Enjoyment appears as purely private matter but this is by far not the case. Ever since
Aristotle the philosophical social critique is tormented by the question whether the libidinal
tendencies of human subjects allow 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 and political economy in the best possible manner. But the
political-economic panorama soon turned out significantly more complex and contradictory.
TomSic's essay recalls central Marxian and Freudian insights and circumscribes the political
stakes of psychoanalysis under the general banner of a Critique of Libidinal Economy.
