by Todd McGowan (Author)
While understanding the psychic structure of pleasure and desire might seem to be unrelated to grasping our current political crisis, Todd McGowan argues that the intrinsically excessive nature of enjoyment is critically important to this effort. In a world that appears completely divided between right and left, McGowan calls for a universal form of enjoyment that unites people in an egalitarian project. Todd McGowan's previous books include Emancipation After Hegel, Capitalism and Desire, and The Impossible David Lynch, among others. He teaches theory and film at the University of Vermont.
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Through his characteristically novel analyses of wide-ranging cultural and political phenomena, McGowan obliges us to recognize that a truly egalitarian society is not possible without radical enjoyment. - Jennifer Friedlander, author of Real Deceptions
Todd McGowan convincingly shows how political postures are founded on forms of "enjoyment," unconscious gratifications paradoxically closer to suffering than to pleasure, closer to sacrifice than to satisfaction. - Richard Boothby, author of Embracing the Void: Rethinking the Origin of the Sacred
McGowan's readability...his style of writing when offering explanations for difficult terms and ideas results in an admirable lucidity. - Sean Sheehan, reviewing Emancipation After Hegel in Marx and Philosophy