Political Jouissance

When we oppose or disagree with something important, do we ever really do it dispassionately? Isn't setting the world to rights or condemning a political opponent always done with a hint of relish, or at least enthusiasm? This book's challenging essays explore the modes in which that transgressive pleasure of political 'jouissance' operates.

Rather than delegitimizing or depoliticising, the tacit enjoyment of outrage can in fact facilitate different forms of engagement. The tendency for groups to be bonded by a common enemy, for example, brings with it a protection from censure or persecution, and a way of alleviating guilt. In this collection, the authors seek out jouissance in the battle against patriarchy, in social revolts, in the age of mechanical surveillance, in the necrosociety of neoliberalism, or the proliferation of conspiracy theories. Drawing on Lacan's insistence that jouissance is intrinsically political by its nature, we can understand how readily psycho analytic ideas can be put to use across the geopolitical spectrum.

Inhaltsverzeichnis:

Introduction by Slavoj Zizek & Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo
Preface: "Political Jouissance" by Darian Leader

Part I: Jouissance: The Political Crisis in Neoliberalism
1. On the Material Existence of Ideology, Slavoj Zizek
2. Neoliberalism, Liber-fascism and Cyber-liberalism: Modalities of Enjoying Symptoms in Current Capitalism, Jesús Ayala-Colqui and Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo
3. Mistrust and Political Jouissance: From a "Tickle" to the "Blaze of Petrol", Andrea Perunovic
4. Neoliberalism's Political Jouissance and the Environmental Crisis in Latin America, Ignacio López-Calvo
5. Hyper-Royalism: A Thai Modality of Political Jouissance, Pavin Chachavalpongpun
6. The Joy Circuit, Jens Schröter
7. Uncanny Politics. Machiavelli, Althusser and Lacan beyond Ideology, Natalia Romé
8. Necro-society and Jouissance: The Acrobat, Lilith, and the Romantic Machine, Obed Frausto
9. Jean-Luc Nancy. A Philosophy for a Transformative Existence, Francesca R. Recch ia Luciani

Part II: Inside and Outside the Psychoanalytic View of Politics
10. Daydream and Emancipation. Against Surplus Enjoyment, Repression and their Parallax of Lack and Excess, Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo, Slavoj Zizek, Brian Willems, Andrea Perunovic, Ruben Balotol Jr and Gonzalo Salas
11. Perverted Erotics in the Political Unconscious: Lacan and Bataille, Tim Themi
12. In the Absence of Politics: A Matter of Life and Death Drive, Daniel Bristow
13. Synchronic Interactions among Discourse, Knowledge (saber) and Jouissance. Politibiology and/or Biopolitics, Alfredo Eidelsztein
14. The Jouissance of Capital: Notes for a Lacanian Critique of Political Economy, David Pavón-Cuéllar
15. Aggression & the Future, Mia Neuhaus
16. AOC and Her Boyfriend´s Leg, Slavoj Zizek
17. Jouissance the Levinas Way, Graham Harman

Rezension:

In this impressive multi-disciplinary collection, we have what we so badly needed: a series of socio-historically grounded studies that apply the concept of jouissance in properly analytical and critically-nuanced ways. An invaluable resource for anyone wishing to apply the concept of jouissance to the complexities of socio-political analysis today. Derek Hook, Professor of Psychology, Duquesne University, USA