The Labour of Enjoyment

Enjoyment appears as purely private matter, but this is by far not thecase. Ever since Aristotle the philosophical social critique is tormentedby the question, whether the libidinal tendencies of human subjectsallow the construction of a just political-economic order. It seemed at first that in modernity this problem had been overcome. Economic liberalism and utilitarianism argued that egoistic private interests and social justice were directly linked and that capitalism united libidinal andpolitical economy in the best possible manner. But the political-economic panorama soon turned out significantly more complex and contradictory.Tomši¿'s essay recalls central Marxian and Freudian insights andcircumscribes the political stakes of psychoanalysis under the generalbanner of a Critique of Libidinal Economy.