Racism and jouissance : evaluating the “racism as (the theft of) enjoyment” hypothesis

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dc.contributor.author Hook, Derek
dc.date.accessioned 2018-10-01T11:33:09Z
dc.date.issued 2018-09
dc.description.abstract This paper introduces and evaluates the Lacanian idea that racism can be conceptualized both as a mode of enjoyment (jouissance) and as a reaction to the perceived “theft of enjoyment.” Despite the distinct analytical advantages of this conceptualization—which grapples with racism not merely as discourse or socio-historical construction but in its affective, embodied, sensuous, and fantasmatic dimensions—the “theft of enjoyment” hypothesis can nonetheless be critiqued as: (1) guilty of a depoliticizing psychological reductionism; (2) conceptually under-differentiated and overly inclusive in its field of reference; (3) inattentive to different modes of enjoyment; and (4) conceptually decontextualized, cut off from the associated psychoanalytic concepts that necessarily accompany its proper application. Responding to these critiques, and by way of a defence of the analytic value of this hypothesis, this paper argues that: (1) jouissance is more a sociological than a psychological concept; (2) the notion of enjoyment must remain empty of definitive contents if it is to serve as an anti-essentialist variable of analysis; (3) three inter-connected modes of jouissance should be distinguished (bodily excitation, libidinal treasure, and the surplus vitality of the other); and (4) a series of psychoanalytic notions (drive, fantasy, object petit a, superego) should necessarily accompany any rigorous analytical application of the notion of jouissance to the social field. en_ZA
dc.description.department Psychology en_ZA
dc.description.embargo 2019-09-10
dc.description.librarian hj2018 en_ZA
dc.description.uri https://link.springer.com/journal/41282 en_ZA
dc.identifier.citation Hook, D. Racism and jouissance: Evaluating the “racism as (the theft of) enjoyment” hypothesis. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society (2018) 23: 244-266. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-018-0106-z. en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn 1088-0763 (print)
dc.identifier.issn 1543-3390 (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.1057/s41282-018-0106-z
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/66676
dc.language.iso en en_ZA
dc.publisher Springer en_ZA
dc.rights © Springer Nature Limited 2018. The original publication is available at : https://link.springer.com/journal/41282. en_ZA
dc.subject Enjoyment en_ZA
dc.subject Fantasy en_ZA
dc.subject Jouissance en_ZA
dc.subject Lacanian approach en_ZA
dc.subject Superego en_ZA
dc.title Racism and jouissance : evaluating the “racism as (the theft of) enjoyment” hypothesis en_ZA
dc.type Postprint Article en_ZA


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