Death and Mastery：Psychoanalytic Drive Theory and the Subject of Late Capitalism

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/death-and-mastery/9780231542616ThefirstphilosophersoftheFrankfurtSchoolfamouslyturnedtothepsychoanalytictheoriesofSigmundFreudtosupplementtheirMarxistanalysesofideologicalsubjectification.Sincethecollapseoftheirproposed"marriageofMarxandFreud,"psychologyandsocialtheoryhavegrownaparttotheimpoverishmentofboth.Returningtothisunion,BenjaminY.Fongreconstructsthepsychoanalytic"foundationstone"ofcriticaltheoryinanefforttoonceagainthinktogetherthepossibilityofpsychicandsocialtransformation.DrawingontheworkofHansLoewaldandJacquesLacan,FongcomplicatesthefamousantagonismbetweenErosandthedeathdriveinreferencetoathirdterm:thewoefullyundertheorizeddrivetomastery.RejuvenatingFreudianmetapsychologythroughthelensofthispivotalconcept,hethenprovidesfreshperspectiveonTheodorAdorno,MaxHorkheimer,andHerbertMarcuse'scritiquesofpsychiclifeundertheinfluenceofmodernculturalandtechnologicalchange.Theresultisanovelvisionofcriticaltheorythatrearticulatesthenatureofsubjectioninlatecapitalismandrenewsanoldprojectofresistance.