The bounced cheques of neoliberal fantasy: Anxiety in times of economic crisis

Abstract

Since the onset of the ongoing economic crisis, there has been a significant increase in anxiety-related problems. This article ascribes economic anxiety to the backfire of an enjoyment that neoliberal fantasy affixed to the unfettered maximization of profit. The widespread economic crisis interposed a discontinuity into the regular circulation of desire bringing out the limit of the fantasy of neoliberal economy and the emptiness of its master signifiers. As a result, the subject moves from the fantasmatic prospect of fulfilling desire through the acquisition of the object of enjoyment located in the market toward an encounter with the real emptiness that fantasy tries to disguise. The object falls from fantasy, giving its place to the real that burdens the subject with anxiety as a signal for the abrasion of her desiring status. Rather than trying to abolish anxiety by clinging to fantasy, the article suggests that maintaining anxiety in inter-subjectivity can open new possibilities for socio-economic relations.