Lacan’s Fifth and Unfinished Discourse: Capitalism’s Alchemist Dream

Abstract

Why is it that we sometimes think of Lacan as Marxist when he is so assertive in being Freudian? Perhaps it is because Lacan perceives Marx rather than Freud as the discoverer of the symptom and furthermore places Marx as central to his fifth Capitalist discourse, in contrast with his previous discourses which are all inspired by Freud. This article considers how Lacan’s final and arguably unfinished Capitalist discourse stands apart from all the others, yet at the same time it reveals contradictions and possible parallels with them as it attempts to unravel the dialectical tensions between the problematic production and consumption of meaning.