Editor’s Introduction: Deconstructing the Master Signifier of Community

Deconstructing the master signifier of community: Between the pre-modern and modern community of organic solidarity and the postmodern community of technological dissemination in cyberspace

Psychoanalytic theory and textual interpretation

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Lacan’s discourse theory in the age of evidence-based practice

Deze lezing vergelijkt de hedendaagse empirisch-kwantitatieve benadering omtrent effectiviteit van psychotherapieën met een bestudering van de effecten van psychotherapie aan de hand van de Lacaniaanse discourstheorie. Eerst preciseren we een aantal vooronderstellingen van hedendaagse effectenstudies, daarna gaan we dieper in op een aantal limiteringen van kwantificatie in de klinische psychologie, vervolgens gaan we dieper in op Lacans discourstheorie als een theorie die effecten van psychotherapie formaliseert, vertrekkende vanuit de interne dynamiek van verschillende vormen waarop mensen een talige dialoog met een ander kunnen aangaan

Islamism Revisited: A Lacanian Discourse Critique

The aim of this article is to highlight the relevance of Lacanian psychoanaly-sis for an understanding of Islamism, unfolding its discursive-ideological complexity. Inan attempt to reply to Fethi Benslama’s recent exploration of the function of the fatherin Islam, I suggest that Benslama’s argument about the ‘delusional’ character of Islamismand the link he envisages between the emergence of Islamism and the crisis of ‘tradi-tional’ authoritative systems, should be further investigated so as to avoid potential risksof essentialism. A different reading of Islamism is proposed, which valorizes ‘creative’attempts by Islamist groups to re-organize the social imaginary within the realm of a sym-bolic economy, thereby positivising the desedimenting effects of the real in different ways.Notions such as capitonage, fantasy, desire, and jouissance are essential for us to under-stand how Islamist trajectories diversify as distinct discursive formations, thereby reveal-ing the psychoanalytical significance of Islam as a master signifier

The ontology of crisis: the sublimity of objet petit a and the Master-Signifier

This paper explores how capitalism solidifies its power through Lacanian understanding of subjectivity. The inquiry intervenes in the capitalist ideological fantasy and its inherent antagonisms in order to analyse the way it strives to fill or erase the ruptures it produces in the social order. This is achieved by focusing on the particular proliferation of objects-commodities, which subjectivity transforms into the objects of desire in the framework of capitalist ideology. Furthermore, I focus on the establishment and signification of meaning within the capitalist matrix, as well as its dialectical overlap with the objects proliferated by the socio-economic system in question. The overlap of objects and meaning seems to produce ideological enjoyment, which solidifies capitalist ideology through subjectivity. Therein appears to lie the strength of capitalist ideology and its appropriation of even social phenomena into consumerist categories. This paper therefore tries to understand how capitalism manipulates ideological enjoyment in its quest to create social reality seemingly devoid of its antagonisms. It leans on the much-neglected Lacanian discourse of the Capitalist, revealing how the daily reality of subjects is driven by unconscious fantasy in its dogmatic ideological circle. The text also hints at the homology between Lacan's surplus-jouissance and Marx's surplus-value

“Christian Stalin” – The Paradox of Contemporary Georgian Politics

The following study sets as the starting point of analysis the paradox which one can observe in contemporary Georgian public space. Religious discourse refers to Stalin as a believer and even talks of his contribution to the revival of Christianity in the Soviet Union, despite the vast historical evidence suggesting otherwise. A considerable part of the Georgian population expresses respect or sympathy towards this historical figure. In this research, it is argued that explanations stemming from memory politics, nationalism or from the attempts of turning the image of Stalin into a commodity, fail to substantially address the puzzle and shed light on the phenomenon. Hence, the following study proposes a chain of signification developed within the discourse theory as a theoretical and methodological tool for looking at these developments. The discourse on national identity with Orthodox Christianity as a nodal point explains the possibility of such an image, religious Stalin, coming into existence

The democratic rhetoric of the austerity measures

The main purpose of this paper is to make an analysis of the policy-legitimizing discourses of the political-economic executive in Portugal considering the social and economic crisis thecountry is going through, and how this democratic legitimation is linked to democratictheory. The first parts of this article, is going to sketch the context of today’s rhetoric and aframework to analyse the discourse. The second is an empirical study in which we will try toshow the application of this framework, discussing 4 cases; the TINA discourse, an interview with a high representative of the Troika, the media discussions about the “grandoladas” and the discussion about the case of the budgetary reproval by the constitutional court

Capitalist discourse, subjectivity and Lacanian psychoanalysis

This paper studies how subjectivity in capitalist culture can be characterized. Building on Lacan’s later seminars XVI, XVII, XVIII, and XIX, the author first outlines Lacan’s general discourse theory, which includes four characteristic discourses: the discourse of the master, the discourse of the university, the discourse of the hysteric and the discourse of the analyst. Next, the author explores the subjectivity and the mode of dealing with jouissance and semblance, which is entailed in a fifth type of discourse, the capitalist discourse, discussed by Lacan (1972). Indeed, like the other discourses that Lacan discerns, the discourse of the capitalist can be thought of as a mode of dealing with the sexual non-rapport. It is argued that in the case of neurosis the discourse of the capitalist functions as an attempt to ignore the sexual non-rapport and the dimension of the unconscious. Psychosis, by contrast, is marked by an a priori exclusion from discourse. In that case, consumerist ways of relating to the other might offer a semblance, and thus the possibility of inventing a mode of relating to the other. Two clinical vignettes are presented to illustrate this perspective: one concerning the neurotic structure and one concerning the psychotic structure