I forgot to mention that this is an ONLINE WEBINAR. Anyone and everyone can participate—no matter where you are. Simply click the Register now button (in green, directly below) to hold your place (even if you are not certain you will be able to be in the virtual room at the time). Once you register, you’ll receive feedback as things develop—and special advance bonuses.

Scroll down for a description of the MASTERCLASS.

The MASTERCLASS is sponsored by the Zizekian Institute (David Gabbard). Focusing on the theories of Zizek, Koenigsberg & Norman O. Brown, the class presents a psychoanalytic interpretation of culture, showing how ideologies allow unconscious desires and fantasies to make their way into the “external” world.

Registration for the MASTERCLASS is now available. Simply click the button directly below. You will be taken to a registration page: enter your name and email address to hold a place. Space is limited, please register now, even if you are not absolutely sure you can be present the day of the event.

If you have questions you’d like Koenigsberg to answer—that you’ve always wanted to ask him—send it to me now by simply responding to this email, or writing to oanderson@libraryofsocialscience.com. DESCRIPTION OF THE WEBINAR IS DIRECTLY BELOW.

Please register now to hold your place.

Click here to learn more about Richard Koenigsberg.

Norman O. Brown Slavoj Žižek Richard Koenigsberg

In Sublime Object of Ideology (1989) and Mapping Ideology (2012)—and other books and articles—Slavoj Žižek states that ideology is not a dream-like illusion that we build to “escape insupportable reality,” rather is a “fantasy-construction which serves as a support for our reality itself.” In The Plague of Fantasies (2009), Žižek writes that the “unconscious mind—operating through fantasy—makes us susceptible to ideology.” Ideology may be viewed as a “waking dream,” acting upon us from the outside, but exerting its hold because it resonates with unconscious desires, fantasies and conflicts.

In Hitler’s Ideology: A Study in Psychoanalytic Sociology (1975) and The Psychoanalysis of Racism, Revolution and Nationalism (2011)—Richard Koenigsberg theorizes that ideologies exist as a modus operandi for the expression of fantasies that are shared by members of a population. Ideologies transform dimensions of psychic experience into elements of culture. Ideologies—like “funnels”—draw forth energy bound to unconscious fantasies—making this energy available for reality-oriented action. Political history enacts shared unconscious fantasies—through the vehicle of ideology.