Capitalism and Desire: The Psychic Cost of Free Markets

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Despite creating vast inequalities and propping up reactionary world regimes, capitalism has many passionate defenders-but not because of what it withholds from some and gives to others. Capitalism dominates, Todd McGowan argues, 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, but at the same time are told more and better is yet to come. Capitalism traps us through an incomplete satisfaction that compels us after the new, the better, and the more.

Capitalism's parasitic relationship to our desires gives it the illusion of corresponding to our natural impulses, which is how capitalism's defenders characterize it. By understanding this psychic strategy, McGowan hopes to divest us of our addiction to capitalist enrichment and help us rediscover enjoyment as we actually experienced it. By locating it in the present, McGowan frees us from our attachment to a better future and the belief that capitalism is an essential outgrowth of human nature. From this perspective, our economic, social, and political worlds open up to real political change. Eloquent and enlivened by examples from film, television, consumer culture, and everyday life, Capitalism and Desire brings a new, psychoanalytically grounded approach to political and social theory.

Also by Todd McGowan: 

• Psychoanalytic Film Theory and the Rules of the Game

Psychoanalytic Film Theory and The Rules of the Game, offers a concise introduction to psychoanalytic film theory in jargon-free language and shows how this theory can be deployed to interpret Jean Renoir's classic film. It traces the development of psychoanalytic film theory through its foundation in the thought of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan through its contemporary manifestation in the work of theorists like Slavoj Zizek and Joan Copjec. This history will help students and scholars who are eager to learn more about this important area of film theory and bring the concepts of psychoanalytic film theory into practice through a detailed interpretation of the film.

New 8-bit Philosophy video on "Mandatory Enjoyment"

"What we are dealing with is a particular type of ideology—an ideology of consumer capitalism that mandates enjoyment."

"There isn’t a pure, correct, or optimal object to enjoy—just that one ought to seek out and find pleasurable experiences… and this works perfectly with our society of advertising—where there is always a newer and shinier object promising pleasure—capitalism promotes and demands that we find happiness and that, most importantly, we enjoy that happiness.

Alfie Bown finds a ray of hope in a special kind of Lacanian enjoyment: Jouissance.

Jouissance is an irrational form of pleasure that borders on suffering —it is a sort of pleasure and pain wrapped in one. A sort of enjoyment that there’s no explanation for- Like watching The Room, picking at scabs, or playing Flappy Bird or any of the Dark Souls games.

With Jouissance there’s an opportunity, not to destroy our ideology that mandates enjoyment—but to reflect on the how unnatural our feelings of enjoyment are—that we aren’t beautiful individuals who are fighting the good fight against the corporate machine—that what we enjoy is predictable, sellable, and taught to us. That no matter how much people try not to be sell outs—they’re just sad hipster pseudo revolutionaries in Che t-shirts and Berets."

8-Bit Philosophy, where classic video games introduce famous thinkers, problems, and concepts with quotes, teachings, and more.

See also:

"You are allowed not to enjoy": Psychoanalysis according to Zizek

The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold us Well-Being

The Productive Body

Buy The Productive Body here.

The Productive Body asks how the human body and its labor have been expropriated and re-engineered through successive stages of capitalism; and how capitalisms transformation of the body is related to the rise of scientific psychology and social science disciplines complicit with modern regimes of control. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault cited Guéry and Deleule in order to link Marxs diagnosis of capitalism with his own critique of power/knowledge. The Productive Body brings together Marxism and theories of the body-machine for the goal of political revolution.

Psychology and Capitalism: The Manipulation of Mind

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Psychology and Capitalism is a critical and accessible account of the ideological and material role of psychology in supporting capitalist enterprise and holding individuals entirely responsible for their fate through the promotion of individualism.

Introducing Capitalism: A Graphic Guide

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Capitalism now dominates the globe, both in economics and ideology, shapes every aspect of our world and influences everything from laws, wars and government to interpersonal relationships. “Introducing Capitalism” tells the story of its remarkable and often ruthless rise, evolving through strife and struggle as much as innovation and enterprise. Tracing capitalism from its beginning to the present day, Dan Cryan and Sharron Shatil, alongside Piero’s brilliant graphics, look at its practical and theoretical impact. They cover the major economic, social and political developments that shaped the world we live in, such as the rise of banking, the founding of America and the Opium Wars.This book explores the leading views for and against, including thinkers like Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Theodor Adorno and Milton Friedman, together with the connections between them and their historical context. Capitalism has influenced everything in the 21st-century world. For anyone who wants to gain a broad understanding of this fascinating subject, this book cuts across narrow academic lines to analyse an all-encompassing feature of modern life.

The Mike Wallace Interview: Erich Fromm (1958-05-25)

Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst and social critic, talks to Wallace about society, materialism, relationships, government, religion, and happiness.