The Lacanian Left: Essays on Psychoanalysis and PoliticsIn recent years psychoanalysis especially Lacanian theory has been gradually acknowledged as a vital resource in the ongoing reorientation of contemporary political theory and analysis. Of particular note is that the work of Jacques Lacan is increasingly being used by major political philosophers associated with the Left. This indicates the dynamic emergence of a new theoretico-political horizon: that of the Lacanian Left. However, this field has yet to be properly conceived as a field, and this is the first book to bring it into academic consciousness and to systematically draw its implications for concrete political analysis. This book offers an accessible mapping of its main contours; a detailed examination of the convergences and divergences between the major figures active within or at the periphery of this terrain, including Slavoj i ek, Ernesto Laclau, Alain Badiou, and Cornelius Castoriadis; and a critical evaluation of their respective arguments on social construction and the political, affectivity and discourse, ethics and social change, and negativity and positivity. Engaging with the role of affect and emotion in political life through the central Lacanian notion of enjoyment, The Lacanian Left puts forward innovative analyses of political power and authority, nationalism, European identity, consumerism and advertising culture, and de-democratization and post-democracy. It will be of value to everyone interested in exploring the potential of psychoanalysis in reinvigorating political theory, critical political analysis, and democratic politics. |
Contents
Antinomies of Creativity Lacan and Castoriadis on Social Construction and the Political | 37 |
Laclau with Lacan on Jouissance Negotiating the Affective Limits of Discourse | 66 |
Zizekian Perversions The Lure of Antigone and the Fetishism of the Act | 109 |
Excursus on Badiou | 150 |
What Sticks? From Symbolic Power to Jouissance | 163 |
Enjoying the Nation A Success Story? | 189 |
Lack of Passion European Identity Revisited | 211 |
The Consumerist Politics of Jouissance and the Fantasy of Advertising | 227 |
Democracy in PostDemocratic Times | 254 |
286 | |
312 | |
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Common terms and phrases
advertising affect Alain Badiou analysis Antigone Antigone's argue argument articulation Badiou Castoriadis cathected Chantal Mouffe chapter conception conceptualisation constitutive consumerism consumption Cornelius Castoriadis creativity critique crucial culture democracy desire dialectics dimension disavowal discourse theory displace emergence emotion encounter enjoy enjoyment entails Ernesto Laclau ethics European identity event example experience fact fantasmatic fantasy Freud Freudian function Hegelian hegemonic human ical identification ideology imaginary implications important impossible institutions investment irreducible Jacques Lacan Jacques-Alain Miller jouissance Lacan Lacanian Left Lacanian theory lack Laclau language libidinal libido limits meaning Milgram Mouffe national identification national identity negativity object objet petit paradox passion political theory positive possible post-democratic pre-symbolic presupposes psychoanalysis question radical democratic reality registering relation representation repression revealed seems seminar sense signifier sinthome Slavoj Slavoj Žižek social and political social construction society socio-political Stavrakakis structure symbolic symbolisation symptom theoretical tion transformation Yannis Žižek