Marx with Lacan – Commodity logic and object of psychoanalysis

Abstract

Marx appears at various points in Lacan’s work. In this paper, we highlight those passages in which the psychoanalyst relates the logic of the commodity, as articulated in the critique of political economy, to the object of psychoanalysis. From this connection, we propose an equivalence between the psychoanalytic object and the commodity or money within the context of Marx’s Capital. To undertake this task, we set the graph of desire as a matrix capable of accommodating both the different aspects of the commodity or money and Lacanian formulations concerning the object. Our aim is thereby to provide elements that support the thesis that the opening chapters of Capital parallel much of the development of Lacan’s theory of the object. In addition, two further theses are brought into articulation with this proposal: Karatani’s claim that linguistics is shaped by the model of political economy, and Tomsic’s argument concerning the articulation of a “capitalist unconscious”.