Capitalism and the Death Drive

Byung-Chul Han author Daniel Steuer translator

Format:Hardback

Publisher:John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Published:28th May '21

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

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Capitalism and the Death Drive cover

What we call growth today is in fact a tumorous growth, a cancerous proliferation which is disrupting the social organism. These tumours endlessly metastasize and grow with an inexplicable, deadly vitality. At a certain point this growth is no longer productive, but rather destructive. Capitalism passed this point long ago. Its destructive forces cause not only ecological and social catastrophes but also mental collapse. The destructive compulsion to perform combines self-affirmation and self-destruction in one. We optimize ourselves to death. Brutal competition ends in destruction. It produces an emotional coldness and indifference towards others as well as towards one’s own self.

The devastating consequences of capitalism suggest that a death drive is at work. Freud initially introduced the death drive hesitantly, but later admitted that he ‘couldn’t think beyond it’ as the idea of the death drive became increasingly central to his thought. Today, it is impossible to think about capitalism without considering the death drive.

‘These incisive and often disturbing meditations take the reader to the dark heart of contemporary neoliberalism, in which ubiquitous surveillance and the quest for personal gratification eventually threaten human vitality itself.’
William Davies, Author of Nervous States: How Feeling Took Over the World

ISBN: 9781509545018

Dimensions: 213mm x 147mm x 20mm

Weight: 340g

180 pages