{"id":12001,"date":"2013-09-25T10:47:19","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T15:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/?p=12001"},"modified":"2013-09-27T10:53:28","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T15:53:28","slug":"mcgowan-class-and-enjoyment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/2013\/09\/25\/mcgowan-class-and-enjoyment\/","title":{"rendered":"McGowan class and enjoyment dirty jokes"},"content":{"rendered":"

McGowan, Todd. Enjoying What We Don\u2019t Have: The Political Project of Psychoanalysis<\/em>. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2013.
\nChapter 3: Class Status and Enjoyment.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude42 This chapter really takes off from \u017di\u017eek’s claim that I don’t want to hear about your food and costumes, tell me your dirty jokes.<\/p>\n

Thesis: Psychoanalytic critique of capitalism differs from Marxist theories because it recognizes that even the rich, well-off upper class do not enjoy, in fact they enjoy less than the workers and lower classes. This is because the former must sacrifice more enjoyment to attain the material worth etc.<\/p>\n

But McGowan states that even though they may be on top in the the game of capital, they are still are unable to get satisfaction from their satisfaction. “It is only when one blows up one’s class possibilities that the opportunity for real enjoyment appears. Enjoyment requires sacrifice, but not the sacrifice of one’s time for the sake of accumulation. It demands the sacrifice of accumulation itself.” 86<\/p>\n

But this isn’t libertarian, Hayekian right-wing platitudes. These conservatives generally argue for an emergence of an aristocratic elite, that with freedom class division is inevitable. Whereas for psychoanalysis class society is founded on a particular form of non-freedom, arguing that its \u201cimplicit ideal guiding psychoanalytic treatment is that of a classless society.\u201d 81 Hmm sounds like Marx; so what gives Todd?<\/p>\n

While Marxism shows the economic and social costs of class exploitation \u2026 psychoanalysis emphasizes the psychic costs of capitalism for the whole society, including those that most directly benefit \u2026 the upper and middle classes. Its concern is \u2026 the suffering endured by those who, when one regards their situation from the outside, should be happy. Psychoanalysis arises in response to the psychic costs demanded by capitalist class based society. 82<\/p>\n

Psychoanalysis shows how even those who most surely benefit the most from capitalism don’t really enjoy.<\/p>\n

If this sounds rather odd for a socially progressive guy like McGowan, he then explains:<\/p>\n

Of course, no one wants to lament the misfortune of the poor little rich kid or try to generate sympathy for the suffering of Bill Gates. The point is rather to emphasize the unfreedom and lack of enjoyment<\/span><\/strong> that haunt the beneficiaries of capitalism and all class society. Even those who win in the capitalist game lose, and this provides what is perhaps the ultimate indictment of the capitalist system. 82<\/p>\n

This is an interesting tact, McGowan implies here that Marxist theory by unearthing the exploitation of workers, and thus basing the overthrow of capitalism on a sense of justice and equality, should also stop to look at the fact that the rich owners are not as well off psychically as many assume.<\/p>\n

The reason being is that for McGowan<\/p>\n