Call for papers: The political unconscious.
Psychoanalysis, whatever its theoretical background, deals with individuals, individual stories and clot of sorrows that, apparently, have nothing to do with the collective dimension of human life and, in particular, with political life. For these reasons, the Left Wing – for long time – has considered politics as a “bourgeois” and intimist practice, indifferent to the great issues of society and economics. Such concept was challenged by the so-called Freudo-Marxism, by the Frankfurt School and, subsequently, by some members of the political and cultural movement of Protest of 1968, who highlighted the uncompromising social nature of psychoanalysis theorizing on an originally collective subject. It could be affirmed that, at least starting from the book “Civilization and its Discontents” by Freud, psychoanalysis has always dealt with the relationship between society and the individual, focussing on a fundamental anthropological assumption: the individual discontent is a consequence of the social discontent; interior life is the other side of the exterior life. Such an assumption hints at a certain “family similarity” with the ‘psychological’ theories by Marx, subsequently developed by Vygotskij.
In this perspective, it is possible to enhance the line of psychoanalysis that transformed the pathogenic link between society and the individual into its main investigation field, as shown by Reich, Fromm and, above all, by Marcuse. The latter, without being a psychoanalyst, developed his own philosophical analysis and built his own theories on the social emancipation, starting from Freud.
Lacan’s ideas intervened into this research field, despite their hetherodox and original nature, insofar the intrinsic political nature of his work is linked to the issue of desire. In his Seminar 7 the Ethics of Psychoanalysis he formulated one of the most interesting principles of political psychoanalysis: “the only thing of which one can be guilty is of having given ground relative to one’s desire”. However, what is at stake in the relationship between psychoanalysis and politics is, thus, the issue of desire; but which desire? Contemporary capitalism assails us with desires; it is therefore our task to investigate desire from a psychoanalytical and – perhaps – genealogical point of view. Who longs for these desires?
A possible answer is suggested by Marx’s philosophical and political legacy, that reflects on historicity and on the “ideological” nature of desires, as well as by Lacan himself that interprets them psychoanalytically as functions of the Ego considered as an imaginary entity. Lacan’s desire is not the one of the Ego, rather something that could be quantified as unconscious and bodily, impersonal and inexpressible. Such a desire is incompatible with the current social and economic order, as it is demonstrated by the constant attack the latter carries out against psychoanalysis. Similar issues have been proposed at the beginning of the 21st Century by authors such as Laclau, Žižek, Badiou and Butler who reinterpreted the political theory on the background of psychoanalysis. The book by Stavrakakis, titled The Lacanian Left, provided a detailed map of such a lively debate modernising the philosophical definitions and categories that demonstrate the validity of psychoanalysis as a criticism about economy, culture and politics.
In this issue of L’inconscio. Rivista Italiana di Filosofia e Psicoanalisi we propose to reflect on the relationships between desire and politics, history and unconscious, body and language.
Suggested topics: history of the relationships between psychoanalysis and politics, Freud-Marxism and Frankfurt School, Foucault’s criticism of psychoanalysis, Lacan’s theory of desire, desire and body, “real” unconscious, sexuality and economics, Lacan in Deleuze and Guattaru, the Lacanian Left Wing.
Scholars interested in the topics can send their papers to the following email address: inconscio.rivista@gmail.com, along with an abstract in English (max 600 characters, spaces included), five key words in English and a brief bibliographical note (max 400 characters).
Papers can be submitted in the following languages: Italian, English, French and Spanish.
The maximum length of papers in the three sections is the following:
– Monographs: max 40,000 characters, spaces included.
– Various: max 20,000 characters, spaces included.
– Review: max 10,000 characters, spaces included.
Contributions will undergo double blind peer review, whose result will be given to authors by email. Papers should be submitted no later than 5th September 2016. The Journal will be published on 31st December 2016.