žižek applies this to psychoanalysis, commodity fetishism, and God., illustrating objectified belief,the chicken in you,ideology in acts,commodity fetishism
A patient is cured of his delusion that he is a grain of corn and is released; he immediately returns terrified that a chicken will eat him. The psychiatrist reminds him he is a man. He replies: 'I know that, but does the chicken know?' The belief is in the Other, not in the subject., illustrating objectified belief,commodity fetishism,Big Other
A patient cured of believing he is a grain of corn is discharged, but returns afraid a chicken will eat him. When told the chicken doesn't know he is cured, he says: 'But does the chicken know it?' The joke captures how the big Other's presumed knowledge structures our behavior even when our own rational belief has changed., illustrating the big Other,fetishist split,ideology
A mental patient convinced he is a grain of corn is cured and knows he is a man, but immediately returns trembling because a chicken is at the door, the chicken doesn't know. Used to show that belief is not in consciousness but in the Other/practice., illustrating objectified belief,de-centered belief,the big Other,commodity fetishism
A psychiatric patient cured of his delusion that he is a grain of corn immediately runs back to the hospital; when asked why, he says 'I know I'm a man, but does the chicken know?' Žižek reads this as the structure of objective belief: subjective knowledge is insufficient, the Other must also know., illustrating objective belief,big Other,the chicken who shouldn't know,Yugoslavia/Tito
A psychiatric patient cured of believing he is a grain of seed returns immediately, terrified of a chicken. When told 'you know you're not a seed,' he replies 'I know, but does the chicken?' Žižek uses this to theorize the big Other as structural placeholder for collective appearance-maintenance., illustrating big Other,transposed belief,appearances