Lacanian psychoanalysis Books

Book SynopsisWe are all afraid that new dangers pose a threat to our hard-won freedoms, so what deserves attention is precisely the notion of freedom.The concept of freedom is deceptively simple. We think we understand it, but the moment we try and define it we encounter contradictions. In this new philosophical exploration, Slavoj Žižek argues that the experience of true, radical freedom is transient and fragile. Countering the idea of libertarian individualism, Žižek draws on philosophers Hegel, Kierkegaard and Heidegger, as well as the work of Kandinsky and Agatha Christie to examine the many facets of freedom and what we can learn from each of them.Today, with the latest advances in digital control, our social activity can be controlled and regulated to such a degree that the liberal notion of a free individual becomes obsolete and even meaningless. How will we be obliged to reinvent (or limit) the contours of our freedom?Tracing its connection to everything frTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Introduction: Move your Buridan's Ass! Part I: Freedom As Such Chapter 1: Freedom and its Discontents i) Freedom versus Liberty ii) Regulating Violations iii) Freedom, Knowledge, Necessity iv) Freedom to say NO Chapter 2: Is There Such a Thing as Freedom of the Will? i) Determinism and its Ragaries ii) Rewriting the Past iii) Beyond the Transcendental iv) Pascalean Wager Chapter 3: Indivisible Remainder and the Death of Death i) The Standpoint of the Absolute ii) The Death of God iii) Suicide as a Political Act iv)The Failed Negation of Negation Appendices I 1 Potestas versus Superdeterminism 2 Sublation as Dislocation 3 Inventing Anna, Inventing Madeleine 4 The Political Implications of Non-Representational Art Part II: Human Freedom Chapter 4: Marx Invented not Only Symptom but Also Drive i) Instead of... ii) Progress and Apathy iii) Dialectical Materialism iv) Yes, but... v) How Marx Invented Drive Chapter 5: The Path to Anarcho-Feudalism i) The Blue Pill Called Metaverse ii) From Cultural Capitalism to Crypto-Currencies iii) Savage Verticality Versus Uncontrollable Horizontality Chapter 6: The State and Counter-Revolution i) When the Social Link Disintegrates ii) The Limit of the Spontaneous Order iii) The State is Here to Stay iv) Do not give up on your Communist Desire! Appendices II 5 “Generalized Foreclosure”? No, Thanks! 6 Shamelessly Ashamed 7 A Muddle Instead of a Movie 8 How to Love a Homeland in our Global Era Finale: The Four Riders of the Apocalypse i) De-Nazifying… Ukraine, Kosovo, Europe ii) The End of Nature iii) DON’T Be True to Yourself! iv) Whose Servant Is a Master?

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Book SynopsisContemporary life is defined by excess. There must always be more, there is never enough. We need a surplus to what we need to be able to truly enjoy what we have. Slavoj Žižek's guide to surplus (and why it's enjoyable) begins by arguing that what is surplus to our needs is by its very nature unsubstantial and unnecessary. But, perversely, without this surplus, we wouldn't be able to enjoy what is substantial and necessary. Indeed, without the surplus we wouldn't be able to identify what was the perfect amount. Is there any escape from the vicious cycle of surplus enjoyment or are we forever doomed to simply want more? Engaging with everything from The Joker film to pop songs and Thomas Aquinas to the history of pandemics, Žižek argues that recognising the society of enjoyment we live in for what it is can provide an explanation for the political impasses in which we find ourselves today. And if we begin, even a little bit, to recognise that the nuggets of enjTrade Review[Žižek] could never be as dull a writer. He is a great caller of things stupid, which is a skill too little practised in a world dedicated to avoiding offence. But he also has genuine enthusiasms that constantly surprise the reader, such as a brilliant few pages on Shostakovich and, later, on the film Joker … Žižek is at heart really a close reader and a seriously inventive one. * The Spectator *Surplus-Enjoyment is the author at his most supple, addressing urgent current concerns and the need for a global solidarity that cannot be divorced from egalitarianism. ... Zizek is a pick-me-up for fatigued brains, a true radical and an authentic left-wing conservative who wants to prevent the social disintegration that threatens our civic life. * The Prisma: The Multicultural Newspaper *Table of ContentsOuverture: Living In A Topsy-Turvy World 1. Where Is The Rift? Marx, Capitalism, And Ecology 2. A Non-binary Difference? Psychoanalysis, Politics, And Philosophy 3. Surplus-Enjoyment, Or, Why Do We Enjoy Our Oppression Finale: Subjective Destitution As A Political Category Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisResponses to the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek have been, like Žižek himself, extreme. Critics have accused him of charlatanism on the one hand, while others have lauded his genius, especially as a public intellectual, on the other. This makes it difficult to find any kind of nuanced or interesting critical appraisal of his work.At its best Žižek''s work provides a new foundation of dialectical philosophy, beyond the glitz of stardom or oversimplified sinister disdain. Žižek Responds! combines philosophers and theorists engaging with Žižek''s philosophy in order to explore its unnoticed implications, its conceptual problems, or its unrealized potential. With detailed and lively responses from Žižek himself, this book offers an unique insight into how this thinker might explain, clarify and hone some of his most controversial and misunderstood ideas. At once an introduction to Žižek''s most important concepts and a rare and novel insight into his thoughts on the critiTrade ReviewThe contributors to this book let the ancient Socratic utopia of philosophical conversation become real: helping the unborn thoughts of the other to be born. The special twist here is the fact that this 'maieutic' service is mutual: As a most rare chance, the commentators get responses to their responses by the most inspiring philosopher of our time. * Robert Pfaller, Professor of Philosophy, University of Art and Industrial Design, Linz, Austria *In Žižek Responds!, some of his most perceptive interlocutors engage his thought on topics including German Idealism, speculative realism, psychoanalysis, dialectical materialism, subjectivity, and the contemporary possibilities of political transformation. Uniformly illuminating, both the essays and Žižek’s own responses elicit the continued dynamism and deep relevance of his ever-expanding oeuvre. * Paul M. Livingston, Professor of Philosophy, University of New Mexico, USA *Žižek responds to his interlocutors in much the same way that a bridge player responds to their partner’s opening bid. It doesn’t matter who ends up being the dummy, as long as they succeed in defeating their common enemy. * Andrew Cutrofello, Professor of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago, USA *Table of ContentsIntroduction, Dominik Finkelde and Todd McGowan Part I: Ontology 1. Cake or Doughnut?: Žižek and German Idealist Emergentisms, Adrian Johnston (University of New Mexico, USA) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Johnston 2. Truth as Bacchanalian Revel: Žižek and the Risks of Irony, Dominik Finkelde (Munich School of Philosophy, Germany) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Finkelde 3. Žižek and the Retroactivity of the Real, Graham Harman (SCI-Arc, Los Angeles, USA) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Harman 4. Slavoj Žižek’s Hegel, Robert Pippin (University of Chicago, USA) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Pippin Part II: Ideology 5. Slavoj Žižek Is Not Violent Enough, Todd McGowan (University of Vermont, USA) Slavoj Žižek, Response to McGowan 6. Žižek’s Foundationless Building: Ideology Critique as an Existentialist Choice, Hilary Neroni (University of Vermont, USA) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Neroni 7. The Subject is Not Enough, Henrik Jøker Bjerre (Aalborg University, Denmark) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Bjerre 8. Žižek and Derrida: Hospitality, Hostility, and the “Real” Neighbor, Zahi Zalloua (Whitman College, USA) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Zalloua 9. The Politics of Incompleteness: On Žižek’s Theory of the Subject, Nadia Bou Ali (American University of Beirut, Lebanon) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Nadia Bou Ali Part III: Psychoanalysis 10. Reading the Illegible: On Žižek’s Interpretation of Lacan’s ‘Kant with Sade’, Dany Nobus (Brunel University London, UK) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Nobus 11. Raising a Mundane Object to the Dignity of the Thing: When Desire is Not the Desire of the Other, Mari Ruti (University of Toronto, Canada) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Ruti 12. Hoping Against Hope: Žižek, Jouissance, and the Impossible, Jennifer Friedlander (Pomona College, USA) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Friedlander 13. Psychoanalysis in Exile: Ramblings Without a World, Duane Rousselle (University of Tyumen, Russia) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Rousselle 14. Harpo’s Grin: Rethinking Lacan’s Unthinkable “Thing”, Richard Boothby (Loyola University Maryland, USA) Slavoj Žižek, Response to Boothby Notes on the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisContemporary life is defined by excess. There must always be more, there is never enough. We need a surplus to what we need to be able to truly enjoy what we have. Slavoj Žižek's guide to surplus (and why it's enjoyable) begins by arguing that what is surplus to our needs is by its very nature unsubstantial and unnecessary. But, perversely, without this surplus, we wouldn't be able to enjoy, what is substantial and necessary. Indeed, without the surplus we wouldn't be able to identify what was the perfect amount. Is there any escape from the vicious cycle of surplus enjoyment or are we forever doomed to simply want more? Engaging with everything from The Joker film to pop songs and Thomas Aquinas to the history of pandemics, Žižek argues that recognising the society of enjoyment we live in for what it is can provide an explanation for the political impasses in which we find ourselves today. And if we begin, even a little bit, to recognise that the nuggets of enTrade Review[Žižek] could never be as dull a writer. He is a great caller of things stupid, which is a skill too little practised in a world dedicated to avoiding offence. But he also has genuine enthusiasms that constantly surprise the reader, such as a brilliant few pages on Shostakovich and, later, on the film Joker … Žižek is at heart really a close reader and a seriously inventive one. * The Spectator *Surplus-Enjoyment is the author at his most supple, addressing urgent current concerns and the need for a global solidarity that cannot be divorced from egalitarianism. ... Zizek is a pick-me-up for fatigued brains, a true radical and an authentic left-wing conservative who wants to prevent the social disintegration that threatens our civic life. * The Prisma: The Multicultural Newspaper *Table of ContentsOuverture: Living In A Topsy-Turvy World 1. Where Is The Rift? Marx, Capitalism, And Ecology 2. A Non-binary Difference? Psychoanalysis, Politics, And Philosophy 3. Surplus-Enjoyment, Or, Why Do We Enjoy Our Oppression Finale: Subjective Destitution As A Political Category Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe films of David Lynch are sometimes said to be unintelligible. They confront us with strange dreamscapes populated with bizarre characters, obscure symbols and an infuriating lack of narrative consistency. Yet despite their opacity, they hold us transfixed. Lynch, who once told an interviewer, “I love dream logic,” would surely agree with Sigmund Freud’s famous claim that “before the problem of the creative artist, psychoanalysis must lay down its arms.” But what else might the two agree on? Rather than presuming to fill in what Lynch leaves open by positing some forbidden psychosexual reality lurking behind his trademark red curtains, this book instead maintains a fidelity to the mysteries of his wonderful and strange filmic worlds, finding in them productive spaces where thought and imagination can be set to work. With contributions from scholars, psychoanalysts, cinephiles, and filmmakers, this collection of essays explores potential affinities and disjunctions between Lynch and Freud. Encompassing themes such as art, identity, architecture, fantasy, dreams, hysteria and the unconscious, Freud/Lynch takes as its point of departure the possibility that the enterprise in which these two distinct investigators are engaged might in some sense be a shared one.Trade Review‘this collection raises several important questions, pertinent both to psychoanalysis and an appreciation of Lynch. What are the implications of trying to interrupt trauma? To what extent is Lynch’s oeuvre an attempt to confront the malevolence of the Other? At what point do hysteric representations begin to hystericize the spectator? Can the free association of psychoanalysis be reconciled with the free association of transcendental meditation? By exploring these questions, the reader can begin to peer behind the Lynchian curtain and will, most likely, see quite a bit more than they might have expected to. The collection feels fresh and unquestionably offers more than just a rehashing of the popular psychoanalytic readings of Lynch.' -- Oliver Cutler, Cinematheme Magazine 2022'Freud and Lynch are predestined to meet. Only through Freud can we discern in Lynch’s films an authentic effort of thought, not just a postmodern confusion. And only through Lynch’s films can we see how relevant Freud’s theory remains for grasping the crazy predicament we live in. Freud/Lynch is thus a collection of essays which was predestined to be written.' -- Slavoj Žižek'Freud–Lynch, in their respective deployment of the tools of analysis and immersion, are among the West’s most important cartographers of the dream space. Approaching this mutual territory from contending directions, an important unification is achieved through the essays in this spirited collection: what appear to be opposing modes of uncovering the most obscured patches of human consciousness are revealed to not just share complementary features. They in fact inhabit an entangled perspective, suggesting a common oneiric logic.' -- Bobby K, 'Diane Podcast''[A] must-read book [...] born out of a conference the two organized in London on the topic in 2018, which garnered attention and positive reactions. [...] Lynch requested copies of the book to be added to his library.' -- Avshalom Halutz, 'FINDING FREUD BEHIND LYNCH’S RED CURTAIN', 'Haaretz Magazine', 2023Table of ContentsIntroduction Jamie Ruers and Stefan Marianski Chapter 1 “Listen, do you want to know a secret?” Lynch stays silent Chris Rodley Chapter 2 What’s so Lynchian about that? Defining a cultural moment with some notes from Freud and Lacan Carol Owens Chapter 3 Dream Logic in Mulholland Drive Olga Cox Cameron Chapter 4 Lost Angels in Los Angeles: Lynchian psychogenic fugues Mary Wild Chapter 5 “It’s a strange world, isn’t it?” A voyeuristic lens on David Lynch's Blue Velvet Andrea Sabbadini Chapter 6 The Fragmented Case of the Lynchian Hysteric Jamie Ruers Chapter 7 Möbian Adventures on the Lost Highway Stefan Marianski Chapter 8 “It is an illusion”: The Artful Life of David Lynch Allister Mactaggart Chapter 9 David Lynch Sprawls Richard Martin Chapter 10 Waiting for Agent Cooper: The Ends of Fantasy in Twin Peaks: The Return Todd McGowan Chapter 11 Panel Discussion on Twin Peaks: The Return Tamara Dellutri, Richard Martin, Allister Mactaggart and Todd McGowan

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Book Synopsis

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