The use of Lacanian psychoanalysis in political study has expanded in recent years, however, existing scholarly work focuses on contemporary political issues. Little attempt has been made to apply elements of Lacan’s psychoanalytic theories to moments in political history. This paper is the first to address this. As the popularisation of Lacan in this discipline has largely emerged on the back of the work of Slavoj Žižek, this paper utilises Lacanian theory as interpreted by Žižek. This study selects three aspects (...) of the so-called ‘Chilean Miracle’ and applies elements of Lacanian theory to them to provide fresh insights and understandings. These are: the 1973 coup that replaced Salvador Allende with General Augusto Pinochet as head of state, which is reimagined through Lacan’s ‘Symbolic’; the transition to democracy of 1988-1990, which is submitted to a reinterpretation through Lacan’s ‘transference’; and the reconstruction of the Chilean Socialist Party between 1973 and 1990, which is reinterpreted through Lacanian conceptualisations of ‘desire’. In providing fresh interpretations of these constituent processes of the ‘Chilean Miracle’, this paper demonstrates the validity of ‘taking Lacan back in time’ while simultaneously offering new theoretical approaches to understanding the foundations of contemporary capitalism. (shrink)

The gap that separates Lacan from Heidegger is here clearly discernible precisely on account of their proximity, i.e., of the fact that, in order to designate the symbolic function at its most elementary, Lacan still uses Heidegger’s term “being”: in a human being, desires lose their mooring in biology, they are operative only insofar as they are inscribed within the horizon of Being sustained by language; however, in order for this transposition from the immediate biological reality of the body to (...) the symbolic space to take place, it has to live a mark of torture in the body in the guise of its mutilation. (shrink)

In this new book, Slavoj Žižek and Glyn Daly engage in a series of entertaining conversations which illustrate the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multiculturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics. An excellent introduction to one of the most engaging and controversial cultural theorists writing today. Žižek is a Slovenian sociologist who trained as a Lacanian and uses Lacan to analyse popular culture and politics. Illustrates the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multi-culturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics (...) and politics. Provides a unique glimpse of Žižek’s humour and character and offers new material and fresh perspectives which will be of interest to followers of Žižek’s writings. (shrink)

In this new book, Slavoj Žižek and Glyn Daly engage in a series of entertaining conversations which illustrate the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multiculturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics and politics. An excellent introduction to one of the most engaging and controversial cultural theorists writing today. Žižek is a Slovenian sociologist who trained as a Lacanian and uses Lacan to analyse popular culture and politics. Illustrates the originality of Žižek’s thinking on psychoanalysis, philosophy, multi-culturalism, popular/cyber culture, totalitarianism, ethics (...) and politics. Provides a unique glimpse of Žižek’s humour and character and offers new material and fresh perspectives which will be of interest to followers of Žižek’s writings. (shrink)

An essay by philosopher Slavoj Zizek, with an English translation of Schelling's beautiful and evocative "Ages of the World, " second draft.

The Cartesian cogito—the principle articulated by Descartes that "I think, therefore I am"—is often hailed as the precursor of modern science. At the same time, the cogito's agent, the ego, is sometimes feared as the agency of manipulative domination responsible for all present woes, from patriarchal oppression to ecological catastrophes. Without psychoanalyzing philosophy, _Cogito and the Unconscious_ explores the vicissitudes of the cogito and shows that psychoanalyses can render visible a constitutive madness within modern philosophy, the point at which "I (...) think, therefore I am" becomes obsessional neurosis characterized by "If I stop thinking, I will cease to exist." Noting that for Lacan the Cartesian construct is the same as the Freudian "subject of the unconscious," the contributors follow Lacan's plea for a psychoanalytic return to the cogito. Along the path of this return, they examine the ethical attitude that befits modern subjectivity, the inherent sexualization of modern subjectivity, the impasse in which the Cartesian project becomes involved given the enigmatic status of the human body, and the Cartesian subject's confrontation with its modern critics, including Althusser, Bataille, and Dennett. In a style that has become familiar to Žižek's readers, these essays bring together a strict conceptual analysis and an approach to a wide range of cultural and ideological phenomena—from the sadist paradoxes of Kant's moral philosophy to the universe of Ayn Rand's novels, from the question "Which, if any, is the sex of the cogito?" to the defense of the cogito against the onslaught of cognitive sciences. Challenging us to reconsider fundamental notions of human consciousness and modern subjectivity, this is a book whose very Lacanian orthodoxy makes it irreverently transgressive of predominant theoretical paradigms. _Cogito and the Unconscious_ will appeal to readers interested in philosophy, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, and theories of ideology. _Contributors. _Miran Bozovic, Mladen Dolar, Alain Grosrichard, Marc de Kessel, Robert Pfaller, Renata Salecl, Slavoj Žižek, Alenka Zupancic. (shrink)

Two topics determine today's liberal tolerant attitude towards Others: the respect of Otherness and the obsessive fear of harassment: the Other is OK insofar as its presence is not intrusive, insofar as the Other is not really Other. The central human right in late-capitalist society, namely the right to be free from all harassment by the Other including the violent imposition of ethical norms, contrasts sharply with the violent imposition of divine Mosaic law – the Decalogue – from which the (...) idea of human rights ultimately derives. The underlying discursive shift can be analyzed with the help of Lacan: the discourse of the Master had been replaced by university discourse. While the Master's decision is per se violent, university discourse is enunciated from the position of neutral Knowledge. The truth of the university discourse is power: the constitutive lie of the university discourse is that it disavows its performative dimension, presenting what effectively amounts to a political decision based on power as a simple insight into the factual state of things. (shrink)

Jacques Lacan coined the term “subjective destitution” to describe the concluding moment of a psychoanalytic treatment. This concept can also usefully be applied to art and to politics. In art, subjective destitution can be defined as a passage from being-towardsdeath to undeadness, in other words to the position of the living dead – this passage takes place between Shostakovich’s 14th symphony and his final symphony, the 15th. In politics, subjective destitution designates the passage of a political subject to a radical (...) de-subjectivization, to becoming an object of a political cause. (shrink)

The Cartesian cogito—the principle articulated by Descartes that "I think, therefore I am"—is often hailed as the precursor of modern science. At the same time, the cogito's agent, the ego, is sometimes feared as the agency of manipulative domination responsible for all present woes, from patriarchal oppression to ecological catastrophes. Without psychoanalyzing philosophy, _Cogito and the Unconscious_ explores the vicissitudes of the cogito and shows that psychoanalyses can render visible a constitutive madness within modern philosophy, the point at which "I (...) think, therefore I am" becomes obsessional neurosis characterized by "If I stop thinking, I will cease to exist." Noting that for Lacan the Cartesian construct is the same as the Freudian "subject of the unconscious," the contributors follow Lacan's plea for a psychoanalytic return to the cogito. Along the path of this return, they examine the ethical attitude that befits modern subjectivity, the inherent sexualization of modern subjectivity, the impasse in which the Cartesian project becomes involved given the enigmatic status of the human body, and the Cartesian subject's confrontation with its modern critics, including Althusser, Bataille, and Dennett. In a style that has become familiar to Žižek's readers, these essays bring together a strict conceptual analysis and an approach to a wide range of cultural and ideological phenomena—from the sadist paradoxes of Kant's moral philosophy to the universe of Ayn Rand's novels, from the question "Which, if any, is the sex of the cogito?" to the defense of the cogito against the onslaught of cognitive sciences. Challenging us to reconsider fundamental notions of human consciousness and modern subjectivity, this is a book whose very Lacanian orthodoxy makes it irreverently transgressive of predominant theoretical paradigms. _Cogito and the Unconscious_ will appeal to readers interested in philosophy, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, and theories of ideology. _Contributors. _Miran Bozovic, Mladen Dolar, Alain Grosrichard, Marc de Kessel, Robert Pfaller, Renata Salecl, Slavoj Žižek, Alenka Zupancic. (shrink)

Lacan: Television – let’s proceed like idiots; let’s take this title literally and ask ourselves a question, not the question, “what can we learn about TV from Lacan’s teaching?” which would get us on the wrong path of so-called applied psychoanalysis, but the inverse question, “what can we learn about Lacan’s teaching from the TV phenomenon?” At first sight, this seems as absurd as the well-known Hegelian proposition defining phrenology, “the spirit is the bone”: the equalization of the most sublime, (...) elusive theory with the vulgar mass-cultural phenomenon. But perhaps, as in the Hegelian proposition, there is a “speculative truth” beneath the obvious banality – perhaps certain peculiarities of the American TV program allow us to grasp the fundamental Lacanian proposition that psychoanalysis is not a psychology: the most intimate beliefs – even the most intimate emotions such as compassion, crying, sorrow, laughter – can be transferred, delegated to others without losing their sincerity. (shrink)

En este artículo abordamos las nociones de libertad, historia y subjetividad, con el fin de aportar una contribución original a los estudios sobre la ideología. Nuestra metodología consistirá en cruzar el psicoanálisis freudiano-lacaniano y la teoría de la interpelación de Louis Althusser. En la introducción, comenzaremos exponiendo dos grandes críticas al psicoanálisis freudiano, una formulada por Jean-Paul Sartre, y la otra por Gilles Deleuze y Félix Guattari, arrojando así la luz sobre cómo el psicoanálisis podría representar (a pesar de esos (...) argumentos críticos), un campo de libertad en lugar de determinismo, y un dominio que es inherentemente histórico, en lugar de lo contrario. En la primera sección, examinaremos más de cerca las nociones de libertad, memoria e historia, avanzando una hipótesis preliminar según la cual, dentro del espacio simbólico, el pasado permanece abierto a los cambios, lo que hará posible tanto la ideología como la libertad. Además, veremos qué aspectos de la libertad podrían encontrarse dentro de la teoría althusseriana de la interpelación, y cómo el psicoanálisis lacaniano es compatible con ella o puede llevarnos más allá de sus limitaciones. En la segunda sección, veremos cómo puede haber un sujeto que precede a la subjetivación, y cómo la teoría del sujeto de Lacan que surge del resto traumático, sobrepasa el alcance de la teoría de la interpelación. La tercera sección abordará el núcleo pulsional-traumático del sujeto, tal como lo concibe Freud, no sólo como dimensión determinante del psiquismo individual, sino como condición estructural de la cultura. A través de estas consideraciones, mostraremos cómo el psicoanálisis puede proporcionar una explicación de los fundamentos de la ideología, al concebir el núcleo pulsional-traumático de la ley que reside en el Nombre-del-Padre. En la conclusión, veremos, a través de una serie de ejemplos, cómo la ideología aparece disfrazada de verdad, y por qué la comprensión psicoanalítica del inconsciente es necesaria para desenmascarar las ilusiones que produce. (shrink)

The reactions to my Lenin-book for the most part move between the standard liberal anti-Communism – how do I dare to rehabilitate a mass murderer, etc. – and an apparently more friendly, but, with regard to its consequences, much more dangerous “friendly” reception, which performs a domestification of my theory, its transformation into “provocations” which are not really “meant seriously,” but aim at awakening us from the democratic-dogmatic slumber and thus contribute to the revitalization of democracy… This is how the (...) establishment likes “subversive” theorists to be: turned into harmless gadflies who bite us and thus awaken us to inconsistencies and imperfection of our democratic enterprise – God forbid us to take their project seriously and try to LIVE them. Both reactions are totally predictable and, as such, not very interesting. When, as a reply to my thesis on Lenin’s missed chances, I read: “Sure, he could have murdered whole Russian nation along with some neighbors”; when one reacts to my commentary on Lenin with “We could just as easy comment in such a way Mein Kampf”; then such style of critique cannot but remind me of my youth in Socialist Yugoslavia where I was unemployed for years and never allowed to teach, and where my reference to Freud and Lacan was greeted by exactly the same words as those of one of my critics: “It would be embarrassingly funny if it wasn’t dangerous.” All I can say to this is that I sincerely welcome the rejection of my book by people who are able to write such slanderous lies: if they were to display even a minimum of sympathy for my work, I would be morally deeply ashamed. (shrink)

L’envers de la psychanalyse, Séminaire XVII sur les quatre discours, est la réponse de Lacan aux événements de 1968. Son postulat est bien résumé par son détournement du célèbre graffiti anti-structuraliste lu sur les murs de Paris en 1968 : « Les structures ne marchent pas dans les rues ! »..

L’envers de la psychanalyse, Séminaire XVII sur les quatre discours, est la réponse de Lacan aux événements de 1968. Son postulat est bien résumé par son détournement du célèbre graffiti anti-structuraliste lu sur les murs de Paris en 1968 : « Les structures ne marchent pas dans les rues! »...

need to confront Taylor’s theory of secularism as fending off Marcel Gauchet’sincisive post-Weberinan reading of Christianity as producing an “exit fromreligion”. Finally, I examine Taylor’s perspectivist history and theory ofsecularism. Ultimately, I argue that Taylor’s perspectivism forsakes aconception of religion as subjective reason for a subjectivism that embracesorder and institutional power in the name of benevolence. By reinforcing hispersonal faith in Catholicism, Taylor inevitably weakens his otherwise solidand important claim to participate in the transformational unfolding ofChristian moral philosophy into a (...) bona fide public philosophy withuniversalist ambitions.O artigo explora dois sentidos diferentes da formulação “o grande outro nãoexiste”: o primeiro, formulado por Lacan, atesta a inexistência real do grandeOutro e seu caráter estritamente simbólico; o segundo, característico dapostura cínica, resulta do descrédito diante da ordem simbólica e apontapara o ressurgimento da figura do grande Outro no Real. A crença no grandeOutro que existe no Real é a mais sucinta definição de paranóia: o sujeitocontemporâneo, ao mesmo tempo em que demonstra um descrédito cínicodiante de toda ideologia pública, entrega-se a fantasias paranóicas sobreconspirações, ameaças e formas excessivas de gozo do Outro. A descrençano grande Outro , a recusa do sujeito de“levar a sério”, repousa sobre a crença de um “Outro do Outro,” um agenteinvisível, secreto, onipotente, que efetivamente “puxa os cordões” por trásdo poder público visível.The aim of this article is to explore two different senses of the statement:“The big Other doesn’t exist”. The first sense, formulated by Lacan, showsthe real inexistence of the big Other and its strictly symbolic character. Thesecond sense, characteristic of a cynical stance, is the outcome of discrediting the symbolic order. It points to the resurgence of the figure of the big Otherin the Real. Now, belief in a big Other that exists, as it were, in the Real, isone of the most succinct definitions of paranoia. The contemporary subjectsurrenders to paranoid fantasies about conspiracies, threats and excessiveforms of the Other’s jouissance precisely when it cynically discredits allpublic ideologies. Disbelief in the big Other ,that is, the subject’s refusal to “take things seriously”, rests on the belief ofan “Other of the Other”: an invisible, secret and omnipotent agent “pullingthe strings” behind the visible side of public power. (shrink)

Starting from the distinction between “ideal ego”, “ego-ideal” and “superego” structured from the Imaginary-Symbolic-Real triad made by Lacan, this study investigates how is possible to distinguish the a-sexual social space from the domain of libidinally-cathexed interactions. Through the analysis of Balibar’s, Miller’s, Schuster’s and Hägglund’s ideas, paths and strategies are defined to analyze the existing dynamics between symbolic power, law and superego. What emerges is the reconstruction of a new subjectivity which is capable, at the same time, to overcome the (...) jouissance-superego dynamic at the basis of Lacanian reflection and face the challenges of contemporary post-humanism. Therefore, what subject stands for is the inhuman core of being-human, what Hegel called selfrelating negativity, what Freud called death drive. The text proposes, in short, how the Subject is what is in a human being more than human, the immortality of the deathdrive which makes it a living dead, something that insists beyond the cycle of life and death. (shrink)

Na podlagi podrobne razlage »grafa želje«, kot ga je artikuliral J. Lacan, se skuša nakazati raven, ki uhaja obravnavanju ideologije v »strukturalizmu«: raven želje Drugega, ki izpričuje neko zev, nekonsistentnost Drugega in ideološke fantazme kot načina, kako se subjekt zaslepi za to nekonsistentnost Drugega.

The digital machinery that sustains video games not only directs and regulates the gamer's desire, it also »interpellates« the gamer into a specific mode of subjectivity: a pre-Oedipal not-yet-castrated subjectivity that floats in a kind of obscene immortality: when I am immersed into a game, I dwell in a universe of undeadness where no annihilation is definitive since, after every destruction, I can return to the beginning and start the game again... One should note here that this obscene immortality was (...) the stuff of fantasy long before cartoons – say, in the work of de Sade. The axiom of the philosophy of finitude is that one cannot escape finitude/mortality as the unsurpassable horizon of our existence; Lacan’s axiom is that, no matter how much one tries, one cannot escape immortality. But what if this choice is false? What if finitude and immortality, like lack and excess, also form a parallax couple, what if they are the same from a different point of view? What if immortality is an object that is a remainder/excess over finitude, what if finitude is an attempt to escape from the excess of immortality? (shrink)

"Is it meaningful to call oneself a democrat? And if so, how do you interpret the word?" -/- In responding to this question, eight iconoclastic thinkers prove the rich potential of democracy, along with its critical weaknesses, and reconceive the practice to accommodate new political and cultural realities. Giorgio Agamben traces the tense history of constitutions and their coexistence with various governments. Alain Badiou contrasts current democratic practice with democratic communism. Daniel Bensaid ponders the institutionalization of democracy, while Wendy Brown (...) discusses the democratization of society under neoliberalism. Jean-Luc Nancy measures the difference between democracy as a form of rule and as a human end, and Jacques Rancière highlights its egalitarian nature. Kristin Ross identifies hierarchical relationships within democratic practice, and Slavoj Zizek complicates the distinction between those who desire to own the state and those who wish to do without it. -/- Concentrating on the classical roots of democracy and its changing meaning over time and within different contexts, these essays uniquely defend what is left of the left-wing tradition after the fall of Soviet communism. They confront disincentives to active democratic participation that have caused voter turnout to decline in western countries, and they address electoral indifference by invoking and reviving the tradition of citizen involvement. Passionately written and theoretically rich, this collection speaks to all facets of modern political and democratic debate. (shrink)

Este artículo aborda la recepción temprana del filósofo esloveno Slavoj Žižek en el debate teórico chileno entre los años 1998-2013. El interés de este articulo no consiste meramente en enlistar las menciones a Žižek en el contexto local, sino problematizar los intereses históricos de las escenas teóricas locales y el alcance político de la teoría materialista dialéctica de Žižek, considerando que esta recepción se masifica al aproximarse el movimiento estudiantil del 2011 bajo la necesidad de acudir a nuevos referentes teóricos (...) para entender la realidad contingente. (shrink)

Lacan and Capitalist Discourse explores the political and theoretical connections between the Covid-19 Pandemic and Capitalism, unravelling the direct consequences of Lacan's thesis of so-called "Capitalist Discourse". Jorge Alemán provides an account of neoliberalism, its mechanisms to produce subjectivities and the new modes of the political far Right. The book begins with the problem of a possible exit from capitalism, continuing to consider the possibilities of mourning and the active production of a new Left. Alemán engages deeply with a range (...) of thinkers: primarily Lacan, but also Heidegger, Marx, Laclau, Foucault, Butler, Badiou, Althusser, and others, in making his case. Lacan and Capitalist Discourse will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and to academics of psychoanalytic and Lacanian studies, cultural theory, philosophy and political thought. (shrink)

This essay argues that Zizek’s post-Lacanian critique of contemporary culture stays within the logic of the discourse of the university and often functions to repress psychoanalysis and the unconscious. By looking at how Zizek divides Lacan work into a bad early Symbolic stage and a good late period that promotes the Real, enjoyment, and the death drive, I reveal how this binary and linear reading functions to efface important connections and differences concerning the key concepts of psychoanalysis. In fact, Zizek’s (...) work utilizes the obsessional processes of negation, splitting, fragmenting, and projection in order to absorb analytic practice into a self-consuming Hegelian negative dialectic. Moreover, his use of repetition in his own writings replicates the short-circuit of the death drive that finds enjoyment by returning to the subject in an act of self-negation. In looking closely at how Zizek reads Lacan, I place Zizek’s work within the contemporary backlash against progressive social movements and the social construction of knowledge. Thus, by creating a closed circle between the subject of autonomous repetition and the universal discourse of global nihilism, he represses social Symbolic mediation and reiterates a fundamentalist logic of obscene enjoyment. In fact, we can read his use of humor and popular culture as an effort to bond with his audience by providing enjoyment in exchange for the suspension of criticism and responsibility. In short, I argue that Zizek’s work is structured like a joke. (shrink)

Resumo: Neste artigo, pretendemos trabalhar, a partir de uma leitura de Zizek e Lacan, a perspectiva radical de liberdade como superação da dialética entre a Lei moral kantiana e o gozo sádico. Para isso, procuramos primeiramente mostrar como Lacan articula a relação de Kant com Sade, para, em seguida, pensar como, segundo Zizek, o psicanalista encontra uma saída para o princípio de liberdade kantiana, a partir da ética do desejo puro, o que nos permitirá pensar um Kant sem Sade.: In (...) this article, based on a reading of Zizek and Lacan, we discuss the radical perspective of freedom as an overcoming of the dialectic between the Kantian moral law and sadistic joy. We first try to show how Lacan articulates Kant's relationship with Sade, and then consider how, according to Zizek, the psychoanalyst finds an outlet for the Kantian principle of freedom based the ethics of pure desire, which allows us to think of a Kant without Sade. (shrink)

El objetivo del presente trabajo es hacer una reseña de los conceptos fundamentales que elabora Slavoj Žižek en su libro “El sublime objeto de la ideología”. Tomaré algunas ideas centrales acerca del síntoma, la ideología y la fantasía, así como también haré algunos comentarios. Žižek nos advierte de no caer en las trampas actuales ilusorias de que vivimos en una época posideológica.

Resumen: El presente documento tiene por objeto indagar en las publicaciones académicas de dos saberes: la filosofía y la literatura. A partir de allí, se identificó la influencia de las ideas del filósofo Slavoj Žižek en esos documentos -artículos y libros-. Esta revisión se centró en dos países de la región latinoamericana tal como lo son Chile y Perú. Se revisaron las producciones académicas que hacen menciones a las hipotesis del esloveno trazando un recorrido histórico que permite identificar cual es (...) el año en que las ideas comenzaron a ingresar a estos países y el contexto teórico-escritural en que se incluyeron, destacando en Chile el de las ciencias sociales y en Perú el del análisis literario. Debido a la falta de investigaciones de este tipo, este artículo pretende actuar como material inaugurador de futuras investigaciones enfocadas en el estudio del impacto de las ideas del filósofo oriundo de Eslovenia en las producciones locales. Palabras Clave : Filosofía; Literatura; Chile; Perú; Latinoamérica; Slavoj Žižek: The present document aims to investigate the academic publications of two knowledge: philosophy and literature. From there, the influence of the ideas of the philosopher Slavoj Žižek on those documents - articles and books - was identified. This review focused on two countries in the Latin American region such as Chile and Peru. The academic productions that mention the Slovenian's hypothesis were reviewed, tracing a historical route that allows identifying which is the year in which the ideas began to enter these countries and the theoretical-scriptural context in which they were included, highlighting in Chile the social sciences and in Peru the literary analysis. Due to the lack of research of this type, this article intends to act as inaugural material for future research focused on the study of the impact of the ideas of the philosopher from Slovenia on local productions. Keywords: Philosophy; Literature; Chile; Peru; Latin America; Slavoj Žižek. (shrink)

Resumen: El presente documento tiene por objeto indagar en las publicaciones académicas de dos saberes: la filosofía y la literatura. A partir de allí, se identificó la influencia de las ideas del filósofo Slavoj Žižek en esos documentos -artículos y libros-. Esta revisión se centró en dos países de la región latinoamericana tal como lo son Chile y Perú. Se revisaron las producciones académicas que hacen menciones a las hipotesis del esloveno trazando un recorrido histórico que permite identificar cual es (...) el año en que las ideas comenzaron a ingresar a estos países y el contexto teórico-escritural en que se incluyeron, destacando en Chile el de las ciencias sociales y en Perú el del análisis literario. Debido a la falta de investigaciones de este tipo, este artículo pretende actuar como material inaugurador de futuras investigaciones enfocadas en el estudio del impacto de las ideas del filósofo oriundo de Eslovenia en las producciones locales. Palabras Clave : Filosofía; Literatura; Chile; Perú; Latinoamérica; Slavoj Žižek: The present document aims to investigate the academic publications of two knowledge: philosophy and literature. From there, the influence of the ideas of the philosopher Slavoj Žižek on those documents - articles and books - was identified. This review focused on two countries in the Latin American region such as Chile and Peru. The academic productions that mention the Slovenian's hypothesis were reviewed, tracing a historical route that allows identifying which is the year in which the ideas began to enter these countries and the theoretical-scriptural context in which they were included, highlighting in Chile the social sciences and in Peru the literary analysis. Due to the lack of research of this type, this article intends to act as inaugural material for future research focused on the study of the impact of the ideas of the philosopher from Slovenia on local productions. Keywords: Philosophy; Literature; Chile; Peru; Latin America; Slavoj Žižek. (shrink)

In this essay, I interpret the wildly successful book series Freakonomics as a discourse of perversion. Drawing upon Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and Žižekian cultural criticism, I first explore how the books function as neoclassical economic theory in practice, then I explain how the series enjoins us to adopt reading strategies that turn us into perverts. Perversion, rather than a moral judgment, is best considered a structural inversion of the position of enjoyment, schematized as a ◊$. Freakonomics seeks to explain all (...) human behavior as the result of a “hidden force” that organizes social reality—this force is, in every case, an ontological market structure that we all unconsciously obey. The result is that we end up identifying with the mechanisms of the capitalist free market rather than our own idiosyncratic, idiotic desires, and see our desires retroactively narrated as the result of these market mechanisms. If perversion is, following Lacan, about propping up the law, I argue that Freakonomics not only props up, but instantiates, the big Other of the market by disavowing a noneconomic space and registering all of social reality under a single market structure. Freakonomics gives readers, as Lacan puts it, the “ père-version ” of events. (shrink)

O conceito de ideologia em Slavoj Žižek tem como fundamento noções da psicanálise, sobretudo da teoria do discurso analítico de Jacques Lacan. Para o filósofo, a ideologia funciona como uma máscara social, como uma fantasia que age nos níveis do imaginário e do simbólico de maneira que molda a realidade dos sujeitos e os distância do encontro traumático com o real. Desta forma, o objeto deste artigo é demostrar como se dá a fundamentação do conceito zizekiano de ideologia na psicanálise (...) de Jacque Lacan com o objetivo de explicitar as influências e implicações da ideologia na contemporaneidade. A partir desta compreensão a respeito da noção de ideologia é possível analisar como se dá a atividade das diferentes ideologias nas sociedades atuais, bem como a influência delas nas relações interpessoais, na subjetividade dos sujeitos contemporâneos, de modo que a crítica a ideologia seja mais pertinente e voltada para a contemporaneidade. (shrink)

Reviews : Slavoj Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology ; Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture.

El propósito del presente artículo apunta a plantear algunas interrogantes sobre la situación del sujeto contemporáneo en torno a la violencia en tiempos de pandemia. Para ello, se reflexiona a partir de la noción freudiana del inconsciente y la concepción de sujeto según Lacan. Para éste último existe una relación estructural entre el sujeto y el Otro, entendiendo a éste como un referente simbólico. Continuando con los aportes psicoanalíticos de Lacan, se presentan dos discursos: el del amo y el capitalista (...) a efectos de introducirnos en el fenómeno de la violencia en nuestros días. Para eso, se recurren a autores como Roberto Esposito, Slavoj Žižek y Walter Benjamin. Con el objeto de finalizar estas reflexiones, se plantean algunas preguntas sobre el malestar del sujeto hoy día, sus impasses y posibles salidas. (shrink)

Recent discussions of the notion of the act in Lacan and Žižek have made the act out to be something like a stand in for the old idea of freedom. And so, the debate tends to be about whether acts are spontaneous or not, whether they result from decisions coming from a conscious subject or not, and what relation acts have to the circumstances that precede them. But much of this debate may be a red herring. I will be taking (...) the view here that, despite important similarities, the major difference between Badiou and Žižek on this point can be traced back to their differing views on the subject. By thinking the subject as a void, or as negative, Žižek’s subject looks more like a decisionist, even Sartrean subject. Badiou’s subject seems more fully post-phenomenological, and this difference has an important effect on how the act is conceived in his work.How Badiou’s subject fits within a psychoanalytic perspective is something I will explore in my second part. Badiou’s theory seems to have taken a psychoanalytic and Lacanian perspective very much to heart when thinking about the act. I will explain how this is so by using two models for an act coming from two different artistic practices: the surrealist practice of automatic writing, which I will compare to psychoanalytic free association, and the practice that Marcel Duchamp dubbed “over-censorship,” which I will compare to “working-through”. Each gives us a different model for the production of truth, and, in line with Badiou’s call to become the “pitiless censors of ourselves,” I argue that Duchamp’s technique has quite a bit to teach us about the structure of an act. It also helps to shed light on some aspects of Žižek’s view. (shrink)

탈구조주의와 정신분석 담론은 주체를 분산시키고 해체시키는 다양한 정치적, 문화적 힘을 주체성을 결정짓는 사회구조의 작용으로 파악한다. 이들의 이론에서 각 이론가들은 이성이란 이름하에 금지를 제도화하고 개인을 사회화하고, 나아가 주체와 주체의 욕망을 형성하는 구조의 작용을 드러낸다. 주체의 자아에서 숙주로 자라는 외래적이고 이질적인 무엇인 구조라는 ‘타자성’을 프로이트(Freud)는 ‘초자아’, 라깡(Jacques Lacan)은 ‘무의식(상징계)’, 지젝(Slavoj Žižek)은 ‘무의식’과 ’환상’, 들뢰즈와 가타리(Deluze and Guatarri)는 ‘오이디푸스적 구조’로 그들의 저술에서 다른 용어와 개념으로 정의된다. 본 논문은 먼저 그들의 이론에서 사용되는 용어들과 개념들의 차이점을 살펴보고 나아가 라깡과 지젝의 실재계, 충동, 향유 개념, 들뢰즈와 (...) 가타리의 리비도, 욕망개념이 갖는 정치적, 윤리적 함의를 밝힘으로써 구조와 의식의 문제를 검토한다. 이들의 이론에서 주체의 어떠한 영역을 자신에게 강제된 구조의 틀을 넘어서는 주체의 능동성으로 상정하는 가를 분석하고 무의식적 구조에 의해 봉인된 주체의 의식을 복원하는 이론으로 볼 수 있는가를 검토한다. 이를 위해 먼저 이들의 이론에 나타나는 구조의 작용과 주체의 대응, 즉 구조와 주체의 역학관계에 대해 살펴봄으로써 프로이트, 라깡, 들뢰즈와 가타리, 그리고 지젝의 이론에서 주체와 주체에 대한 구조의 작용을 이해하는 다양한 관점의 차이를 파악하고, 주체의 사고 작용을 구조의 작용으로 환원하는 것처럼 보이는 이들의 이론에서 구조를 거스르고 탈주할 수 있는 주체의 힘, 즉 주체의 구조에 대한 반작용은 어떠한 발생학적인 과정에 의해 확보되는가를 분석한다. (shrink)

Reviews: William S. Lewis, Louis Althusser and the Traditions of French Marxism ; Louis Althusser, Philosophy of the Encounter: Later Writings, 1978—1987 ; Alain Badiou, Infinite Thought: Truth and the Return to Philosophy ; Alain Badiou, Metapolitics ; Slavoj Žižek, Lacan: The Silent Partners.