The Sublime Object of Ideology

1. Marx Invented the Symptom: Unmasking Hidden Forms

It is not sufficient to reduce the form to the essence, to the hidden kernel, we must also examine the process – homologous to the ‘dream-work’ – by means of which the concealed content assumes such a form.

Form over content. Marx, like Freud, focused on the form itself, not just the hidden content. The real secret isn't the labor behind a commodity or the latent thought behind a dream, but why these things take the specific forms they do. This approach shifts the focus from what is hidden to how it is hidden.

• Marx analyzed the commodity form, not just the labor behind it.
• Freud analyzed the dream-work, not just the latent dream-thoughts.
• Both sought to understand the mechanisms that shape our experiences.

Beyond simple unmasking. The goal isn't just to reveal a hidden truth, but to understand the process by which that truth is concealed. This involves examining the mechanisms of displacement, condensation, and figuration that shape both dreams and commodities. The real analysis is in the "how" not just the "what".

Homology of interpretation. The interpretative procedures of Marx and Freud are fundamentally similar. Both avoid the fetishistic fascination with hidden content and instead focus on the form itself. This homology reveals a deeper connection between economic and psychological analysis.

2. The Unconscious of the Commodity: Real Abstraction

The exchange abstraction is not thought, but it has the form of thought.

Real abstraction. Sohn-Rethel argued that the commodity form contains a "real abstraction" that mirrors the structure of thought itself. This abstraction isn't a mental process but a social one, embedded in the act of commodity exchange.

• Commodities are treated as if they are not subject to physical laws.
• Money is treated as if it is made of an immutable substance.
• This "as if" creates a social reality that is independent of individual consciousness.

Unconscious of the transcendental subject. The "real abstraction" is the unconscious of the transcendental subject, the support of objective scientific knowledge. This means that the very categories of thought are shaped by social practices, not just by the mind.

• The categories of pure reason are already present in the act of commodity exchange.
• The exchange of commodities implies a double abstraction: from the changeable character of the commodity and from its concrete, empirical, sensual, particular character.
• This challenges the idea of a purely rational, autonomous subject.

Misrecognition is key. The social effectivity of the exchange process is possible only if individuals are not aware of its proper logic. This misrecognition is not a simple error but a necessary condition for the functioning of the market. If we come to "know too much," the social reality would dissolve.

3. Ideology Beyond False Consciousness: The Power of Fantasy

The illusion is not on the side of knowledge, it is already on the side of reality itself, of what the people are doing.

Cynical reason. Today's dominant ideology is cynical, not naive. People are aware of the gap between ideological claims and reality, yet they still participate in the system. This makes traditional critiques of ideology, which rely on exposing false consciousness, ineffective.

• People know that money is just a material object, but they still treat it as if it were made of a special substance.
• They know that freedom is often a mask for exploitation, but they still pursue it.
• This cynicism is not a rejection of ideology but a new mode of its functioning.

Ideological fantasy. The real power of ideology lies not in what people believe but in the unconscious fantasies that structure their social reality. These fantasies are not just mental constructs but are embedded in our actions and practices.

• The illusion is not in what we know but in what we do.
• We act as if money is the embodiment of wealth, even though we know it is not.
• Ideological fantasy is the unconscious illusion that structures our real social activity.

Beyond demasking. The goal is not just to unmask the hidden truth but to understand the fantasy that makes the illusion possible. This requires a shift from analyzing what people think to analyzing how they act and what they enjoy.

4. Belief Materialized: The Objectivity of Ideological Ritual

The social effectivity of the exchange process is a kind of reality which is possible only on condition that the individuals partaking in it are not aware of its proper logic.

Belief is external. Belief is not an internal, mental state but is materialized in our social activity. We believe through the medium of external rituals and practices, not just through internal conviction.

• Tibetan prayer wheels: the wheel prays for me.
• The Chorus in classical tragedy: the chorus feels the emotions for us.
• Canned laughter in TV shows: the TV laughs for us.

The power of the machine. The symbolic order is a machine that operates independently of our conscious intentions. We are caught in its automatism, and our beliefs are shaped by its external logic.

• Pascal: "We are as much automaton as mind."
• The Law is obeyed not because it is just but because it is the law.
• The authority of the Law lies in its process of enunciation.

Transference and belief. The belief in the Law is a form of transference: we believe in the Law because we presuppose a Truth behind it. This belief is not based on rational arguments but on a fundamental, often unconscious, commitment.

• Pascal: "Act as if you believe, and the belief will come by itself."
• The reasons for belief are persuasive only to those who already believe.
• Belief is a vicious circle: we believe because we believe.

5. The Symptom as a Time Paradox: Retroactive Meaning

The symptom initially appears to us as a trace, which will only ever be a trace, one which will continue not to be understood until the analysis has got quite a long way, and until we have realized its meaning.

Symptoms return from the future. Symptoms are not just echoes of the past but are also shaped by the future. Their meaning is not discovered but constructed retroactively through analysis.

• The symptom is a trace that is only understood later.
• The analysis produces the truth, not just uncovers it.
• The past is always present in the form of historical tradition.

Transference as a journey into the future. Transference is the illusion that the other already possesses the knowledge we seek. This illusion is necessary for the production of meaning.

• We suppose the other knows the meaning of our symptoms.
• We elaborate this knowledge through the illusion that the other already possesses it.
• The past is changed retroactively through the symbolic process.

The time paradox. The subject is confronted with a scene from the past that he wants to change, but his intervention only makes the scene become what it always was. The subject's intervention was always already included. The truth arises from misrecognition.

6. From Symptom to Sinthome: The Real of Enjoyment

One has to look for the origins of the notion of symptom not in Hippocrates but in Marx, in the connection he was first to establish between capitalism and what? – the good old times, what we call the feudal times.

Symptom as a social construct. The symptom is not just a psychological phenomenon but a social one. It emerges from a certain imbalance, a fissure in the social order.

• The symptom is a particular element that subverts its own universal foundation.
• It is a point of breakdown that is both necessary and disruptive.
• The symptom is a response to an impossible kernel.

From symptom to sinthome. Lacan's later work shifted the focus from the symptom as a coded message to the sinthome as a knot of enjoyment. The sinthome is a formation whose very consistency implies a certain non-knowledge on the part of the subject.

• The sinthome is a signifying formation penetrated with enjoyment.
• It is a signifier as a bearer of jouis-sense.
• The subject can "enjoy his symptom" only if its logic escapes him.

The universalization of the symptom. In Lacan's later teaching, the symptom becomes universal: almost everything that is becomes a symptom. This reflects the idea that the human condition is inherently marked by a certain imbalance, a traumatic kernel.

7. ‘Che Vuoi?’: The Unanswerable Question of Desire

The real subject matter of the dream (the unconscious desire) articulates itself in the dream-work, in the elaboration of its ‘latent content’.

The question of the Other. The famous Lacanian question "Che vuoi?" ("What do you want?") highlights the fundamental uncertainty of desire. It is not just about what we want but what the Other wants from us.

• The question is not just about our desires but about the desire of the Other.
• It is a question that cannot be answered, a gap that cannot be filled.
• It is a question that exposes the subject's fundamental lack.

The hysterical question. The hysterical subject is defined by this question: "Why am I what you're telling me that I am?" This question reveals the subject's inability to fully assume the symbolic mandate.

• The hysterical subject is always asking what the Other wants.
• They are caught in a cycle of demand and desire.
• They are always seeking an answer to the unanswerable question.

Fantasy as an answer. Fantasy is an attempt to answer the question "Che vuoi?" It is a way of filling the void of the Other's desire with a constructed scenario.

• Fantasy is a response to the impossible-real kernel.
• It is a way of making sense of the Other's desire.
• It is a screen that masks the fundamental lack.

8. The Object as a Void: The Logic of the Gaze

The form of a dream or the form in which it is dreamt is used with quite surprising frequency for representing its concealed subject matter.

The gaze and the object. The object is not just something we see but something that sees us. The gaze is not just a visual perception but a structural force that shapes our subjectivity.

• The object is not just a thing but a point from which we are observed.
• The gaze is not just a look but a structural force.
• The object is a void that is filled by the gaze.

The objective status of belief. Belief is not an internal state but is materialized in our effective social activity. We believe through the medium of external rituals and practices.

• We believe through the medium of the wheel.
• We feel emotions through the medium of the Chorus.
• We laugh through the medium of canned laughter.

The object as a support. The object is not just something we desire but something that supports our very being. It is a material leftover that gives consistency to our subjective experience.

• The object is a material support for the subject's unconscious.
• It is a point of consistency in a world of flux.
• It is a way of making sense of our existence.

9. The Subject of the Real: Beyond Symbolic Identification

The unconscious desire, that which is supposedly its most hidden kernel, articulates itself precisely through the dissimulation work of the ‘kernel’ of a dream, its latent thought, through the work of disguising this content-kernel by means of its translation into the dream-rebus.

Interpellation without identification. The Kafkaesque subject is interpellated by a mysterious bureaucratic entity, but this interpellation does not offer a clear identity or a cause to identify with.

• The subject is trapped by the Other through a paradoxical object-cause of desire.
• The subject seeks a trait with which to identify.
• The subject does not understand the meaning of the call of the Other.

Fantasy as a support of reality. Fantasy is not just a dreamlike illusion but a construction that supports our reality itself. It is a way of masking the Real of our desire.

• Reality is a fantasy-construction that masks the Real.
• We awaken from the dream to escape the Real of our desire.
• Ideology is a fantasy that structures our social reality.

The non-All of truth. The truth of a proposition is determined by its immanent notional content, not by a comparison between notion and reality. There is a non-All of truth.

• Truth is without any external limitation or exception.
• Its criterion is absolutely immanent.
• We compare a statement with itself, with its own process of enunciation.

10. The Two Deaths: The Real and the Symbolic

The form of a dream or the form in which it is dreamt is used with quite surprising frequency for representing its concealed subject matter.

The return of the repressed from the future. Symptoms are not just echoes of the past but are also shaped by the future. Their meaning is not discovered but constructed retroactively through analysis.

• The symptom is a trace that is only understood later.
• The analysis produces the truth, not just uncovers it.
• The past is always present in the form of historical tradition.

The two deaths. There is a difference between biological death and symbolic death. The symbolic order can be annihilated, and this is the true meaning of the death drive.

• The first death is the death of the body.
• The second death is the annihilation of the symbolic order.
• The death drive is the possibility of this second death.

The symptom as a real kernel. The symptom is a real kernel of enjoyment that resists symbolization. It is a surplus that returns through all attempts to domesticate it.

• The symptom is a formation whose consistency implies non-knowledge.
• It is a signifying formation penetrated with enjoyment.
• It is a point of exception that resists symbolic integration.

11. The Impossibility of Metalanguage: The Limits of Enlightenment

The understanding, through the form of abstract universality, does give [the varieties of the sensuous], so to speak, a rigidity of being … but, at the same time through this simplification it spiritually animates them and so sharpens them.

Cynicism and ideology. Cynical reason, with its ironic detachment, leaves untouched the fundamental level of ideological fantasy. The illusion is not on the side of knowledge but on the side of reality itself.

• Cynical reason takes distance into account in advance.
• It leaves untouched the fundamental level of ideological fantasy.
• We are still doing things even if we don't take them seriously.

The limits of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment project, with its emphasis on reason and autonomy, has a hidden obverse: the acceptance of the Law as a senseless, traumatic injunction.

• Kant: "Reason about whatever you want and as much as you want – but obey!"
• The Law is obeyed not because it is just but because it is the law.
• The authority of the Law lies in its process of enunciation.

The objectivity of belief. Belief is not an internal state but is materialized in our social activity. We believe through the medium of external rituals and practices.

• We believe through the medium of the wheel.
• We feel emotions through the medium of the Chorus.
• We laugh through the medium of canned laughter.

12. The Subject as an Answer: The Logic of the Sinthome

The richest is therefore the most concrete and most subjective, and that which withdraws itself into the simplest depth is the mightiest and most all-embracing.

The subject as an answer. The subject is not a question but an answer of the Real to the question of the Other. The subject is the void of the impossibility of answering the question of the Other.

• The subject is not a force of negativity but a response to a question.
• The subject is the void of the impossibility of answering the Other's question.
• The subject is constituted through its own division.

The sinthome as a support. The sinthome is a signifying formation penetrated with enjoyment. It is the way we "avoid madness," the way we "choose something instead of nothing."

• The sinthome is a binding of enjoyment to a signifying formation.
• It is a positive condition of our being-in-the-world.
• It is the only support of our being.

Identification with the symptom. The final moment of the psychoanalytic process is identification with the symptom. The subject recognizes in the Real of his symptom the only support of his being.

• The subject identifies with the place where his symptom already was.
• The subject recognizes the symptom as the only support of his being.
• The subject accepts the symptom as an internal condition of his identity.

Last updated: January 29, 2025