The Subject of Liberation

In this quixotic reading of ieks The Ticklish Subject Charles Wells provides a refreshingly personal yet political plea for revisiting the subject of liberation. Wells takes his readers to a journey that traces the path of leftist politics to a subject whose liberation requires as much imagination as courage. He bids his readers to begin right here. * Engin Isin, The Open University, UK * In this thought-provoking and eminently readable book, Wells manages to unpack some of the densest passages in iek's 'theory of liberation' by distilling their political core. This is no small achievement. * Fabio Vighi, Cardiff University, UK, and author of On iek's Dialectics (2010) *

Charles Wells is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford, Canada.

Dedication Introduction: The Subject of Liberation I: THE PROBLEM 1. How to Read the Ticklish Subject 2. Leftist Philosophy and Lacans Theory of Character Structures II: THE SUBJECT, IDEOLOGY, AND PSYCHOANALYSIS 3. The iekian Universal Subject 4. Ideology: The Big Other, The Symbolic Mandate, and The Social Superego 5. Freedom and Responsibility: The Liberatory Promise of Lacanian Psychoanalysis III: CONTEMPORARY IDEOLOGIES 6. The Problem of Postmodernity: A Life of Pleasures 7. The Postmodern Social Superego: Reflexive Sadomasochism 8. The Unholy Conspiracy: Postmodern Ideology and (Pseudo-)Fundamentalism IV: GOING THROUGH THE DEADLOCK 9. Antagonism in the Real 10. The Theory of the Four Fundamental Discourses 11. The Deadlock of Lacanian Ethics and the Analytic Moment V: POST-ANALYTIC SUBJECTS 12. The Post-Analytic Subject 1: The Analyst 13. The Post-Analytic Subject 2: The Lover 14. Post-Analytic Philosophies VI: LIBERATED SOCIETIES 15. Liberated Societies 1: A Universal Right to Psychoanalysis and the Antagonistic Society 16. Liberated Societies 2: A Society of Analysts Conclusion: Go, Bid the Soldiers Shoot! BIBLIOGRAPHY NOTES