The Age of Desire: Reflections of a Radical Psychoanalyst

by Joel Kovel

Case histories from the author's own psychoanalytic practice bolster his arguments for a radical restructuring of psychoanalytic theory

Genres: Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Politics

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Joel Kovel is Distinguished Professor of Social Studies at Bard College. He has written ten books, including the first edition of The Enemy of Nature which appeared in 2002, and Overcoming Zionism (2007). He has edited the journal of radical ecology, Capitalism Nature Socialism, since 2003 and has been active in Green politics, running for the US Senate in 1998, and seeking the party's presidential nomination in 2000.

Reviews

[Tad Tietze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating but only partially successful attempt to critique psychoanalysis and psychiatry from a Marxist standpoint. Full of insights about how capitalist social relations produce mental disorder, yet the central attempt to provide a grand unified theory of individual psychology and psychopathology by linking desire and praxis transhistorically remains too underdeveloped to be convincing.

[Uğur · Rating 5 out of 5]

In order for an economic system to put forward a sustainable policy in terms of continuity and to ensure continuity in its economic cycle, it must make the production-consumption mechanism functional or feed at least one of this cycle. At the top of the capitalist economic system which dominates the world at this point used to meet the needs of a privileged few, while this particular case where mass production, and production was expanded to cover everyone and purchasing power-consumption mechanism has reached a saturation point.

At this point, reaching the satisfaction point in the basic production-consumption index has caused the system to turn to human psychology and the feeling of pleasure, and it has gone beyond the satisfaction point with these two Juniors. After this point, a person rejoins the production-consumption paradigm for the purpose of Juneting and desiring.

Our author Joel Kovel defines our era, in which desire is commodified at this point, as the stage of manipulation of emotions and emphasizes that the system reproduces itself in this way. Our everyday life is being objectified so much that Kovel, a psychoanalyst, is now going deeper into human psychology rather than analyzing the general situation and predicting how many more people the system can use. With this approach, the book has gained quite a nice content. The fact that it has a content that works on life itself will keep the book on the to-read list for a long time for the person concerned. Kovel cares that we must first overcome ourselves in the face of the capitalist system, which puts intense pressure on the point of using, manipulating and consuming people. At this point, creating a living space by firmly linking the individual's self-transcendence with the phenomenon of freedom is again one of the clearest issues we need to live in this life we are living. I don't know why such full books don't attract much attention, but let me at least finish by wishing that they were read.

[John Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Age of Desire is still the best synthesis of Marxist and psychoanalytic theory, though it is also much more than that.

[Heejoon Jeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book puts forth some interesting ideas such as the describing of phenomena on two axes, the transhistorical and the historical and are somewhat convincing as an argument. However, the examples that the author uses seem few in number compared to the length at which this idea permeates through the book's chapters: mostly using desire as the transhistorical, driving human praxis which does make sense given the Marxist-Freudian nature of the book. Also the author seems to take a slightly Dostoevsky-like approach in the mending of Sarah where he suggests that the only way to fix her is through faith and forgiveness, and not the cold hard rationalism of capitalism, which does make sense but I thought was slightly funny given the author's background in psychiatry, but probably is a glimpse into the many reasons the author leaves the profession a few years after this book's publication. I think Sarah's chapter would resonate with a lot of young people today in college or their early careers who feel pressured by this inexplicable, toxic, recursive "other" inside of them. Also, for a few pages scattered throughout the book, the author seems to drivel about the alienation that capitalism does to the human psyche as if that wasn't already obvious by the numerous examples and arguments put forward in earlier portions. He also seems to worship William Blake, and quoting him the most behind Freud and Marx probably. Overall an interesting book that gives an interesting insight into the effects that capitalism and bureaucracy have on the bourgeois and non-bourgeois mind.

[Jamey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every few pages this guy comes out with a wonderful formulation. There is a certain amount of baggy neo-Marxist theoryspeak hobbling the book, but for the most part this is a deeply felt work of psychology, written in good faith. Very, very smart.