Cover, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine, Volume 42, Issue 3, 1 June 2017, Pages NP, https://doi.org/10.1.

This article examines the importance of Žižek's work for political theory, particularly for thinking through the deadlocks of contemporary left thought.

This paper begins by dealing with the difference between the neo-liberal conceptions of transmission of knowledge and the Lacanian doctrine of Scilicet . We will provide a brief overview of the implications of the Freudian unconscious on the distinction between truth and knowledge, and then develop in what sense this division can be the basis for a modern form of education. Our paper then seeks to draw a thread from the original Freudian discovery to Žižek’s own didactic method, by referencing (...) three figures of psychoanalytic transmission – the myth, matheme, and joke. We argue that Žižek deploys this triad in such a way that it cuts across the current division between the hermetic and the vulgar, raising important questions regarding methodology and rigor. Finally, we relate the problematics of didacticism in Žižek to the notion of “attention” developed by Jacques Rancière, examining in what ways a Žižekian transmission might have “equality as its starting point.". (shrink)

This article focuses on three recent controversies in which Žižek has been embroiled and for which he has taken positions that rest on the notion of antagonism. His views on Eurocentrism, the European refugee crisis and trans politics have been the subject of notable disapproval, if not denunciation. Critics reproach him for being Eurocentric, racist and transphobic, charges which he has repeatedly countered. The article will examine the differing theoretical and political positions in these debates, underlining what Žižek’s critics miss (...) or misunderstand about his notion of antagonism. While I side firmly with Žižek on the substance of these issues, I nonetheless consider the extent to which at least part of the disagreement here centres on the performative rather than the strictly “theoretical”: Might his critics be reacting to his overexposure? Could such overexposure be interpreted as an attempt at having the last word? And to what extent does the antagonistic form of Žižek’s interventions militate against their theoretical content? (shrink)