The Psychopathology of American Capitalism

1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-3-319-55591-1
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 296 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 4955 g

Reihe: Critical Political Theory and Radical Practice

This book synthesizes psychoanalytic and Marxist techniques in order to illuminate the resistance to a socialization of the American economy, the protectionist discourses of anomalous American capitalism, and the suppression of the capitalist welfare state. After the Second World War, Democrats and Republicans effectively eliminated the communist and socialist parties from the American political spectrum and suppressed their allied labor movements. The right-wing shift of both parties fabricated a false opposition of left and right that does not correspond to political oppositions in the industrialized democracies. Marxist perspectives can account for the massive inequality of the political economy, but they are insufficient for illuminating its preservation. Psychoanalysis is necessary in order to explain why Americans continue to vote within a two-party system that neglects the lower classes, and why the working class tendsto vote against its own interests. The psychoanalytic techniques employed include doubling, repetition, displacement, condensation, inversion, denial, fetishizing, and cognitive repression. In examining the fixation upon the proxy binary of Democrat vs. Republican, which suppresses the true opposition of left vs. right and neutralizes alternatives, the work analyses numerous contemporary political issues through applications of Marxist psychoanalytic theory.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bonfiglio, Thomas Paul

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Psychologische Theorie, Psychoanalyse
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychotherapie / Klinische Psychologie Psychopathologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction The Relevance of Marxism Marxist Limitations The Relevance of Psychoanalysis Displacement and Condensation The Rhetoric of Repetition Cognitive Repression Kettle Logic National Daydreams Fetishizing Chapter SummariesChapter 1: Marx, Freud, and CapitalChapter 2: Immanent Injustice: Race and Gender Reproduction Rights: A New ManifestoChapter 3: Misrepresentations: Deleuze and GuattariChapter 4: Žižek’s Hysterical Commodities Commodity Symptom HysteriaChapter 5: Marketed FetishismChapter 6: Language, Thought, and EconomyChapter 7: Coldwar Cognition The Beginnings of Ethno-Political Americanism The Anti-Father Father: Ronald ReaganChapter 8: Anticommunism and AcademiaChapter 9: AnglocentrismMartial Culture and the Modern Language Association of AmericaChapter 10: From Economy to Identity: How Many Ends Does It Take to Make a Middle?Conclusion The Politics of EntertainmentAfterword: Sanders, Clinton, and TrumpReferences

Über Autor(innen)

Thomas Paul Bonfiglio is Gaines Professor of Literature and Linguistics at the University of Richmond, USA. His publications include Why Is English Literature? Language and Letters for the Twenty-First Century (2013); Mother Tongues and Nations: The Invention of the Native Speaker (2010); and Race and the Rise of Standard American (2002).