Hegemonic irrationalities and psychoanalytic cultural critique

Let me confine my remarks about cultural studies in general to the following observations: that the Marxisms from which it sprang were not explicitly Freudo-Marxisms. But do we detect a certain return of this repressed concern with psycho-politic amongst those works that highlight the pleasures or fantasies of cultural production, reception and mediation? An over psychoanalytic approach is not entirely alien to cultural studies, especially where it borders with feminist film theory (strongly influenced by Freud and Lacan, especially via Laura Mulvey), or with feminist critiques of culture, science and technology informed by the (American) object-relations school of psychoanalysis (e.g., as represented by Nancy Chodorow). However, I will argue that the potential value of psychoanalysis for cultural studies is greater than is apparent from the best-known psychoanalytic cultural/critical paradigms. This paper eschews making any arrogant claims about what ââ"šÂ¬Ã‹Å“cultural studiesââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ is or ought to be about. I do not proclaim the line of study presented here as an exemplary, best or most ââ"šÂ¬Ã‹Å“sexyââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ model of cultural studies. Rather, the aim is to outline some psychoanalytic principles and theories which could enrich and usefully complement other approaches to the study and critique of cultural formations.