Political Jouissance

<p>When we oppose or disagree with something important do we ever really do it dispassionately? Isn't setting the world to rights or condemning a political opponent always done with a hint of relish or at least enthusiasm? This book's challenging essays explore the modes in which that transgressive pleasure of political 'jouissance' operates. <p/>Rather than delegitimizing or depoliticising the tacit enjoyment of outrage can in fact facilitate different forms of engagement. The tendency for groups to be bonded by a common enemy for example brings with it a protection from censure or persecution and a way of alleviating guilt. In this collection the authors seek out jouissance in the battle against patriarchy in social revolts in the age of mechanical surveillance in the <i>necrosociety </i>of neoliberalism or the proliferation of conspiracy theories. Drawing on Lacan's insistence that jouissance is intrinsically political by its nature we can understand how readily psychoanalytic ideas can be put to use across the geopolitical spectrum.</p>