Enjoying What We Don't Have

Enjoying What We Don't Have Book Description “Psychoanalysis does not put forward new positive political programs; Instead, he is content to identify the contours of a destructive force, a 'negativity' - the death drive - that poses a threat to every stable collective bond. Within the framework of this understanding, different psychoanalysts advocated revolutionary, liberal or conservative views. Has everything that can be said been said? McGowan's book organizes this mess by drawing a new line from beginning to end: The most important lesson of psychoanalysis is that liberatory politics must be based not on any common notion of the Good, but on the negativity of the death drive. The implications of this thinking are staggering, taking us far beyond standard versions of Freudian Marxism; “Enjoying What We Don't Have changes everything in the psychoanalysis-politics axis from top to bottom.” Slavoj Žižek Despite numerous attempts to bring together psychoanalysis and politics, this is the first book that defines the political project embodied in the basic principles of psychoanalysis. McGowan argues that this political project, derived from the basic principles of psychoanalysis, opened a new channel for liberatory politics after the fate of Marxism in the twentieth century. Those pursuing the political content of psychoanalysis often look to Freud's early work on sexuality, whereas McGowan focuses on Freud's exploration of the death drive and the development of the concept in Lacan. He argues that self-harm, which occurs as a result of the death drive, is a constitutive act of liberation that we must place at the center of our political philosophy. He claims that psychoanalysis offers the opportunity to think of liberation as the embracing of loss rather than as an action to overcome it. McGowan argues that finding the path of joy is only possible by embracing loss, that pleasure is the determining factor of political struggle - and that only a political project that embraces the centrality of loss can constitute a viable alternative to global capitalism. (From the Promotional Bulletin)