{"title":"Books by Todd McGowan","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780231217590","title":"Pure Excess – Capitalism and the Commodity","description":"Todd McGowan forges a new theory of capitalism as a system based on the production of more than what we need: pure excess. He argues that the promise of more—more wealth, more enjoyment, more opportunity, without requiring any sacrifice—is the essence of capitalism. Previous socioeconomic systems set up some form of the social good as their focus. Capitalism, however, represents a revolutionary turn away from the good and the useful toward excessive growth, which now threatens the habitability of the planet.   Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, McGowan shows how the production of commodities explains the role of excess in the workings of capitalism. Capitalism and the commodity ensnare us with the image of the constant fulfillment of our desires—the seductive but unattainable promise of satisfying a longing that has no end. To challenge this system, McGowan turns to art, arguing that it can expose the psychological mechanisms that perpetuate capitalist society and reveal the need for limits. Featuring lively writing and engaging examples from film, literature, and popular culture, Pure Excess uncovers the hidden logic of capitalism—and helps us envision a noncapitalist life in a noncapitalist society.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56227649192309,"sku":"9780231217590","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780231217590_3901f1d2-a2b1-46e6-a1c5-c89d24bc5f79.jpg?v=1786012741"},{"product_id":"9780231178723","title":"Capitalism and Desire – The Psychic Cost of Free Markets","description":"Despite creating vast inequalities and propping up reactionary world regimes, capitalism has many passionate defenders-but not because of what it withholds from some and gives to others. Capitalism dominates, Todd McGowan argues, because it mimics the structure of our desire while hiding the trauma that the system inflicts upon it. People from all backgrounds enjoy what capitalism provides, but at the same time are told more and better is yet to come. Capitalism traps us through an incomplete satisfaction that compels us after the new, the better, and the more.  Capitalism's parasitic relationship to our desires gives it the illusion of corresponding to our natural impulses, which is how capitalism's defenders characterize it. By understanding this psychic strategy, McGowan hopes to divest us of our addiction to capitalist enrichment and help us rediscover enjoyment as we actually experienced it. By locating it in the present, McGowan frees us from our attachment to a better future and the belief that capitalism is an essential outgrowth of human nature. From this perspective, our economic, social, and political worlds open up to real political change.   Eloquent and enlivened by examples from film, television, consumer culture, and everyday life, Capitalism and Desire brings a new, psychoanalytically grounded approach to political and social theory.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56228748099957,"sku":"9780231178723","price":100.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780231178723_4dfd6a16-ee6e-4ac8-8c9e-e8528cea8d43.jpg?v=1786012543"},{"product_id":"9780231197700","title":"Universality and Identity Politics","description":"The great political ideas and movements of the modern world were founded on a promise of universal emancipation. But in recent decades, much of the Left has grown suspicious of such aspirations. Critics see the invocation of universality as a form of domination or a way of speaking for others, and have come to favor a politics of particularism—often derided as “identity politics.” Others, both centrists and conservatives, associate universalism with twentieth-century totalitarianism and hold that it is bound to lead to catastrophe.   This book develops a new conception of universality that helps us rethink political thought and action. Todd McGowan argues that universals such as equality and freedom are not imposed on us. They emerge from our shared experience of their absence and our struggle to attain them. McGowan reconsiders the history of Nazism and Stalinism and reclaims the universalism of movements fighting racism, sexism, and homophobia. He demonstrates that the divide between Right and Left comes down to particularity versus universality. Despite the accusation of identity politics directed against leftists, every emancipatory political project is fundamentally a universal one—and the real proponents of identity politics are the right wing. Through a wide range of examples in contemporary politics, film, and history, Universality and Identity Politics offers an antidote to the impasses of identity and an inspiring vision of twenty-first-century collective struggle.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56228760781173,"sku":"9780231197700","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780231197700_6b8c5859-7ebc-4bc9-aa14-ac92fa57e36f.jpg?v=1786012607"},{"product_id":"9780803245112","title":"Enjoying What We Don't Have","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlthough there have been many attempts to apply the ideas of psychoanalysis to political thought, this book is the first to identify the political project inherent in the fundamental tenets of psychoanalysis. And this political project, Todd McGowan contends, provides an avenue for emancipatory politics after the failure of Marxism in the twentieth century. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhere others seeking the political import of psychoanalysis have looked to Freud’s early work on sexuality, McGowan focuses on Freud’s discovery of the death drive and Jacques Lacan’s elaboration of this concept. He argues that the self-destruction occurring as a result of the death drive is the foundational act of emancipation around which we should construct our political philosophy. Psychoanalysis offers the possibility for thinking about emancipation not as an act of overcoming loss but as the embrace of loss. It is only through the embrace of loss, McGowan suggests, that we find the path to enjoyment, and enjoyment is the determinative factor in all political struggles-and only in a political project that embraces the centrality of loss will we find a viable alternative to global capitalism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294816940405,"sku":"9780803245112","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780803245112_87e16e5e-f0e1-4711-b1d3-881b2eeecb91.jpg?v=1786016266"},{"product_id":"9781009300759","title":"The Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Lacan","description":"The difficulty of Jacques Lacan's thought is notorious. The Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Lacan cuts through this difficulty to provide a clear, jargon-free approach to understanding it. The book describes Lacan's life, the context from which he emerged, and the reception of his theory. Readers will come away with an understanding of concepts such as jouissance, the objet a, and the big Other. The book frames Lacan's thought in the history of philosophy and explains it through jokes, films, and popular culture. In this light, Lacan becomes a thinker of philosophical importance in his own right, on a par with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Lacan's great contribution is the introduction of the unconscious into subjectivity, which results in a challenge to both the psychoanalytic establishment and to philosophers. The Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Lacan provides readers with a way of understanding the nature of Lacan's contribution.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295696597365,"sku":"9781009300759","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781009300759.jpg?v=1786032999"},{"product_id":"9781915672223","title":"Embracing Alienation","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe left views alienation as something to be resisted or overcome, but could it actually form the basis of our emancipation?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eEmbracing Alienation\u003c\/i\u003e, Todd McGowan offers a completely different take on alienation, claiming that the effort to overcome it is not a radical response to the current state of things but a failure to see the constitutive power of alienation for all of us. Instead of trying to overcome alienation and accede to an unalienated existence, it argues, we should instead redeem alienation as an existential and political program.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEngaging with Shakespeare’s great tragedies, contemporary films such as \u003ci\u003eDon’t Worry Darling\u003c\/i\u003e, and even what occurs on a public bus, as well as thinkers such as Descartes, Hegel, and Marx, McGowan provides a concrete elaboration of how alienation frees people from their situation. Relying on the tradition of dialectical thought and psychoanalytic theory, \u003ci\u003eEmbracing Alienation\u003c\/i\u003e reveals a new way of conceiving how we measure progress — or even if progress should be the aim at all.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309458436469,"sku":"9781915672223","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781915672223_60f55f0f-bbf5-46c0-b0da-a40990fe1030.jpg?v=1786030893"},{"product_id":"self-sabotage","title":"Self-Sabotage","description":"Self-Sabotage contends that an unconscious impulse to undermine our own interests plays a dominant role in our lives. The idea of a primary drive to self-destruction is at odds with the prevailing common sense in a world where almost everyone believes that we strive to flourish. Yet often we fail to flourish not because some people are wicked but because the drive to sabotage ourselves outweighs the pleasures of flourishing. Our tendency to self-sabotage distorts our politics, throws off our romantic relationships, and generally makes human existence difficult. It is why we become involved with partners who continually create unhappiness for us, and also why we elect leaders who derail the nation.   Although the act of self-sabotage is clearly self-destructive, it appeals to us because it has a creative power. Through sacrificing ourselves, we create sublime value in the world. Our willingness to sacrifice our own interest elevates the value of the object we pursue and lifts it out of the realm of the ordinary. Self-sabotage leads to immense amounts of social harm. But at the same time, the tendency to self-destruction provides the basis for our ability to act ethically and surmount social pressure in the name of some higher value.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57492335657333,"sku":"9781509573370","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57697033388405,"sku":"9781509573363","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781509573370_a9c25aba-09f3-4470-b095-f48f0185671b.jpg?v=1793083516"},{"product_id":"the-radical-hegel","title":"The Radical Hegel","description":"Hegel?s philosophy allows us to rethink emancipation in a way that challenges the picture most commonly evoked by the champions of social change. He takes up a view on things that almost no one else does, and it derives from his insistence on working through to the end and always thinking backward. In the priority of the end point, the priority of articulating the proper punctuation on a position, we can see Hegel?s political radicality and his relevance for today. Hegel?s investment in the perspective of the end orients him as a political thinker. Hegel locates emancipation not in the creation of a new order but in the proper theorization of what already exists. His wager is that if we theorize our situation and its determinations correctly, we will uncover emancipatory possibilities that would otherwise lie dormant. Changing the theorization of our existence?interpreting it correctly?transforms this existence because the way that we live out how we understand our political existence shapes the structure of the society. For Hegel, the philosopher?s task is one of allowing us to see what we?re doing unbeknownst to ourselves. The philosopher doesn?t invent but discovers.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57524688126325,"sku":"9781803416670","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781803416670.jpg?v=1788187076"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-todd-mcgowan.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}