Social Theory Since Freud: Self and Society After Freud

194 Pages·2004·1.01 MB·English

by  Anthony Elliott

Social Theory Since Freud
‘Anthony Elliott is quickly emerging as a one-person industry, intent
in all of his writings to demonstrate both the relevance and the
importance of psychoanalytic theory for social analysis.’
Thesis Eleven
‘Anthony Elliott has once again provided a lucid and critical
examination of the relationship between psychoanalysis and social
theory. While many writers are still catching up with Lacan’s work,
Elliott explains the major advances to be found in post-Lacanian
theory, and shows how it offers a new view of subjectivity and the
“imagination” attuned to the complexities of contemporary social life.’
Professor Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck College, London
‘Comprehensive and challenging, Social Theory Since Freud explores
major developments in western thought since Freud mapped out the
unconscious. It is an authoritative synopsis of the Frankfurt School,
Castoriadis, Lacan, Laplanche and Kristeva. In pursuing the legacy
of Freud, Anthony Elliott shows convincingly that the imagination is
central to rethinking the relationship between social theory and
psychoanalysis.’
Bryan Turner, Cambridge University
In this compelling book, Anthony Elliott traces the rise of psychoanalysis from
the Frankfurt School to postmodernism. Examining how path-breaking theorists
such as Adorno, Marcuse, Lacan and Lyotard have deployed psychoanalysis to
politicize issues like desire, sexuality, repression and identity, Elliott assesses the
gains and losses arising from this appropriation of psychoanalysis in social theory
and cultural studies.
Moving from the impact of the Culture Wars and recent Freud-bashing to
contemporary debates in social theory, feminism and postmodernism, Elliott
argues for a new alliance between sociological and psychoanalytic perspectives.
Drawing in particular from the thought of key contemporary psychoanalytic
ii
thinkers such as Julia Kristeva, Jean Laplanche and Cornelius Castoriadis, Social
Theory Since Freud opens the way for a new approach to the creativity of action.
Anthony Elliott is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent at
Canterbury. His recent books include Concepts of the Self (2001), Psychoanalytic
Theory: an introduction (2002, 2nd Edition), Critical Visions (2003) and Subject
to Ourselves (2004, 2nd Edition).
Social Theory Since Freud
Traversing social imaginaries
Anthony Elliott
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2004
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon,
Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2004 Anthony Elliott
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-49606-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-57032-4 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-27164-9 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-27163-0 (pbk)
For Oscar
Contents
Preface and acknowledgements ix
Introduction: imagination in the service of the new 1
Theories of imagination 7
The argument of this book 14
Pretext: you’ll never dream the same dream twice 16
1 Social theory since Freud: traversing social imaginaries 20
Freud and the interpretation of the social 21
The legacy of Freud 24
Psychopathologies of rationality: the Frankfurt School 27
Returning to Freud: Jacques Lacan 35
Lacanian and post-Lacanian contexts 40
Feminist psychoanalytic criticism 41
Psychoanalysis and postmodern theory 46
Pretext: perplexing messages of the social 49
2 Situating psychoanalysis in the social field: culture wars, Freud- 52
bashing, memory
Trauma talk and recovered memory: toward a critique of 57
antipsychological psychology
Opening and closing Freud: modern constructions, postmodern 64
revisions
Pretext: subjectivity, signification and writing: Kristeva and the 70
Barthes system
3 The psychic constitution of the subject: imagination, 73
identification, primary repression
vii
Rethinking representation: fantasy, creation, imagination 75
Freud and his followers: on the concepts of repression and 80
identification
Primary repression and the loss of the thing: Kristeva’s exploration of 82
the imaginary father
Enigmatic messages: Laplanche 86
Primary repression rethought: rolling identifications and 88
representational wrappings of self and other
The significance of primary repression, and the politicization of 100
identification
Pretext: on the adventures of difference 104
4 Sexuality, complexity, anxiety: the encounter between 110
psychoanalysis, feminism and postmodernism
Feminism, post-structuralism and postmodernism 111
Sexual difference, or more of the same? 116
From ambivalence to inflexibility: the fear of difference 119
Conclusion 126
Pretext: ethics, psychoanalysis and postmodernity 127
5 Psychoanalysis at its limits: navigating the postmodern turn 131
(with CHARLES SPEZZANO)
Modernism and postmodernism: the alleged dichotomy 132
Three faces of postmodernism 134
Postmodern psychoanalysis: two recent views 137
The critique of ‘inescapable fragmentation’ 143
Criticisms of the postmodern collapse of signification 143
Postmodernity and psychoanalytic heterogeneity 146
Beyond hermeneutics and constructivism 150
6 Social theory, psychoanalysis and the politics of postmodernity: 152
Anthony Elliott talks with Sean Homer
viii
Notes 165
References 167
Index 174
Preface and acknowledgements
The discerning reader may notice that, in tracing the intellectual stock-market
fortunes of psychoanalysis in social theory and critical cultural studies, the title
of this work makes a play on Lacan’s paper The agency of the letter in the
unconscious or reason since Freud’. In doing so, I signal a shift of intellectual
mood—away from the current orthodoxy of French Freudianism in the academy.
Moving beyond Lacan’s Freud necessarily entails, I argue, an encounter with the
wider social and political ramifications of psychoanalysis—in social theory in
particular and the social sciences in general.
I would like to thank Charles Lemert—for his support and friendship, and for
enriching contemporary social theory. This volume is in no small way influenced
by the example set by his writing, particularly Dark Thoughts (Routledge, 2002),
even though the bulk of this material was drafted before I came to see the degree
to which style can considerably influence substance— hence some extensive
redrafting!
During my work on this book, I have benefited from the conversation, input
and advice of many people at the following institutes where I have lectured on
Freud and social theory: the Northern Californian Society for Psychoanalytic
Psychology; the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California; the San Francisco
Institute of Psychoanalysis; the Boston Institute of Psychoanalysis; the Melbourne
Institute of Psychoanalysis; the Tavistock Institute, London; the Centre for Psycho-
Social Studies, UWE; and, the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies, Birkbeck
College, University of London.
I should like to thank the British Academy for the award of a grant that facilitated
the completion of this project. The book was finished during a period I spent as
Distinguished Visiting Professorial Fellow in the Faculty of Social Sciences at La
Trobe University, Melbourne. I would particularly like to thank Dennis Altman,
Judith Brett and Peter Beilharz for making my stay at La Trobe such a friendly
and productive one. Others who have contributed to the book, either directly or
indirectly, whom I should like to thank include Jean and Keith Elliott, Nick
Stevenson, Anthony Moran, Paul du Gay, Alison Assiter, Fiore Inglese, Simon
Skacej, Kriss McKie, Carmel Meiklejohn and Deborah Maxwell.
I would specially like to thank Charles Spezzano, Sean Homer and Jeff Prager
for their assistance and input into this book. I have also benefited through