T H E C API TALIS T U N CO NSCI O US

MARX AND LACAN

SAMO TOMŠIČ

9781784781088 The Capitalist Unconscious (461i) final pass.indd iii9781784781088 The Capitalist Unconscious (461i) final pass.indd iii 09/09/2015 09:04:2809/09/2015 09:04:28

First published by Verso 2015© Samo Tomšič 2015

All rights reserved

� e moral rights of the author have been asserted

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

VersoUK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG

US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201www.versobooks.com

Verso is the imprint of New Le9 Books

ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-108-8 (PB)ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-111-8 (HC)eISBN-13: 978-1-78478-110-1 (US)eISBN-13: 978-1-78478-109-5 (UK)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataTomšič, Samo.

[Kapitalisticno nezavedno. English] � e capitalist unconscious : Marx and Lacan / Samo Tomsic.

pages cm ISBN 978-1-78478-108-8 (paperback) – ISBN 978-1-78478-111-8 (hardback)

– ISBN 978-1-78478-110-1 (US) – ISBN 978-1-78478-109-5 (UK)1. Marx, Karl, 1818-1883. 2. Lacan, Jacques, 1901–1981. 3. Psychoanalysis. 4.

Capitalism. 5. Consciousness. I. Title. HX39.5.T55513 2015

335.4’12–dc23 2015027998

Typeset in Minion Pro by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh, ScotlandPrinted in the UK by CPI Mackays

9781784781088 The Capitalist Unconscious (461i) final pass.indd iv9781784781088 The Capitalist Unconscious (461i) final pass.indd iv 09/09/2015 09:04:2809/09/2015 09:04:28

Contents

Acknowledgements vii Introduction: Lacan’s Second Return to Freud 1

1. ‘The Unconscious Is Politics’: From Saussure to Marx 13

Structure and History 13 Saussure and Political Economy 27 Representation and Production 47 � e Logic of Surplus and Loss 64

2. The Capitalist Unconscious: A Return to Freud 79

Weltanschauung 79 � e Labour � eory of the Unconscious 99 Lustgewinn 117 Repression and Production 130

3. The Fetish and the Symptom 149

Against Psychoanalytic Generalisations 149 Fetishism without Perversion 156 � e Organ and the Animal 172 � e Symptom between Truth and Jouissance 183

4. What Is the Capitalist Discourse? 199

Marx and the � eory of Discourses 199 From the Master’s Discourse to the University Discourse 211 � e Fi9 h Discourse? 219

Conclusion: Politics and Modernity 231

Index 239

9781784781088 The Capitalist Unconscious (461i) final pass.indd v9781784781088 The Capitalist Unconscious (461i) final pass.indd v 09/09/2015 09:04:2809/09/2015 09:04:28