Being and Symptom: The Intersection of Sociology, Lacanian Psychoanalysis, and Continental Philosophy, (Hardcover)

In this daring new study, the renowned Turkish sociologist and public intellectual Suheyb Öğüt seeks a new explanation of political sovereignty demystified from traditional descriptions of the political process. Boldly focusing on sexuality as a crucial definer of social order, Being and Symptom argues that there is an "M theory" - a master theory of theories -- not only in Quantum Physics, but also in Continental Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Sociology, disclosing how the ontological structure of the "fantastic four" ingredients of metaphysics (potentiality, impotentiality, actuality, completion) has recurred through time. Öğüt also seeks to turn Thomas Hobbes's political philosophy into a social theory within the fields of sexuality and sovereignty and to locate parallels among Aristotle, Ibn Khaldun, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Foucault, Lacan, Agamben, Nash, Derrida, Girard, Kristeva, and Zizek, with a special emphasis on how Zizek has adapted Lacanian psychoanalysis into social theory. Öğüt conveys a highly original analysis of the unconscious of our social (sexual) relations, subjectivities, and politics.