T H E C A PI TA L I S T

U N CO N S CI O US
MARX AND LACAN

SAMO TOMI

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First published by Verso 2015

Samo Tomi 2015
All rights reserved
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Verso
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ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-108-8 (PB)
ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-111-8 (HC)
eISBN-13: 978-1-78478-110-1 (US)
eISBN-13: 978-1-78478-109-5 (UK)
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
Tomi, Samo.
[Kapitalisticno nezavedno. English]
The capitalist unconscious : Marx and Lacan / Samo Tomsic.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-78478-108-8 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-78478-111-8 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-78478-110-1 (US) ISBN 978-1-78478-109-5 (UK)
1. Marx, Karl, 1818-1883. 2. Lacan, Jacques, 19011981. 3. Psychoanalysis. 4.
Capitalism. 5. Consciousness. I. Title.
HX39.5.T55513 2015
335.412dc23
2015027998
Typeset in Minion Pro by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland
Printed in the UK by CPI Mackays

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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Lacans Second Return to Freud
1. The Unconscious Is Politics: From Saussure to Marx

Structure and History

Saussure and Political Economy
Representation and Production
The Logic of Surplus and Loss

vii
1
13
13
27
47
64

2. The Capitalist Unconscious: A Return to Freud

79

Weltanschauung
The Labour Theory of the Unconscious
Lustgewinn
Repression and Production

79
99
117
130

3. The Fetish and the Symptom

Against Psychoanalytic Generalisations

Fetishism without Perversion
The Organ and the Animal
The Symptom between Truth and Jouissance
4. What Is the Capitalist Discourse?

Marx and the Theory of Discourses

From the Masters Discourse to the University Discourse
The Fifth Discourse?

149
149
156
172
183
199
199
211
219

Conclusion: Politics and Modernity

231

Index

239

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