Subject of Liberation

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 Subject2. Leftist Philosophy and Lacan’s Theory of Character StructuresII: THE SUBJECT, IDEOLOGY, AND PSYCHOANALYSIS3. The Žižekian Universal Subject4. Ideology: The Big Other, The Symbolic Mandate, and The Social Superego5. Freedom and Responsibility: The Liberatory Promise of Lacanian PsychoanalysisIII: CONTEMPORARY IDEOLOGIES6. The Problem of Postmodernity: A Life of Pleasures7. The Postmodern Social Superego: Reflexive Sadomasochism8. The Unholy Conspiracy: Postmodern Ideology and (Pseudo-)FundamentalismIV: GOING THROUGH THE DEADLOCK9. Antagonism in the Real10. The Theory of the Four Fundamental Discourses11. The Deadlock of Lacanian Ethics and the Analytic MomentV: POST-ANALYTIC SUBJECTS12. The Post-Analytic Subject 1: The Analyst13. The Post-Analytic Subject 2: The Lover14. Post-Analytic PhilosophiesVI: LIBERATED SOCIETIES15. Liberated Societies 1: A Universal Right to Psychoanalysis and the Antagonistic Society16. Liberated Societies 2: A Society of AnalystsConclusion: Go, Bid the Soldiers Shoot!BIBLIOGRAPHYNOTES

In this quixotic reading of Žižek’s 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.