Daniel Tutt
The George Washington University, Department of Philosophy, Department Member
- European Graduate School (EGS), Philosophy, Media, and Communications, Graduate StudentMarymount University, Philosophy, AdjunctSouthern Oregon University, Student, Department Memberadd
- My research and writing is concerned with psychoanalysis and politics, new directions in Marxist thought, the family,... moreMy research and writing is concerned with psychoanalysis and politics, new directions in Marxist thought, the family, social reproduction debates and the legacy of anti-Oedipal politics, contemporary and historical liberalism and Nietzsche/anism and the social power of the intellectual.edit
How to Read Like a Parasite overturns the whitewashed and defanged version of Nietzsche that has been made popular by generations of translators and academic philosophers who have presented his work as apolitical and without a core... more
How to Read Like a Parasite overturns the whitewashed and defanged version of Nietzsche that has been made popular by generations of translators and academic philosophers who have presented his work as apolitical and without a core reactionary agenda.
The central argument of the book is that Nietzsche’s philosophy does have a center, and that the left learns a great deal from Nietzsche when we read him as driven by a highly sophisticated reactionary political vision that informs all his major concepts and ideas.
The most important Nietzschean concepts — from perspectivism, ressentiment, eternal return to the pathos of distance — are analyzed in the historical context in which Nietzsche lived and wrote, and several case-studies of prominent left-Nietzscheans from Jack London, Gilles Deleuze, Wendy Brown to Huey Newton are discussed.
How to Read Like a Parasite makes a persuasive case for how we can overcome Nietzsche’s damaging influence on the left, showing us how to read and understand his work without becoming victims of it.
The central argument of the book is that Nietzsche’s philosophy does have a center, and that the left learns a great deal from Nietzsche when we read him as driven by a highly sophisticated reactionary political vision that informs all his major concepts and ideas.
The most important Nietzschean concepts — from perspectivism, ressentiment, eternal return to the pathos of distance — are analyzed in the historical context in which Nietzsche lived and wrote, and several case-studies of prominent left-Nietzscheans from Jack London, Gilles Deleuze, Wendy Brown to Huey Newton are discussed.
How to Read Like a Parasite makes a persuasive case for how we can overcome Nietzsche’s damaging influence on the left, showing us how to read and understand his work without becoming victims of it.
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In this introductory essay, we aim to track the discourse of justice within key moments of Islamic history. What emerges is a lively story punctuated by epistemic debates over the status of universality, the ethical underpinnings and... more
In this introductory essay, we aim to track the discourse of justice within
key moments of Islamic history. What emerges is a lively story punctuated by
epistemic debates over the status of universality, the ethical underpinnings
and proper place of justice within a given society, and the role of the state
in its administration.
To receive a copy of Justice in Islam: New Ethical Perspectives visit (https://iiit.org/en/book/justice-in-islam-new-ethical-perspectives).
key moments of Islamic history. What emerges is a lively story punctuated by
epistemic debates over the status of universality, the ethical underpinnings
and proper place of justice within a given society, and the role of the state
in its administration.
To receive a copy of Justice in Islam: New Ethical Perspectives visit (https://iiit.org/en/book/justice-in-islam-new-ethical-perspectives).
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The preface and glossary of key concepts from my book Psychoanalysis and the Politics of the Family: The Crisis of Initiation. To learn more about the book please visit https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-94070-6.
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A new essay on Kojin Karatani's theories of psychoanalysis, included in a new book collection entitled Libidinal Economies of Crisis Times: The Psychic Life of Contemporary Capitalism with Transcript Publishing... more
A new essay on Kojin Karatani's theories of psychoanalysis, included in a new book collection entitled Libidinal Economies of Crisis Times: The Psychic Life of Contemporary Capitalism with Transcript Publishing (https://www.transcript-publishing.com/978-3-8376-5685-5/libidinal-economies-of-crisis-times/?c=411000033) and edited by Ben Gook.
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A psychoanalytic analysis of the HBO TV series "True Detective" season one with a focus on the relationship between characters Hart and Cohle, and the way in which the Oedipus complex relates to Cohle's character.
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Essay included in new book, Sex and Nothing: Bridges from Psychoanalysis to Philosophy published by Karnac Books July, 2016.
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Context. Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus series has shaped several generations of radical left political thought, promoting an accelerationist understanding of revolutionizing capitalism. Despite the lasting influence of the concepts... more
Context. Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus series has shaped several generations of radical left political thought, promoting an accelerationist understanding of revolutionizing capitalism. Despite the lasting influence of the concepts developed in this work, the changing dynamics of capitalist social life, particularly increasing social and institutional fragmentation, have called the core itinerary of these concepts and their application to political struggle into serious question.
Objective. This paper critically examines the theoretical presuppositions that drove the Anti-Oedipus series, with particular focus on the first volume, and asks whether the repertoire of concepts developed in this work remain relevant to the contemporary left.
Method. After an investigation that focuses on the movement away from a Marxist-centered praxis and understanding of capitalism in Anti-Oedipus, an analysis of the conception of the ''Oedipal form'' is presented and critiqued with reference to a wide range of post-Lacanian political thinkers.
Results. Anti-Oedipus has made a tremendous influence on the theoretical understanding of today's anti-capitalist left. Its concepts have been adopted in two main ways on the contemporary left: a radical abolitionist politics of opacity and a new form of left-accelerationist utopian socialism.
Interpretations. These two tendencies of political thought are critically analyzed and diagnosed as inadequate to facing the political and social challenges of our time, but they remain nonetheless important intellectual tendencies for understanding the ideological makeup of today's left.
Objective. This paper critically examines the theoretical presuppositions that drove the Anti-Oedipus series, with particular focus on the first volume, and asks whether the repertoire of concepts developed in this work remain relevant to the contemporary left.
Method. After an investigation that focuses on the movement away from a Marxist-centered praxis and understanding of capitalism in Anti-Oedipus, an analysis of the conception of the ''Oedipal form'' is presented and critiqued with reference to a wide range of post-Lacanian political thinkers.
Results. Anti-Oedipus has made a tremendous influence on the theoretical understanding of today's anti-capitalist left. Its concepts have been adopted in two main ways on the contemporary left: a radical abolitionist politics of opacity and a new form of left-accelerationist utopian socialism.
Interpretations. These two tendencies of political thought are critically analyzed and diagnosed as inadequate to facing the political and social challenges of our time, but they remain nonetheless important intellectual tendencies for understanding the ideological makeup of today's left.
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This article deconstructs the conceptual framework of the social theorist Salman Sayyid by critically examining his work on the political and hegemony in relation to the thought of the post-Marxist philosopher Ernesto Laclau. Sayyid... more
This article deconstructs the conceptual framework of the social theorist Salman Sayyid by critically examining his work on the political and hegemony in relation to the thought of the post-Marxist philosopher Ernesto Laclau. Sayyid elaborates a theory of the political that necessitates a communal break with existing society, a move very similar to Laclau and post-Marxist thought more generally. In analyzing Sayyid's theories of the caliphate with Laclau's conception of hegemonic struggle, the author suggests that the construction of any caliphate should think about the question of solidarity with "plebs" or those discarded from the system of capitalism. The article concludes with an analysis of how Sayyid's theoretical praxis can be applied in American Muslim political activism through the concept of the counterpublic.
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In mid-twentieth century intellectual life, the conservative American sociologist and Freud scholar Philip Rieff offers a body of work that we must wrestle with today. After the cultural revolution Rieff predicts that the future of... more
In mid-twentieth century intellectual life, the conservative American sociologist and Freud scholar Philip Rieff offers a body of work that we must wrestle with today. After the cultural revolution Rieff predicts that the future of conflict will not be between social classes such as bourgeoisie or proletariat but between two forms of rivaling elites – a cultural ‘professional revolutionary’ elite who will seek to further the gains of the Cultural Revolution and a more conservative cadre of elites who will seek to put a brake on cultural politics by pointing to the deleterious social effects that are spawned from it.
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Daniel Tutt examines the relation between the COVID-19 pandemic and what Jean-Luc Nancy calls our ‘being-in-common.’ As he articulates in his article, the Covid-19 virus has revealed the otherwise hidden class system of the global... more
Daniel Tutt examines the relation between the COVID-19 pandemic and what Jean-Luc Nancy calls our ‘being-in-common.’ As he articulates in his article, the Covid-19 virus has revealed the otherwise hidden class system of the global economy. The pandemic has also caused a seeming political paralysis on the left across the world, especially now as we face the precipice of a return to ‘business as usual’ with austerity policies and wealth inequality continuing to run amok. Tutt believes that in this collective political paralysis Nancy saw a form of solidarity and therefore any thinking of the individual must also confront the communism of collective existence, which he defines as the space in which individuals come to realize themselves in their true singularity.
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Foreword: Homo animal tam familial est quam politicum Man is an animal that is as familial as it is political Psychoanalysis and the Politics of the Family: The Crisis of Initiation (pp. ix-xix) by Daniel Tutt Cham, Switzerland:... more
Foreword:
Homo animal tam familial est quam politicum
Man is an animal that is as familial as it is political
Psychoanalysis and the Politics of the Family: The Crisis of Initiation (pp. ix-xix) by Daniel Tutt
Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer, 2022 The Palgrave Lacan Series
ISBN 978-3-030-94069-0 ISBN 978-3-030-94070-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94070-6
Link: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/bfm%3A978-3-030-94070-6%2F1.pdf?fbclid=IwAR237DedMIt_PwYgwTseqDpfn0H47MBhSFpPq4acNHfYThQ8UsYJHaEARjc
Homo animal tam familial est quam politicum
Man is an animal that is as familial as it is political
Psychoanalysis and the Politics of the Family: The Crisis of Initiation (pp. ix-xix) by Daniel Tutt
Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer, 2022 The Palgrave Lacan Series
ISBN 978-3-030-94069-0 ISBN 978-3-030-94070-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94070-6
Link: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/bfm%3A978-3-030-94070-6%2F1.pdf?fbclid=IwAR237DedMIt_PwYgwTseqDpfn0H47MBhSFpPq4acNHfYThQ8UsYJHaEARjc
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Daniel Tutt looks to the philosophy of Georg Lukács and his critique of bourgeois irrationalism to explicate the role of intellectuals and worldviews in the class struggle.
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Is the lumpenproletariat a class? Or should we think of lumpenization as a verb – as a process affecting all classes? This paper rethinks the concept in relation to Clyde Barrow's new book, drawing lessons for making sense of Trump's... more
Is the lumpenproletariat a class? Or should we think of lumpenization as a verb – as a process affecting all classes? This paper rethinks the concept in relation to Clyde Barrow's new book, drawing lessons for making sense of Trump's Bonapartist moves.
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Review essay of Domenico Losurdo’s groundbreaking biography and historical study of Nietzsche's life and times, The Aristocratic Rebel: Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet. Originally published in Italian in 2002, this... more
Review essay of Domenico Losurdo’s groundbreaking biography and historical study of Nietzsche's life and times, The Aristocratic Rebel: Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet. Originally published in Italian in 2002, this in-depth biographical portrait offers up an entirely new way of reading the legacy of Nietzsche’s impact on social and political thought. Losurdo presents an argument often neglected, if not outright ignored by philosophers, literary theorists and general readers of Nietzsche; namely that he is best read as a deeply political and reactionary thinker who, over the course of four key stages of his career, develops a reactionary political agenda that is inseparable from the development of his moral and metaphysical thought.
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Daniel Tutt provides a Lacanian Perspective on Black Lives Matter via Sheldon George, Fanon and others.
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This piece appears in the Winter 2016/2017 print issue of the Islamic Monthly magazine.
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In our world of hyper connection and constant digital communication, increasing numbers of people experience feelings of isolation and suffer from different forms of psychic misery. We face urgent social and political problems, from... more
In our world of hyper connection and constant digital communication, increasing numbers of people experience feelings of isolation and suffer from different forms of psychic misery. We face urgent social and political problems, from intensifying class inequalities, growing xenophobia and racism, to the rise of neo-fascism. In this lecture, we aim to understand these problems as driven, at least in part, as a failure of forming community that is able to adequately overcome social alienation. Political and social philosophers from Rousseau to Marcuse have theorized community, not as an identity affirming activity, but as an encounter that dissolves I in the We—an event that requires the invention of new forms of civic and public love. This talk will discuss what the philosophy of community can teach us about addressing some of the most pressing challenges we face today.
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In this essay, I situate the neo-fascist movements, specifically the alt-Right in an historical context that examines both the conditions that capitalism reaches wherein it begins to produce fascism. I also provide an account of the... more
In this essay, I situate the neo-fascist movements, specifically the alt-Right in an historical context that examines both the conditions that capitalism reaches wherein it begins to produce fascism. I also provide an account of the internal development and deployment of the alt-Right compared to prior fascist movements of the twentieth century. The historical period in which fascism first arose, the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, provides an important point of reference for understanding the external societal conditions as well as the internal function of fascism. In The Birth of Fascist Ideology Zeev Sternhell notes two defining characteristics of what led to the fascism of the 1920's and 1930's in France and Italy: Firstly, there was a steady cultural revolution aimed at overthrowing liberalism in response to the failure of Marxist approaches to revolution which emphasized an economic revolution to the modes of production. Secondly, and this is perhaps a distinctive feature of every fascist movement, these political movements of the early 20 th century turned against Enlightenment metaphysics of materialism and science, replacing the reason of Marxist revolutionary thought and action with an emphasis on mobilizing followers around a romanticized myth. Sternhell argues that the myth that began early 20 th century fascism was the event of the violent general strike as theorized by the reactionary socialist syndicalist Georges Sorel (1847 – 1922). This myth would eventually be modified to adhere to nationalist and biological racism with the rise of the Nazi's, but the important functionalist point is that fascism requires the deployment of a myth to organize its followers.
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Adorno and Horkheimer, in their famous “Elements of Anti-Semitism” essay, argued that anti-Semitism has a specific economic purpose: to conceal domination in production and capitalist exploitation. Contemporary Islamophobia can be... more
Adorno and Horkheimer, in their famous “Elements of Anti-Semitism” essay, argued that anti-Semitism has a specific economic purpose: to conceal domination in production and capitalist exploitation. Contemporary Islamophobia can be understood from the same functional perspective, despite many important differences between Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. This essay presents two Marxist theoretical models for thinking Islamophobia and racism, what I call the ‘failed revolutionary’ and the ‘projection of resentment’ models.
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The main objective of this essay is to pose a dialogue between Deleuze and Islamic philosophy by considering the thought of Mulla Sadrā and his theory of the act of being. The paper begins with a review of two new books on Deleuze and... more
The main objective of this essay is to pose a dialogue between Deleuze and Islamic philosophy by considering the thought of Mulla Sadrā and his theory of the act of being. The paper begins with a review of two new books on Deleuze and theology: Daniel Colucciello Barber's, Deleuze and the Naming of God: Post-Secularism and the Future of Immanence, and F. LeRon Shults', Deleuze and the Secretion of Atheism.
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My aim in this paper is to examine the ways in which Sayyid’s conception of the political differs from the thought of Ernesto Laclau and to draw out the consequences of this difference for contemporary thinking on the political in the... more
My aim in this paper is to examine the ways in which Sayyid’s conception of the political differs from the thought of Ernesto Laclau and to draw out the consequences of this difference for contemporary thinking on the political in the context of the Islamicate. Specifically, we will find that a reading of Lacalu onto Sayyid’s text enables a movement out of the utopianism that Sayyid thinks, which is limited to the sphere of social recognition and ethics.
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This essay is a review of Wael Hallaq’s "The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament," and it was published by the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World (http://sctiw.org/sctiw_review).
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This article first appeared in Philosophy Now, Issue 106, out now. Please visit https://philosophynow.org.
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The characteristic uses of Oedipal logics in both Žižek and Badiou and how these underpin their distinctive approaches to questions of subjectivity and emancipatory politics.
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This paper develops a new reading of Žižek’s theory of the psychoanalytic act and the subject.
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An examination of the trope of the neighbor in liberal theory through the lens of the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, Slavoj Zizek, and Eric Santner.
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The crisis of Islam in Europe revolves, in part, around Europe's own confrontation with its cultural tradition and the debates raging about multiculturalism. What might Nietzsche, the 19th century philosopher, who famously coined "God is... more
The crisis of Islam in Europe revolves, in part, around Europe's own confrontation with its cultural tradition and the debates raging about multiculturalism. What might Nietzsche, the 19th century philosopher, who famously coined "God is dead," have to tell us about Europe's ongoing problems with Islam and multiculturalism?
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What should we make of Plato’s old quarrel between philosophy and poetry? Does poetry think with philosophy? Or might we re-pose the question: does poetry rely on philosophy to think? An essay on Alain Badiou's and Judith Balso's... more
What should we make of Plato’s old quarrel between philosophy and poetry? Does poetry think with philosophy? Or might we re-pose the question: does poetry rely on philosophy to think? An essay on Alain Badiou's and Judith Balso's philosophy of art and poetry.
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Analysis of Jean Laplanche's text, Hölderlin and the Question of the Father and the role of psychosis in poetic thought.
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This policy brief informs Mormon as well as Muslim lay, academic, and clerical leaders about the causes and persistence of prejudice toward their communities and how collaborative undertakings between them can be strengthened.... more
This policy brief informs Mormon as well as Muslim lay, academic, and clerical leaders about the causes and persistence of prejudice toward their communities and how collaborative undertakings between them can be strengthened. Recommendations for policymakers to ensure more effective engagement in the civic and political process are also offered.
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Stereotypical images of Muslims seen in the media are more to blame for the formation of negative perceptions than rhetoric says a new policy brief. In “Malleable Stereotypes: How Media is improving the image of American Muslims” released... more
Stereotypical images of Muslims seen in the media are more to blame for the formation of negative perceptions than rhetoric says a new policy brief. In “Malleable Stereotypes: How Media is improving the image of American Muslims” released by The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. ISPU Fellow Daniel Tutt looks at the field of neuroscience and social psychology to provide a better understanding of the causes and reductions of prejudice towards Muslims via media images.
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Lacan has remarked that modesty is the most important virtue. Modesty is an affect that keeps one's desire or symptom protected behind a veil. Yet, when the veil is lifted through the gaze of the other, the subject undergoes shame. Where... more
Lacan has remarked that modesty is the most important virtue. Modesty is an affect that keeps one's desire or symptom protected behind a veil. Yet, when the veil is lifted through the gaze of the other, the subject undergoes shame. Where there is shame, the extimate part of one's being, their desire is exposed to the other. Shame thus awakens the subject to being riveted to oneself, to a foreign self inside oneself.
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Daniel Tutt: “Islam and Psychoanalysis” Time: Wednesday, February 28th, 12:30pm Location: Georgetown University, ICC 450 **Open to the public. Food provided The Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and the Arabic Department Graduate... more
Daniel Tutt: “Islam and Psychoanalysis”
Time: Wednesday, February 28th, 12:30pm
Location: Georgetown University, ICC 450
**Open to the public. Food provided
The Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and the Arabic Department Graduate Association are very pleased to present the Arabic and Islamic Studies Graduate Colloquium, a forum in which graduate students have the opportunity to present and discuss their research projects, hold academic workshops, and participate in roundtable discussions. The Colloquium aims at encouraging discussions among graduate students and professors over their research and its contribution to the scholarship in the field. It is also open to discuss works-in-progress by more advanced scholars.
Colloquium Description:
In this colloquium, we will explore the broader implications of scholarly efforts to interpret subjectivity in Muslim societies and to deconstruct Islamic scripture through the theoretical lens of psychoanalysis. We will review the literature in this wider field by noting two general tendencies: the first is an effort to derive a theory of Muslim subjectivity modeled off of Freud’s late work on Judaism in Moses and Monotheism, which seeks broader claims about alterity, desire and authority within Muslim societies through a more detached, textual analysis.
The other tendency is a more postcolonial method of reading psychoanalysis as a heuristic for understanding the transition to modernity within Muslim societies. This method presents more localized and culturally specific applications of psychoanalytic frameworks to particular regions and time periods.
We will review the work of Fethi Benslama and his controversial theological interpretation, Psychoanalysis and the Challenge of Islam (2001) as well as more recent work that frames the encounter between Islam and psychoanalysis in explicitly postcolonial terms such as Omnia El Shakry’s The Arabic Freud (2017), the work of anthropologist Stefania Pandolfo and Bülent Somay’s work, The Psychopolitics of the Oriental Father (2014).
Joseph Massad’s chapter Psychoanalysis, “Islam, ” and the Other of Liberalism in his Islam and Liberalism (2015) is an excellent orientation to the topic. In it, Massad identifies some key conceptual tensions and political problems raised by psychoanalysis and Islam. While Massad does not close down the field as entirely problematic, he does convincingly show the way in which interventions have effectively reduced their analysis of Muslim subjectivity to ‘Islam’ and over-determined the phenomenon of Islamism and sought forms of imperialism under the banner of a particular western, and mostly French, cosmopolitanism.
Time: Wednesday, February 28th, 12:30pm
Location: Georgetown University, ICC 450
**Open to the public. Food provided
The Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and the Arabic Department Graduate Association are very pleased to present the Arabic and Islamic Studies Graduate Colloquium, a forum in which graduate students have the opportunity to present and discuss their research projects, hold academic workshops, and participate in roundtable discussions. The Colloquium aims at encouraging discussions among graduate students and professors over their research and its contribution to the scholarship in the field. It is also open to discuss works-in-progress by more advanced scholars.
Colloquium Description:
In this colloquium, we will explore the broader implications of scholarly efforts to interpret subjectivity in Muslim societies and to deconstruct Islamic scripture through the theoretical lens of psychoanalysis. We will review the literature in this wider field by noting two general tendencies: the first is an effort to derive a theory of Muslim subjectivity modeled off of Freud’s late work on Judaism in Moses and Monotheism, which seeks broader claims about alterity, desire and authority within Muslim societies through a more detached, textual analysis.
The other tendency is a more postcolonial method of reading psychoanalysis as a heuristic for understanding the transition to modernity within Muslim societies. This method presents more localized and culturally specific applications of psychoanalytic frameworks to particular regions and time periods.
We will review the work of Fethi Benslama and his controversial theological interpretation, Psychoanalysis and the Challenge of Islam (2001) as well as more recent work that frames the encounter between Islam and psychoanalysis in explicitly postcolonial terms such as Omnia El Shakry’s The Arabic Freud (2017), the work of anthropologist Stefania Pandolfo and Bülent Somay’s work, The Psychopolitics of the Oriental Father (2014).
Joseph Massad’s chapter Psychoanalysis, “Islam, ” and the Other of Liberalism in his Islam and Liberalism (2015) is an excellent orientation to the topic. In it, Massad identifies some key conceptual tensions and political problems raised by psychoanalysis and Islam. While Massad does not close down the field as entirely problematic, he does convincingly show the way in which interventions have effectively reduced their analysis of Muslim subjectivity to ‘Islam’ and over-determined the phenomenon of Islamism and sought forms of imperialism under the banner of a particular western, and mostly French, cosmopolitanism.
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My thesis, in what follows, is that the intensification of riots in our own time (from 2011 to the present) is a phenomenon that should not be purely reduced to a question of identifying a nascent global proletariat or to questions of... more
My thesis, in what follows, is that the intensification of riots in our own time (from 2011 to the present) is a phenomenon that should not be purely reduced to a question of identifying a nascent global proletariat or to questions of political subjectivity alone. Such claims rest on a voluntarist theory of political action that fails to account for the way in which capitalist crisis brings about the riot form. Without the development of an adequate theory of periodization and indeed of crisis, the intensification of riots are given an ahistorical treatment, reliant on a populist vision of political action based on a mystical notion of the will of the people. This approach, which I will name the ‘prescriptive-subjective approach’ privileges the subjective action of the participants in riot and its possible organization and discipline, providing a schematic analysis of the riot ending in the creation of a truth which takes the form of the party or some other presentation of a subjective body. This prescriptive-subjective approach must be thought in tandem with a descriptive approach that describes the intensification of riots as the result of specific movements of capital in the age of financial accumulation. In this descriptive account, the riot does not disappear despite the disappearance of the figure of the worker and the factory – the riot in fact becomes the primary modality in the wider ‘repertoire of struggles’ and demands a philosophical reading.
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As part of the clinical Wednesday series hosted by the DC Lacanian Forum, I gave a presentation on the theme of identification. I begin with an analysis of identification in Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego and look at... more
As part of the clinical Wednesday series hosted by the DC Lacanian Forum, I gave a presentation on the theme of identification. I begin with an analysis of identification in Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego and look at Borch-Jacobsen’s critique of Freud in his controversial The Freudian Subject. From there, I move on to Lacan’s theory of identification from his 1961 – 62 Seminar IX on Identification. In conclusion, I turn to the work of Raul Moncayo, a San Francisco based Lacanian analyst who has written on the role of nonidentification and emptiness. Using his distinction between unary trace and unary trait I look at how collective group identity on the side of the unary trace functions in today’s political landscape.
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When Lacan introduces the "name" of the father into his teaching, he urges us to recognize the crucial role the father plays in support of the symbolic function. Since the subject is not conscious of the essential division at the core of... more
When Lacan introduces the "name" of the father into his teaching, he urges us to recognize the crucial role the father plays in support of the symbolic function. Since the subject is not conscious of the
essential division at the core of its own being and because the
subject objectifies the other, it runs into something in the other
that is other than a unified subject: a maze of its own making,
projected onto the site where the other is supposed to reside. How the subject gets out of this maze is through the Father function -- the now pluralized "Names-of-the-Father" is what covers over the split in the subject and introduces the subject to language, culture, and civilization -- i.e. to the symbolic. Thus, the proper Lacanian father is a pluralized father-as-function, who is no longer the father of "No!" but rather, the father is a function that says "Yes" to the
joining together of a signifier and jouissance. The father is the
other that validates the invention of a new jouissance.
Recommended Reading:
Seminar III: The Psychoses 1955 - 1956 trans. by Russell Grigg pgs.
285 - 310 and 206 - 222.
Seminar IV: The Object Relation trans. by Jacques Alain Miller see
Sections 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8
On the Names of the Father (recently trans. by Bruce Fink): see
section: Introduction to Names-of-the-Father pgs. 53 - 93.
essential division at the core of its own being and because the
subject objectifies the other, it runs into something in the other
that is other than a unified subject: a maze of its own making,
projected onto the site where the other is supposed to reside. How the subject gets out of this maze is through the Father function -- the now pluralized "Names-of-the-Father" is what covers over the split in the subject and introduces the subject to language, culture, and civilization -- i.e. to the symbolic. Thus, the proper Lacanian father is a pluralized father-as-function, who is no longer the father of "No!" but rather, the father is a function that says "Yes" to the
joining together of a signifier and jouissance. The father is the
other that validates the invention of a new jouissance.
Recommended Reading:
Seminar III: The Psychoses 1955 - 1956 trans. by Russell Grigg pgs.
285 - 310 and 206 - 222.
Seminar IV: The Object Relation trans. by Jacques Alain Miller see
Sections 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8
On the Names of the Father (recently trans. by Bruce Fink): see
section: Introduction to Names-of-the-Father pgs. 53 - 93.
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An analysis of Islamophobia in the west that draws on the thought of Michel Foucault, Martha Nussbaum, and social science research as well as social psychology of prejudice, and social movement theory.
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Deleuze and Badiou develop an ethics that is deeply indebted to a Sophoclean account of the virtues, a touchstone point they owe to Hölderlin as much as to Lacan. Sophoclean insights into the self and time, specifically coming out of... more
Deleuze and Badiou develop an ethics that is deeply indebted to a Sophoclean account of the virtues, a touchstone point they owe to Hölderlin as much as to Lacan. Sophoclean insights into the self and time, specifically coming out of Hölderlin’s short commentary on Oedipus and Antigone provide the background for a form of non-principle based and antinomian virtue ethics. Both Badiou and Deleuze present a critique and an elaboration on Lacan’s theory of desire and the law that goes beyond the impasses of misrecognition and fatalism in Lacan’s middle-period, what Jacques Alain-Miller refers to as the period of “impossible jouissance.”
To elaborate upon the role of virtue and ethics in their thought, I analyze Stephen Crane’s classic American novel, The Red Badge of Courage, where the virtue of courage is developed through the young protagonist Henry Fleming, a timid private fighting in the Union Army during the Civil War. Both Badiou and Deleuze reference this novel as presenting the best example of the event although they do not elaborate upon this point. While there are few, if any contemporary philosophical analyses of this novel, it reveals a remarkable theoretical framework of courage and the virtues, developed in a sequence of battles and skirmishes from the perspective of the young protagonist Fleming. I diagram the four-part process of the subject in the novel and I demonstrate how the action of the novel provides a heuristic model for a process-based and dialectical theory of courage. I then apply these four-part sequences to Badiou’s and Deleuze’s theory of time, the subject and ethics.
From this touchstone point of the novel, I argue that Badiou’s “Promethean Ethics” and Deleuze’s “Ethics of the Crack” present two distinct models for thinking the invention of a revolutionary subject and the inhabitation of a new outplace beyond the time and laws of the state or the social. I argue that the question of the invention of the ‘outplace’ is pertinent to thinking impossible ethical subjects of late capitalism today from the precariat, to the heroin junkie, to the slum dweller. Secondly, I argue that the concept of virtue is relevant to both thinkers because in the psychoanalytic process of sublimation, the subject requires the cultivation of virtue (fidelity in the case of Badiou and prudence in the case of Deleuze) in order to manage self-loss and the fragmentation of the ego. More generally, I suggest that continental philosophy does indeed have a stake in the tradition of virtue ethics despite its non-principled and antinomian orientation.
To elaborate upon the role of virtue and ethics in their thought, I analyze Stephen Crane’s classic American novel, The Red Badge of Courage, where the virtue of courage is developed through the young protagonist Henry Fleming, a timid private fighting in the Union Army during the Civil War. Both Badiou and Deleuze reference this novel as presenting the best example of the event although they do not elaborate upon this point. While there are few, if any contemporary philosophical analyses of this novel, it reveals a remarkable theoretical framework of courage and the virtues, developed in a sequence of battles and skirmishes from the perspective of the young protagonist Fleming. I diagram the four-part process of the subject in the novel and I demonstrate how the action of the novel provides a heuristic model for a process-based and dialectical theory of courage. I then apply these four-part sequences to Badiou’s and Deleuze’s theory of time, the subject and ethics.
From this touchstone point of the novel, I argue that Badiou’s “Promethean Ethics” and Deleuze’s “Ethics of the Crack” present two distinct models for thinking the invention of a revolutionary subject and the inhabitation of a new outplace beyond the time and laws of the state or the social. I argue that the question of the invention of the ‘outplace’ is pertinent to thinking impossible ethical subjects of late capitalism today from the precariat, to the heroin junkie, to the slum dweller. Secondly, I argue that the concept of virtue is relevant to both thinkers because in the psychoanalytic process of sublimation, the subject requires the cultivation of virtue (fidelity in the case of Badiou and prudence in the case of Deleuze) in order to manage self-loss and the fragmentation of the ego. More generally, I suggest that continental philosophy does indeed have a stake in the tradition of virtue ethics despite its non-principled and antinomian orientation.
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Isabelle Garo's work examines the legacy of 1960s and 70s French philosophy and its often-idiosyncratic interaction with contemporary Marxist and communist theory and practice. My review essay examines her contributions to the field of... more
Isabelle Garo's work examines the legacy of 1960s and 70s French philosophy and its often-idiosyncratic interaction with contemporary Marxist and communist theory and practice. My review essay examines her contributions to the field of political Marxist theory.
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Tutt, D. (2022). Book Review Essay: Reason in Revolt: Freud Reopens the Radical Enlightenment, on “Freud and the Limits of Bourgeois Individualism” by Léon Rozitchner. European Journal of Psychoanalysis, Private: Vol. 9, No. 2.
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In this extensive review essay, I provide an analysis of the intellectual trajectory of U.S. Marxism during the era of the Second International and, drawing from Brian Lloyd’s work on the history of U.S. radicalism, I argue that the... more
In this extensive review essay, I provide an analysis of the intellectual trajectory of U.S. Marxism during the era of the Second International and, drawing from Brian Lloyd’s work on the history of U.S. radicalism, I argue that the influence of Veblenian and pragmatist philosophy had a detrimental effect on the development of U.S. Marxist theory.
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Daniel Tutt writes on German Marxist Ernst Bloch's engagement with the Islamic scholar Ibn Sina and its potential for revitalizing materialist philosophy.
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Review essay of Max Horkheimer's Eclipse of Reason (1947) - the book that effectively terminated the Frankfurt School in America.
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Review of "Why I am a Salafi" published by Soft Skull Press 2015 by Michael Muhammad Knight
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Published by "Religious Theory" a special feature of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory (www.jcrt.org).
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Book review: Symbolic Misery: Volume 1: The Hyperindustrial Epoch by Bernard Stiegler
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From Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts & Cultural Criticism [VOLUME #], no. [ISSUE #]. For the full article, please visit vsw.org/afterimage/back-issues/ or subscribe to Afterimage at vsw.org/afterimage/subscribe/.
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Not only is the book an excellent introduction to the burgeoning field of critical theory as it surveys the key ideas of master thinkers such as Jacques Rancière, Antonio Negri, Giorgio Agamben, Gayatri Spivak and Slavoj Žižek, it also... more
Not only is the book an excellent introduction to the burgeoning field of critical theory as it surveys the key ideas of master thinkers such as Jacques Rancière, Antonio Negri, Giorgio Agamben, Gayatri Spivak and Slavoj Žižek, it also sheds light on lesser known thinkers such as Elmar Altavater and Yann Moulier Boutang. Keucheyan situates contemporary critical theory historically and links its resurgence to the resurgence of leftist political movements globally and he goes beyond merely summarizing the salient ideas of key thinkers but effectively highlights the most important debates within critical theory.
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Book review of Alain Badiou's text, "The Rebirth of History: Times of Riots and Uprisings" that looks at Badiou's conception of truth, universality, and his views on the Arab Spring.
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An interview conducted by Anthony Ballas on Psychoanalysis and the Politics of the Family, published with the Palgrave Lacan Series in 2022. Published in the European Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 10, No. 1.
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The French philosopher Mehdi Belhaj Kacem on the pandemic, the radicalism of the yellow vest movement, his infamous break with Alain Badiou and how to think outside the university. I sat down with French philosopher Mehdi Belhaj Kacem... more
The French philosopher Mehdi Belhaj Kacem on the pandemic, the radicalism of the yellow vest movement, his infamous break with Alain Badiou and how to think outside the university.
I sat down with French philosopher Mehdi Belhaj Kacem who the late David Graeber praised as one of the most important philosophers living today. In this interview, we discuss Kacem’s reading habits, what inspires him in the world of thought, how he derived his philosophical concepts, what qualifies as truly radical in our age and why he broke up with his former mentor Alain Badiou. Kacem is, similar to Giorgio Agamben, a major critic of the way the ruling class is managing the pandemic and he is not shy to share his views. In this wide-ranging conversation, we catch a glimpse of a deeply inventive and creative mind, and we get advice for how to do philosophy outside of conventional institutions.
This interview was conducted on Thursday December 9th, 2021, by Daniel Tutt. Translation and interpretation assistance provided by Saad Boutayeb. A podcast of this discussion, including a post-interview conversation with Kacem, has been released with English translations by the Jouissance Vampires podcast.
I sat down with French philosopher Mehdi Belhaj Kacem who the late David Graeber praised as one of the most important philosophers living today. In this interview, we discuss Kacem’s reading habits, what inspires him in the world of thought, how he derived his philosophical concepts, what qualifies as truly radical in our age and why he broke up with his former mentor Alain Badiou. Kacem is, similar to Giorgio Agamben, a major critic of the way the ruling class is managing the pandemic and he is not shy to share his views. In this wide-ranging conversation, we catch a glimpse of a deeply inventive and creative mind, and we get advice for how to do philosophy outside of conventional institutions.
This interview was conducted on Thursday December 9th, 2021, by Daniel Tutt. Translation and interpretation assistance provided by Saad Boutayeb. A podcast of this discussion, including a post-interview conversation with Kacem, has been released with English translations by the Jouissance Vampires podcast.
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Interview with American philosopher and social theorist Frank Smecker on his new book, Night of the World: Traversing the Ideology of Objectivity published by Zero Books.
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Interview with philosopher and film critic Todd McGowan on his 2014 book, "Enjoying What We Don't Have: The Political Project of Psychoanalysis".
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This working group is organized by Study Groups on Psychoanalysis and Politics, a collective of researchers, students, political militants, philosophers and psychoanalysts interested in exploring problems of contemporary politics. We... more
This working group is organized by Study Groups on Psychoanalysis and Politics, a collective of researchers, students, political militants, philosophers and psychoanalysts interested in exploring problems of contemporary politics. We invite participants working in areas of psychoanalysis, populism, critical theory and other disciplines to join this working group. Our objective is to share research, diagnose significant issues, identify common problems and further build contributions on matters related to psychoanalysis contemporary politics.
The first two sessions will develop discussion, identify key questions and problems based around the readings and the third session will consist of a keynote by Samo Tomsic, a philosopher based in Berlin and the author of The Capitalist Unconscious: Marx and Lacan (2013) as well as The Labour of Enjoyment: Towards a Critique of Libidinal Economy (2020).
The first two sessions will develop discussion, identify key questions and problems based around the readings and the third session will consist of a keynote by Samo Tomsic, a philosopher based in Berlin and the author of The Capitalist Unconscious: Marx and Lacan (2013) as well as The Labour of Enjoyment: Towards a Critique of Libidinal Economy (2020).
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The goal of this course is to introduce you to a range of debates in contemporary and applied ethics, including key ethical theories such as utilitarianism, virtue ethics and deontology as well as important topics in ethics such as... more
The goal of this course is to introduce you to a range of debates in contemporary and applied ethics, including key ethical theories such as utilitarianism, virtue ethics and deontology as well as important topics in ethics such as climate change, race and identity, inequality, poverty and more.
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Syllabus for Introduction to Existentialism including 50 pages of lecture notes and key questions.
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In this course we will explore key themes in social and political thought by reading and critically analyzing philosophical texts that have shaped our world and that inform our ideas of justice, truth and social change. Sections include:... more
In this course we will explore key themes in social and political thought by reading and critically analyzing philosophical texts that have shaped our world and that inform our ideas of justice, truth and social change. Sections include: Reason, Justice and the Ideal Society, Tragedy and the Limits of Truth in Society, The Social Contract: Hobbes and Rousseau, and Reason and Revolution in Modern Society.
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Course Description: A philosophical inquiry into society and politics. This course immerses students in a philosophical inquiry into the political and social forces that make up our contemporary world. We will take a particular focus on... more
Course Description: A philosophical inquiry into society and politics. This course immerses students in a philosophical inquiry into the political and social forces that make up our contemporary world. We will take a particular focus on the capitalist world-system: its origin, dynamics and some of the seminal forces that compose societies under capitalism. Themes of equality, power, authority and the production of the self and the family will also be analyzed and discussed.
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Syllabus, Introduction to Philosophy, George Washington University, Fall 2017
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Seminar 1: Politics, Psychoanalysis and the Subject