Neoliberalism, Crisis, and the Unconscious: The Psychoanalytic Roots of Neoliberal Resilience

How does neoliberalism persist despite the constant crises it seems to create? To theorise the enduring appeal of neoliberalism, Neoliberalism, Crisis, and the Unconscious uses a framework influenced by French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, arguing that a Lacanian psychoanalytic approach to neoliberalism offers unique insights into the affective potency of neoliberalism. Though the surface content of neoliberalism might appear contradictory, crisis prone, and increasingly discredited, the fact that neoliberalism continues to hegemonise much of our social space suggests a deeper, constitutive, and psychoanalytic understanding of neoliberalism is required. A psychoanalytic approach to neoliberalism looks beyond the surface level of neoliberal economic structures and public discourse to instead foreground the unconscious content of neoliberalism, meaning the affective role of neoliberalism, in creating and regulating desire for neoliberal subjects.