Mapping Aggression and Hegemony in the Neoliberal Era

Abstract

I appreciate the opportunity to engage in this virtual dialogue with Dorothy Evans Holmes and Eyal Rozmarin, both of whom in this issue offer thoughtful discussions of my paper that in some instances questioned and in others expanded my analysis of neoliberal hegemony and subjectivity. My response to their commentaries touches on the following themes: the connection between instincts and hegemonic ideology and discourses; the nature of neoliberal culture in light of the history of group violence, sacrifice, and scapegoating; and the role of nostalgia in critical interpretations of neoliberal society and its vicissitudes. I also offer an addendum to my paper, written before the 2016 election, to comment on how neoliberalism produced the current political crisis, in which social malaise has been punctured by authoritarian politics, populist activism, and ideological polarization.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nancy Caro Hollander

Nancy Caro Hollander, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Latin America History, California State University, and a Research Psychoanalyst in private practice in Oakland, CA. She is a member and on the faculty of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. Hollander has been a documentary filmmaker and, for 13 years, produced and hosted the radio program “Just a Minute” for Pacifica Radio, in which she explored themes related to psychoanalysis, feminism, Latin American revolutionary and counter-revolutionary movements, and ideology in popular film. Her most recent publications include “Trauma as Ideology: Accountability in the ‘Intractable Conflict’” (Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, 21, 59–80), “The Freedom to Speak: Psychopolitical Meanings in Argentine History” (International Journal of Psychoanalytic Studies, 13, 224–232), and Uprooted Minds: Surviving the Politics of Terror in the Americas (Routledge, 2010).