Although there have been many attempts to apply the ideas of psychoanalysis to political thought, this book is the first to identify the political project inherent in the fundamental tenets of psychoanalysis. And this political project, Todd McGowan contends, provides an avenue for emancipatory politics after the failure of Marxism in the twentieth century.
Where others seeking the political import of psychoanalysis have looked to Freud s early work on sexuality, McGowan focuses on Freud s discovery of the death drive and Jacques Lacan s elaboration of this concept. He argues that...
Although there have been many attempts to apply the ideas of psychoanalysis to political thought, this book is the first to identify the political ...
Despite creating vast inequalities and propping up reactionary world regimes, capitalism has many passionate defenders--but not because of what it withholds from some and gives to others. Capitalism dominates, Todd McGowan argues, because it mimics the structure of our desire while hiding the trauma that the system inflicts upon it. People from all backgrounds enjoy what capitalism provides, but at the same time are told more and better is yet to come. Capitalism traps us through an incomplete satisfaction that compels us after the new, the better, and the more. Capitalism's parasitic...
Despite creating vast inequalities and propping up reactionary world regimes, capitalism has many passionate defenders--but not because of what it wit...