This study purports to redefine the relationship between psychoanalysis, which looks upon the human being as homo psychologicus and marxism, which looks upon the human being as homo economicus. The research has been done in such a way as to avoid both ...
This study purports to redefine the relationship between psychoanalysis, which looks upon the human being as homo psychologicus and marxism, which looks upon the human being as homo economicus. The research has been done in such a way as to avoid both the Scylla of marxist reflectionism, where language and culture are hurled against the rock of the real and the Charybdis of poststructuralist idealism, where almost everything is sucked in and devoured by language. As pointed out in the subtitle of the project, the major theorists discussed in the course of this research include Marx/Althusser, who are marxists and Freud/Lacan, who are psychoanalysts, and importantly Zizek, who is regarded as having successfully assimilated both streams of thought.
The first topic of the study is concerned with 'The Politics, Culture, and Ideology: Marxism and Psychoanalysis,' Its contents are: ① Establishing the theorical, philosophical foundation for the productive dialogue between psychoanalysis and marxism, ② Studying the Althusserian marxism, ③ Investigating the continuity and difference between Althusser and Zizek, ④ Studying Zizek as a postmarxist and a postpsychoanalyst, ⑤ Relating Lacanian psychoanalysis to these marxist theories. Part of this study was presented with the title of 'The End of Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalitic Act, and Its Political Implications' at the English Language and Literature Association of Korea on January 28, 2005.
The second topic of the study is concerned with 'The Ethics of the Real and Marxism.' A comparative study of the Lacanian concept of the Real especially emphasized by Zizek and the ethics of the Real in close relation with the Marxist theories of Marx/Althusser/Zizek, this is one of the major studies of the present project aimed at investigating creative relationship between marxism and psychoanalysis. This title is a transformation of 'Ideology, Consciousness, and the Unconscious' proposed originally in the study plan, and an extension of 'Althusser and Zizek on Ideology,' the paper presented at the English Language and Literature Association of Korea on January 28, 2005.
The third topic of the study is concerned with 'The Materiality of the Signifier and Metaphor.' This is a critical investigation of the way in which Lacanian theory of the sign has been 'unmaterialized' in the name of 'the primacy of the signifier.' Despite his dictum of 'the incessant sliding of the signified under the signifier,' it is arguable that Lacanian signifier has a certain 'materiality and weight,' thus opening a possibility of interimplication of Lacanian theory and materialism, as was argued by Coward and Ellis in Language and Materialism.
Of these three topics of this study, as of the end of February, 2006, the third one was published in a paper and the second one is waiting for the publication of its paper, and the first one sees the writing of its paper under way.