Towards a Socioanalysis of Capitalist Greed

Abstract

This paper is based on the conviction that a socioanalytical perspective on capitalist greed—in general and in the context of the recent financial crisis in particular—requires a systemic perspective and must take into account the unconscious dynamics beneath the surface of contemporary capitalism. An excursus into the history and philosophy of greed demonstrates that it is a ubiquitous phenomenon, whose meaning refers both to the individual and ‘the social’. Using the psychoanalytic understanding of greed offered by the British psychoanalyst Melanie Klein as a starting point, I see greed as a psychotic dynamic that inhibits thinking, and limits reality to what is bearable and desired. Greed is neither a phenomenon that appeared with the onset of capitalism nor the decisive cause of the recent financial crisis, but it is inherent in the former and became most apparent in the latter. Subsequently, I will elaborate how competition is often fueled by excessive greed that intends to damage or even annihilate competitors, and is the source of corruption and/or fraud. The mere pursuit of maximizing profit, fostered and legitimized by economics for almost half a century, has had a major impact on the prevalence of greed in contemporary economy and the financial service industry in particular. In conclusion, I will refer to what the psychoanalyst Wilfred R. Bion calls ‘negative capability’ and offer some thoughts about how the psychotic dynamic inherent in greed could be individually and socially more balanced with non-psychotic thinking, which is capable of taking the broader ‘reality’ into account.