Zizek's Ontology: A Transcendental Materialist Theory of Subjectivity

by Adrian Johnston

Slavoj Žižek is one of the most interesting and important philosophers working today, known chiefly for his theoretical explorations of popular culture and contemporary politics. This book focuses on the generally neglected and often overshadowed philosophical core of Žižek’s work—an essential component in any true appreciation of this unique thinker’s accomplishment. His central concern, Žižek has proclaimed, is to use psychoanalysis (especially the teachings of Jacques Lacan) to redeploy the insights of late-modern German philosophy, in particular, the thought of Kant, Schelling, and Hegel. 

By taking this avowal seriously, Adrian Johnston finally clarifies the philosophical project underlying Žižek’s efforts. His book charts the interlinked ontology and theory of subjectivity constructed by Žižek at the intersection of German idealism and Lacanian theory.  Johnston also uses Žižek’s combination of philosophy and psychoanalysis to address two perennial philosophical the relationship of mind and body, and the nature of human freedom. By bringing together the past two centuries of European philosophy, psychoanalytic metapsychology, and cutting-edge work in the natural sciences, Johnston develops a transcendental materialist theory of subjectivity—in short, an account of how more-than-material forms of subjectivity can emerge from a corporeal being. His work shows how an engagement with Žižek’s philosophy can produce compelling answers to today’s most vexing and urgent questions as inherited from the history of ideas.

Genres: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Nonfiction, Theory, Psychology, 21st Century

312 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 2008

About the author

American philosopher. He is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and a faculty member at the Emory Psychoanalytic Institute in Atlanta. Johnston’s books are guided by his “transcendental materialism,” which in sum calls for a materialist ontology that nevertheless does not reduce away the gap or figure that is human subjectivity.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

For everyone that has read Zizek and suspected that there is something deep and substantial in his work, that the philosophical propositions at the core of his texts are really worth something, but, at the same time is having difficulty with articulating what these propositions actually are, and synthesizing the meat of the philosophical work from the flurry of spastic tangents, digressions, jokes, and clever asides that make reading Zizek so entertaining, then this is the book for you!

Johnston has certainly done his homework, and it is clear that he has read not only Zizek, but also his sources and interlocutors (Freud and Lacan; Kant, Schelling, Fichte, and Hegel; Badiou and contemporary neuroscience) extensively, and he is thus capable of distilling the essence of Zizek's philosophical work and innovations in a consistent, clear, logical, and ordered argument. In a way (as Zizek himself admits on the back cover), Johnston's argument/summary is easier to follow and more compelling than Zizek's own work. This is definitely a work focused on the philosophical and ontological core of Zizek's thought, and for the most part leaves aside the ideological and political dimension. However, for anyone acquainted with Zizek who is interested in the philosophical and ontological propositions that ground Zizek's work, then this book is a must read.

[Iben Bollaert · Rating 5 out of 5]

onwaar-schijn-lijk!

[Mariam Rawwas · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Johnston will develop more explicitly later on as a "weak nature" is reminiscent of Žižek's "gappy ontology," a "transcendental" or dialectical materialism meant to square the circle on the Kantian antinomy of freedom and causality. I appreciate the situating of Žižek's Hegel in the tradition of German idealism (Kant, Fichte, Schelling), especially the discussion of the death drive and the rigorous distinction between Schelling and Hegel outlined here (despite Johnston's disagreements with Žižek on this count), though this seems to serve primarily as a primer on Lacan.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for those who want to get into Zizek's ideas, as well as those who after the fact want to understand the thought process that got him to his views. Johnston describes the Zizekian subject in a very straightforward manner, and explains what is behind these ideas. The book contains a very comprehensive yet brief overview of Zizek's philosophical worldview all the way from Descartes to Lacan.

[Dill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is almost as impenetrable as a Zizekian ontology book. Be warned: might induce a castration complex.

Unless you are well-read in German Idealism and Lacanian Psychoanalysis, I recommend following along with ChatGPT to help concretize some of the concepts as you follow along. Eventually your eyes will bleed in satisfaction.

[Michael A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very dense, but probably as readable as you're going to get on this subject.

[Sara-Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Johnston expounds upon zizek's philosophical work of engaging lacan with the german idealist giants kant,schelling and hegel. this is really exciting for me seeing as zizek's hegel has been a tremendously inspirational figure, the guy that holds the most philosphical promise of addressing anything i care about. And with the compressed rigour of Johnston's anaylsis, he not only retains zizek's insights but clarifies and builds upon them further. it's really quite remarkable. Zizek has a funny quote about this book, "While reading it, I often had the uncanny feeling of being confronted by a line of argumentation which fits better than my own texts what I am struggling to formulate--as if he is the original and I am a copy" but it is quite right--I'd join zizek in saying Johnston does his "transcendental materialism" better. There is a chapter called "temporalized eternity: the ahistorical motor of historicity", so that’s pretty cool. Here's the quote that rounds out that section--"The nothingness of the cracks and gaps in the barred Real (as well as those in the barred Other of the Symbolic) becomes something solely through the subject’s reflexive gesture of putting to work the negativity that gave birth to it, harnessing this indeterminancy built into the structures of both being and its symbolizations so as to attain a transcendence of these same structures, however fleeting and transitory this transcendence might be. Although often incredibly brief when measured according to the temporal strands of chronological-linear time, these moments of transient transcendence are points where time stands still, where blinks of eternity punctuate the movement of history" (122).

whoa.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great and, I think, probably the best study of Zizek currently on the market. One caveat: this is not the "cultural studies" or English department Zizek, though after reading this book I am trying to connect up Zizek's arguments about ideology with the discussions of freedom that Johnston focuses on. I wouldn't recommend it to beginners, but if you're read a fair share of Zizek and are interested in the philosophy that he discusses (and not merely in ideology, etc.), then this book is for you. It's fascinating how clearly Johnston synthesizes the scattered bits of Zizek's argument to make a more compelling and intelligible version than Zizek's original, especially with regard to the so-called serious philosophical problems of mind/body dualism and, importantly, determinism, whether it be biological or otherwise.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This rating is pretty provisional. I got about 80 pages in, only to realize that too much was slipping through me. I might get back to it, but not for a while.