Libidinal Economies: Psychoanalysis and Marxism
The week 2 seminar will explore the libidinal dimensions and systemic pathologies of contemporary politics and capitalism. In particular, we will discuss masochism; the death drive and the self-destructive tendencies of contemporary societies; the attention economy and the shaping of desire and subjectivity; the unconscious and technology; and the libidinal foundations of contemporary far-right political movements.
Readings may include works by Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm, Wilhelm Reich, Louis Althusser, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Jacques Lacan, Jean Laplanche, Patricia Clough, Claude Cahun, Maurizio Lazzarato, and Michael Schneider.
Core Readings:
Sigmund Freud
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari