Description

Lacan’s discourse of the capitalist provides an important way of reading neoliberal capitalism and its effects on subjectivity.  In this discourse, the split subject disavows castration through its attempt to bypass the other and aim directly at what it supposes to be the root of the problem: the lack of a particular S1, seen as a certain product or experience that could be achieved in reality.  The superegoic commandments that proliferate under neoliberalism shape certain types of subjective positions, including what Carol Owens and I call a liminal being. I will discuss two types of liminal beings in connection with their fantasies, jouissance, and suffering.  First, I will speak about liminal beings who attempt to follow the neoliberal capitalist dictates to enjoy authentically and to innovate (e.g. certain social media stars and posthuman transhumanists).  Second, marginalized others are a type of liminal being insofar as they are viewed as both inside and outside of a social group, and capitalist discourse produces certain varieties of fantasy about them.  Finally, I will outline a number of key varieties of fantasy—and their accompanying jouissance—that proliferate under the discourse of the capitalist.