Psychoanalytic Accounts of Consuming Desire

Transcription

1 Psychoanalytic Accounts of Consuming Desire Hearts of Darkness John Desmond University ofst Andrews, UK palgrave macmillan

2 Contents of figures bee and Acknowledgements ^ xn xiii Dreams. Introduction Understanding dreams ~ --" The dream of Irma..~- Discussion Dreams as wish-fulfilments 'What does the goose dream of? Of maize!' Distortion in dreams ^. The dream of a failed supper party Generalizing from dreams Learning from texts Explaining dream processes The dream of the burning child Selling dreams The controversy over subliminal advertising Forget Freud? Conceptions of the unconscious in marketing today Sexuality Introduction Eros and sexuality Three issues The problem of civilization The puzzle of gender The question of normalcy Sexual development Objects and aims Stages of sexual development Component instincts Oral stage Anal stage Phallic stage Latency Puberty into adulthood Neurosis vii

3 viii Contents Perversion 41 An extreme case 42 Forget Freud? 42 Oedipus now 42 The repressive hypothesis 44 The new normal 46 Pornography 48 Explaining pornography use,/< - 50 Bulimia: the fourth fetish? Mastery and Self-Control 56 Introduction 56 Ontogeny 57 Mastery, love and hatred """ 58 Identification 59 Transitional objects, 60 Phylogeny 62 Civilization and self-control. -»- 64 Foucault: discipline and civilization 70 Neo-liberalism and consumer choice 72 'I want a blue-eyed baby!' 75 Human mastery: over what? 77 Technology: poison or cure? "* 78 Reading Ballard's Crash 84 4 Narcissism 86 Introduction 86 On Narcissism (1914) 87 Infantile narcissism 89 Formation of an ideal-ego 89 Self-regard 90 Discussion 90 Developing from Freud 91 Erich Fromm: the marketing character 91 Melanie Klein 93 The hell of mirrors: narcissism in Lacan 99 Discussion of Klein and Lacan. 103 The narcissistic consumer * 106 Christopher Lasch 107 Teresa Brennan: consumer society is psychotic 108 Narcissism moves West 110 Discussion 112 Against narcissism 113

4 Contents ix 5 Death 117 Mourning and Melancholia (1917) 118 Mourning: recovery of self 118 Sequestration of death 120 Closure? 122 Discussion 123 Melancholia 123 Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) 125 Beyond Freud -, 127 Selling death "~ r -' Addiction: administration of jouissance. 131 Denying death ' 132 Anality and dualism ^.. 1 Fear of death:, spice of life? 135 Desire for immortality 136 Desire for the obsolete body Terror management 139 Death everywhere "~ Lack ' 144 Introduction " : 144 Three orders 146 Imaginary 147 The 'master-slave' tale 148 The holy whole 149 See-sawing desire 150 Belle ame 151 Anamorphosis 152 Symbolic 155 Beyond harmony 159 Primacy of the signifier 162 'Do crossword puzzles: metaphor and metonymy 163 Points de capiton: pinning down meaning 168 Structuralism 170 Ideology 172 Canalization of desire 173 Discussion 176 Consuming fantasy 178 Fantasy and the Real 181 Jouissance 181 Phallic jouissance and other jouissance 184 Commanded to enjoy 185 Discussion. 189

5 x Contents 7 Freedom Introduction The Ego and the Id (1923) The plague: mainstream psychoanalysis in the USA Freedom to conform Freedom to self-actualize Freedom to self-realize Against freedom (according to ego psychology) Liberating Eros., Haunted by desire Surreal commerce Freedom: from the Beats to The Catcher in the'rye. - The Beats Freedom and other-directedness Vance Packard: the autonomous self Dichter's reply to Packard Liberating Eros, part 2: Herbert Marcuse The Spirit of'68 ^ Discussion 8 Hysteria Mimesis and hysteria Mimetic desire in a context of internal mediation Mimesis Misrecognition Doubling Conflictual mimesis Scapegoating Development of institutions Sacrificial crises Girard's critique of Freud Triangles everywhere Sexuality Narcissism The coquette 'Fort-Da' Discussion Girard compared to others Veblen: emulation Elias: internalization of conflict De Botton: status anxiety Affluenza: James Violence Bing: LA street gangs

6 Contents xi Mimesis and fashion 248 Conclusion 251 Notes 252 References 266 Index A 285