vbid/9783319555928

Description

This book synthesizes psychoanalytic and Marxist techniques in order to illuminate�the resistance to a socialization of the American economy, the protectionist discourses�of anomalous American capitalism, and the suppression of the capitalist welfare state.�After the Second World War, Democrats and Republicans effectively eliminated the�communist and socialist parties from the American political spectrum and suppressed�their allied labor movements. The right-wing shift of both parties fabricated a false�opposition of left and right that does not correspond to political oppositions in�the industrialized democracies. Marxist perspectives can account for the massive�inequality of the political economy, but they are insufficient for illuminating its�preservation. Psychoanalysis is necessary in order to explain why Americans continue�to vote within a two-party system that neglects the lower classes, and why the�working class tends to vote against its own interests. The psychoanalytic techniques�employed include doubling, repetition, displacement, condensation, inversion, denial,�fetishizing, and cognitive repression. In examining the fixation upon the proxy binary�of Democrat vs. Republican, which suppresses the true opposition of left vs. right and�neutralizes alternatives, the work analyses numerous contemporary political issues�through applications of Marxist psychoanalytic theory.Typham this is the title: The Psychopathology of American Capitalism