Irrational exuberance: Neoliberal subjectivity and the perversion of truth

Abstract

Drawing on Freud's late work, I argue that the social traumas created by neoliberalism bring about perverse modes of subjectivity. When a truth is too painful to bear, Freud argues, we substitute for truth a less painful lie, a disavowal that, when regularly practiced, can issue in perversion. I argue that irrational exuberance, the shared delusion in the United States that, for example, housing prices and the stock market must always go up, ought not be attributed to the greed of 'human nature' but rather must be understood in its social context: as a response to the abandonment of the citizenry by government and by the free market fundamentalism that, after the mid-1970s, no longer provided even the bare minimum of security and safety offered by the US form of the welfare state. Clinical material illustrates some of the ways that neoliberal versions of subjectivity appear in symptoms and in the relational dynamics of treatment.

Hating government and voting against one’s interests: Self-Transgression, enjoyment, critique

“…What was particularly revealing about this case is that while the hatred and rage directed at MPs in the press was shared across the political spectrum, the way this excessive enjoyment was buoyed up differed in meaning and significance as a function of the precise fantasmatic narrative within which MPs and government were embedded. Fantasies underpinned by 'the Caring Other' and 'the Self-sufficient Self' struggled against each other in the way they pressed facts into their service, resonating strongly with the typically dichotomic market-versus-state character of political debate (see also Layton, 2010). This focus on MPs during 2009 successfully installed them as the number one culprit for our present woes, displacing in a rather spectacular fashion bankers and other financiers who had held this position the year before.…”

It’s time: Generation and temporality in psychoanalytic feminism

“…Psychoanalysis can challenge neoliberalism both at the level of institutions and the clinic (Layton, 2009(Layton, , 2010, clearly articulating unconscious structures and bringing them to public debate, drawing attention to the neoliberal precariatised, even terrorised state of mind (Hall et al, 2013), and challenging the assumption that nothing can be done differently. These challenges can perhaps pin-point what is blocking the horizon of our experience.…”

Exploring the troubling temporalities produced by fetal personhood

“…The fetal fetish is invaluable for present US culture, in which spaces of reflection and meaning-making have collapsed (Oliver, 2007;Layton, 2010;Gentile, 2011). Here fetish objects can be used to create a fantasy of wholeness in the face of overwhelming anxiety and an inability to have faith in a progressive, better future (Brown, 2005;Gentile, 2011).…”