Capitalism and Desire - The Psychic Cost of Free Markets

Why is capitalism so resilient? Despite creating vast inequalities and propping up reactionary world regimes, capitalism has many passionate defenders. But Todd McGowan argues that capitalism does not thrive because of what it withholds from some and gives to others with power. Capitalism dominates 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 yet at the same time are told more and better is yet to come. Capitalism traps us by creating and sustaining an incomplete satisfaction that focuses our attention on the new, the better, and the more.

List of contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: After Injustice and Repression
1. The Subject of Desire and the Subject of Capitalism
2. The Psychic Constitution of Private Space
3. Shielding Our Eyes from the Gaze
4. The Persistence of Sacrifice After Its Obsolescence
5. A God We Can Believe In
6. A More Tolerable Infinity
7. The Ends of Capitalism
8. Exchanging Love for Romance
9. Abundance and Scarcity
10. The Market's Fetishistic Sublime
Conclusion: Enjoy, Don't Accumulate
Notes
Index

About the author

Todd McGowan is professor of film studies at the University of Vermont. His Columbia University Press books include The Impossible David Lynch (2007), Emancipation After Hegel: Achieving a Contradictory Revolution (2019), and Universality and Identity Politics (2020).

Report

"With Capitalism and Desire, Todd McGowan provides an admirably accessible and intellectually sophisticated analysis of the real connections between capitalism and psychoanalysis. This is a wonderful book demonstrating immense intellectual vitality - it is simply impossible to ignore it." - Fabio Vighi, University of Cardiff

Product details

• Authors: Todd McGowan, Todd (University of Vermont) Mcgowan, McGowan Todd
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 20.09.2016
• EAN: 9780231178723
• ISBN: 978-0-231-17872-3
• No. of pages: 304
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Miscellaneous; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Business > International economy; Psychoanalyse, Geschichte, Moderne Philosophie: nach 1800, PHILOSOPHY / Social, PHILOSOPHY / Political, PSYCHOLOGY / Movements / Psychoanalysis, PHILOSOPHY / Movements / Critical Theory, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Psychoanalytical and Freudian psychology, Psychoanalytical theory (Freudian psychology), PSYCHOLOGY / Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Philosophy; politics