THE POSSIBLE OBJECT OF DESIRE: A RECONSIDERATION OF THE RADICAL PSYCHOANALYTIC CONCEPT OF DESIRE THROUGH ITS ENGAGEMENT WITH DIALECTICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (MARXISM)

The radical psychoanalytic and the dialectical anthropological critiques of capitalism take very different routes: the former posits within human being some essential element of alienated Desire which becomes pathological under capitalism; the latter posits the concept of the primitive, which indicates the historicity (under civilization and culminating to date under capitalism) of alienation. This seeming contradiction between two disciplines which are both grounded in Marx invites an engagement. And as an engagement, this dissertation involves no recourse to logical-positivist categories of "proof". Rather, by critically combining the two vocabularies, the intention is to articulate a view of human being which will strengthen the critique of capitalism, and at the same time open additional possibilities for emancipatory thinking.;The hypothesis is that man's essential being resides in his social and cultural nature; further, that the concept of Desire may reflect contemporary man's alienation from that nature--rather than his presumed inescapable cathexis to the infantile, or his hopeless (albeit dialectically motivated) effort to reunite a series of presumed oppositions such as real/ideal, individual/society.;A discussion of the Marxist framework is followed by a review and critique of representative radical psychoanalytic thinkers. The amalgam of the concept of Desire is then engaged with the concept of the primitive; it becomes apparent that the concept of Desire is there completed: in primitive society, the oppositions exist in unity, and the embracing and reciprocating nature of the concrete social present renders an idealist appeal to the infantile irrelevant. At the same time, the presence of Desire within the primitive is contraindicated.;Thus tempered, Desire is reintroduced in the context of everyday life under capitalism. Here, it appears further empowered in its critique, particularly in regard to capitalism's trajectory towards totalitarianism with its offer of false community and its non-oppositional thinking. This suggests a basis for false consciousness: man's desire to create sacred community is easily led astray; however, the reality of the sacred community in primitive experience is an emancipatory reminder that the praxis of culture is one of possibility.