The Market, The Firm and The Unconscious
This article explores how unconscious libidinal forces permeate both market exchange and the inner workings of firms, challenging the conventional view of economics as a domain of pure rationality. Drawing primarily on Lacanian psychoanalysis, while also paying attention to the contributions of Smit...
में बचाया:
| मुख्य लेखक: | |
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| स्वरूप: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| भाषा: | Français |
| प्रकाशित: |
2025
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| विषय: | |
| ऑनलाइन पहुंच: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| सारांश: | This article explores how unconscious libidinal forces permeate both market exchange and the inner workings of firms, challenging the conventional view of economics as a domain of pure rationality. Drawing primarily on Lacanian psychoanalysis, while also paying attention to the contributions of Smith, Freud and Lévi-Strauss, it is argued that economic exchange – like speech – carries an irreducible surplus of meaning generated by an excess of unabsorbed libidinal energy. In market exchange, mimetic identification turns commodities into fetishized signifiers that attract excess libido and generate surplus enjoyment (plus-de-jouir) that can be converted into monetisable surplus value. Inside the firm, unconscious energies shape hierarchies, competition, and symbolic production in the social interaction between capitalist investors, entrepreneurs, managers, workers, advertisers and traders. Lacan’s “four discourses” – paradigmatic unconscious structures linking authority, rationality, subjectivity and libidinal energy – provide highly useful prisms to analyse typical constellations in corporate life between rational management and unconscious psychic investments. Integrating psychoanalytic insights into economic theory and corporate governance thus advances the understanding of libidinal dynamics at work and helps to create healthier, more desirable and more productive workplaces. JEL Codes: A12, B41, D01, D23, Z13, M14 |
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