
Kazimir Malevich, Female Torso, 1928-9
SEMINAR: On Voluntary Servitude with Paola Mieli Saturday, April 17th, 2021 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time)
In times like these, as new forms of totalitarianism are taking over everywhere, it’s necessary to reflect on humans’ inherent propensity to take joy in their own servitude. Returning to Freud’s and Lacan’s articulations of the subject of language and the social link, and that subject’s passion for ignorance, the seminar will explore the nature of the drive, masochism, and the ways the superego dictates the law one abides by. Psychoanalytic ethics can open a breach out of subjective servitude.
Suggested readings for April 17: Etienne de la Boétie (1530-1563), The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude; S. Freud, Group Psychology and Analysis of the Ego (1921), The Ego and the Id, Chapters III and V (1922); H. Kelsen, The Conception of the State and Social Psychology: With Special Reference to Freud’s Group Theory (1922). Continue reading On Voluntary Servitude with Paola Mieli at Après-Coup