Žižek sobre la exclusión del psicoanálisis del presupuesto de salud púbica de Francia - G10 2025
Interview · Facultad Lalangue ·
2025 · 0:11:24 · 1,572 words
psychoanalysisfascism-populismideologysexuality-genderreligion-theologyhistory
Žižek argues that modern LGBT discourse, by denying the unconscious in favor of self-perception, inadvertently aligns with a form of biological determinism that ignores the core of psychoanalysis. He connects this to a broader political pathology where violent regimes (Nazism, Stalinism, ethnic cleansing) rely on 'poetry' to justify transcending basic human decency. He illustrates the failure of modern psychiatry with a personal anecdote about a therapist who prescribed Google searches to cure depression, arguing that such approaches ignore the traumatic reality of the subject.
every located moment in this recording, click one to read it
The ideas in it 6
in the order they first come up; click a row for what he does with the idea here
The paradoxical stance of some LGBT movements that claim libertarian self-determination while simultaneously relying on biological sex as a secondary but decisive factor, thereby denying the unconscious.
as “denial of the unconscious”
The claim that modern LGBT discourse, by focusing on self-perception and biological sex, ignores the Lacanian unconscious, which is a form of knowledge we are not aware of, not just neuronal processes.
as “enemy is somebody whose story we were not ready to hear”
A definition of the enemy used to justify hatred; Žižek ironically applies this to Hitler, noting that reading his story (Mein Kampf) made him hate him more, not less, highlighting the failure of this logic.
as “ethnic cleansing without poetry”
Žižek's phrase asserting that violent political movements and ethnic cleansing are always enabled and justified by a 'higher sacred mission' or poetic narrative, without which they cannot function.
The lowest form of betrayal in totalitarian systems; the ordinary human sympathy or decency that must be overcome to achieve 'true greatness' in service of the political cause.
The alleged official response of the IDF to soldiers returning from Gaza who suffered from guilt, involving psychological services designed to train them to kill without feeling bad.
Stories he reaches for 1
Žižek cites Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić, a well-known poet, as evidence that ethnic cleansing is always backed by national poets who preach violence as a sacred mission.
“Radovan Karadžić, the leader of Bosnian Serbs. He was a well-known poet.”
Works invoked 1
Mein Kampf book
Žižek mentions reading it when young; it made him hate Hitler more, not less, serving as a counter-example to the idea that understanding an enemy's story justifies them.
People invoked 6
Radovan Karadžić positive
Cited as a 'well-known poet' and leader of Bosnian Serbs to illustrate the link between poetry and ethnic cleansing.
Jacques Lacan positive
Žižek identifies as a 'Freudian' and uses Lacanian concepts (the unconscious) to critique modern discourse, implying strong intellectual alignment.
Mentioned only to date the 'pre-Macron era' of the French Socialist Party debates.
Adolf Hitler negative
Žižek cites Hitler as an enemy and notes that reading Mein Kampf made him hate Hitler more, using him to illustrate the failure of 'hearing the enemy's story' as a justification for hatred.
Joseph Stalin positive
Cited in the context of Soviet forced collectivization and the training of communists to overcome 'small bourgeois restraint'.
Sigmund Freud positive
Žižek states 'although I consider myself a Freudian personally' and cites Freud's view that self-perception is usually a lie.
Transcript 10 turns
unknown
What is your view on France amendment to the health budget from last week which intends to end reimbursement for psychoanalytical based therapies starting on January
What is your view on France amendment to the health budget from last week which intends to end reimbursement for psychoanalytical based therapies starting on January
Slavoj Žižek
1st. Sorry, it cancels it or what?
1st. Sorry, it cancels it or what?
unknown
It says that it's not going to be any more recognized and it's not going to be reimbursed anymore arguing that psychoanalysis lacks scientific evidence and is ineffective even inadequate for conditions such as depression, anxiety or chronic psychiatric disorders. Validating only behavioral treatments. Do you see this this is my question do you see this move as a step towards like the syndicate of psychologists said, a form of state normative psychology and I believe this is a ideological denial of the unconscious mind that we are growing back to a pre-Freudian state where it's no unconscious anymore.
It says that it's not going to be any more recognized and it's not going to be reimbursed anymore arguing that psychoanalysis lacks scientific evidence and is ineffective even inadequate for conditions such as depression, anxiety or chronic psychiatric disorders. Validating only behavioral treatments. Do you see this this is my question do you see this move as a step towards like the syndicate of psychologists said, a form of state normative psychology and I believe this is a ideological denial of the unconscious mind that we are growing back to a pre-Freudian state where it's no unconscious anymore.
Slavoj Žižek
I tend to agree with you, you know where from what little I know about it, where I would complicate things. First, I remember these debates when I was still active in France even more years and the first thing that disappointed me is that quite often members of at that point, I'm talking about pre-Macron era, Socialist Party, were even more directed like this than some conservatives. This is one of the paradoxes today that you have a certain moderate left which is very administrative and so on. But the true problem is when you mentioned psychiatrists, psychologists and so on, you must have there probably more than psychiatrists, more than, not just psychoanalysts, you have ordinary psych how do they stand? Are they organized?
I tend to agree with you, you know where from what little I know about it, where I would complicate things. First, I remember these debates when I was still active in France even more years and the first thing that disappointed me is that quite often members of at that point, I'm talking about pre-Macron era, Socialist Party, were even more directed like this than some conservatives. This is one of the paradoxes today that you have a certain moderate left which is very administrative and so on. But the true problem is when you mentioned psychiatrists, psychologists and so on, you must have there probably more than psychiatrists, more than, not just psychoanalysts, you have ordinary psych how do they stand? Are they organized?
unknown
They say that the only one that that it's going to be banned and not recognized anymore is psychoanalytical based treatment.
They say that the only one that that it's going to be banned and not recognized anymore is psychoanalytical based treatment.
Slavoj Žižek
I here, I of course, I'm sorry, I didn't react to it till now because I'm old, tired, blah, blah, blah, the usual story, I simply didn't simply know this. But I deeply agree with you that the almost I would say in a naive sense irrational hatred of psychoanalysis is correct. But I want to make, I wonder now, I will ask you a question with a big knife behind my back and all that poetry.
I here, I of course, I'm sorry, I didn't react to it till now because I'm old, tired, blah, blah, blah, the usual story, I simply didn't simply know this. But I deeply agree with you that the almost I would say in a naive sense irrational hatred of psychoanalysis is correct. But I want to make, I wonder now, I will ask you a question with a big knife behind my back and all that poetry.
unknown
Don't be bad with me. Yeah,
Don't be bad with me. Yeah,
Slavoj Žižek
yeah. Would you agree or not that the saddest thing about at least the popular version of trans, LGBT and so on is that they also deny the unconscious? On the one hand they say it's biological sex and then they immediately jump to how you perceive yourself. Their debate is, I am biologically a man, but I perceive myself as a woman. So what I am? Where is the unconscious here? Unconscious disappears and that's where things are sad for me. How even the movement LGBT, trans, whatever which presents itself as the most radical denies psychoanalysis because even this basic confusion is here. The unconscious is not what you don't know about. Are not neuronal process in your brain. Unconscious is a form of knowledge that you are not aware of. So I totally agree with you that and it fits generally this new form, you know why LGBT trans case is crucial for me? At the same time they present themselves as most libertarian. Biology matters but only secondarily. What matters is how do you experience yourself. Libertarian but at the same time they had to deny the unconscious which means that it's never as simple as that. Freud made this clearly. The way you experience yourself, your self-perception, is as a rule a lie. We are basically lying ourselves. Even as that's why even politically I don't believe in okay I'll put it like this in my tyrannical regime there would always have been a death penalty for one type of persons. Those who say an enemy is somebody whose story we were not ready to hear. Ah, it's good to know, so Hitler is an enemy because we were not ready to hear his story. Sorry, when I was young I read Mein Kampf and it made me to hate Hitler even more, not less. So my point is that all big criminals or criminal political movements that's why my god how much hatred I got for that always usually are supported by some poets. I my big text which created me so many enemies no ethnic cleansing without poetry. It's not a chance that do you remember when there was a crisis in post-Yugoslavia, Radovan Karadžić, the leader of Bosnian Serbs. He was a well-known poet. And all other post-Yugoslav nations also had poets. In Rwanda you remember Hutu-Tutsi? Behind it was the great national poet who preached ethnic cleansing and so on and so on. So what I'm saying is that a terrorist, racist, violent regime always enables people to justify their cause as part of some higher sacred mission. The most tragic example maybe I used it here even is Soviet Union in early 30s forced collectivization. They had a terrible rule, the same as the Nazis which was: you may be a decent person. I have problems, no I may be a minimally decent person and if I'm ordered by those in power to stab a knife into you don't be afraid I would have some problems I must say, you know. But the totalitarian shift that you find I don't think they're equal under Nazis and under Stalinism is that this they call it small bourgeois restraint is the lowest form of betrayal. That true greatness is that you are ready for the political cause to leave behind these ordinary human considerations. People suffer and so on so what? So when they were training communists to go into the countryside to enforce collectivization, it was part of their curriculum, they told them you will see horrible things. You will see small children starving, starving, crying, grabbing their mothers. If at that point you will feel sympathy for them, you are you are a traitor. This idea to that's the basic trick of totalitarianism to make you experience what is a basic decency in you like my god I cannot do things like this to define real ethic greatness as the ability to step beyond this. No, I'm ready to kill, it serves a higher cause and so on. And I think this is all part of the same problem. You know where I found a similar problem? Now I will be critical towards Israel. You know that quite a couple of soldiers who returned from Gaza this is the new psychiatry they want to impose on us I read this is so depressive, a couple of honest soldiers returned from serving in Gaza and then they couldn't live with what they did. They killed themselves. You know what was the official IDF, Israel Defense Forces reply? That they established a special psychological service to train them into insensitivity that you can kill without feeling bad and so on, you know it's it's nightmare I mean. Thank you very much, thank you very much. Thank you for your question. There's no psychoanalys therapy anymore in Holland cause a long time already. Maybe on a very few places. I'm a therapist also so it was part of a kind of money problem the Dutch society said and I had a my former manager was a very intelligent woman she promoted in Arabic culture and she went on to have a lot of stress so she herself said to the
yeah. Would you agree or not that the saddest thing about at least the popular version of trans, LGBT and so on is that they also deny the unconscious? On the one hand they say it's biological sex and then they immediately jump to how you perceive yourself. Their debate is, I am biologically a man, but I perceive myself as a woman. So what I am? Where is the unconscious here? Unconscious disappears and that's where things are sad for me. How even the movement LGBT, trans, whatever which presents itself as the most radical denies psychoanalysis because even this basic confusion is here. The unconscious is not what you don't know about. Are not neuronal process in your brain. Unconscious is a form of knowledge that you are not aware of. So I totally agree with you that and it fits generally this new form, you know why LGBT trans case is crucial for me? At the same time they present themselves as most libertarian. Biology matters but only secondarily. What matters is how do you experience yourself. Libertarian but at the same time they had to deny the unconscious which means that it's never as simple as that. Freud made this clearly. The way you experience yourself, your self-perception, is as a rule a lie. We are basically lying ourselves. Even as that's why even politically I don't believe in okay I'll put it like this in my tyrannical regime there would always have been a death penalty for one type of persons. Those who say an enemy is somebody whose story we were not ready to hear. Ah, it's good to know, so Hitler is an enemy because we were not ready to hear his story. Sorry, when I was young I read Mein Kampf and it made me to hate Hitler even more, not less. So my point is that all big criminals or criminal political movements that's why my god how much hatred I got for that always usually are supported by some poets. I my big text which created me so many enemies no ethnic cleansing without poetry. It's not a chance that do you remember when there was a crisis in post-Yugoslavia, Radovan Karadžić, the leader of Bosnian Serbs. He was a well-known poet. And all other post-Yugoslav nations also had poets. In Rwanda you remember Hutu-Tutsi? Behind it was the great national poet who preached ethnic cleansing and so on and so on. So what I'm saying is that a terrorist, racist, violent regime always enables people to justify their cause as part of some higher sacred mission. The most tragic example maybe I used it here even is Soviet Union in early 30s forced collectivization. They had a terrible rule, the same as the Nazis which was: you may be a decent person. I have problems, no I may be a minimally decent person and if I'm ordered by those in power to stab a knife into you don't be afraid I would have some problems I must say, you know. But the totalitarian shift that you find I don't think they're equal under Nazis and under Stalinism is that this they call it small bourgeois restraint is the lowest form of betrayal. That true greatness is that you are ready for the political cause to leave behind these ordinary human considerations. People suffer and so on so what? So when they were training communists to go into the countryside to enforce collectivization, it was part of their curriculum, they told them you will see horrible things. You will see small children starving, starving, crying, grabbing their mothers. If at that point you will feel sympathy for them, you are you are a traitor. This idea to that's the basic trick of totalitarianism to make you experience what is a basic decency in you like my god I cannot do things like this to define real ethic greatness as the ability to step beyond this. No, I'm ready to kill, it serves a higher cause and so on. And I think this is all part of the same problem. You know where I found a similar problem? Now I will be critical towards Israel. You know that quite a couple of soldiers who returned from Gaza this is the new psychiatry they want to impose on us I read this is so depressive, a couple of honest soldiers returned from serving in Gaza and then they couldn't live with what they did. They killed themselves. You know what was the official IDF, Israel Defense Forces reply? That they established a special psychological service to train them into insensitivity that you can kill without feeling bad and so on, you know it's it's nightmare I mean. Thank you very much, thank you very much. Thank you for your question. There's no psychoanalys therapy anymore in Holland cause a long time already. Maybe on a very few places. I'm a therapist also so it was part of a kind of money problem the Dutch society said and I had a my former manager was a very intelligent woman she promoted in Arabic culture and she went on to have a lot of stress so she herself said to the
unknown
system, psychiatric system, oh I'm there help me and it was very difficult for her to get out. She was very clever so she get out of the system but still a long time for example she wanted to have a decent good therapy but she said also to me they didn't give her they only give her the obligation to take medicine and she had to do that on the internet every day that the psychiatrist saw her to take the medicine. The the clue is they changed the law, the psychiatrist is responsible for the client nowadays and a lot of psychiatrists doesn't take a lot of risk cause they say they are responsible if the client takes suicide
system, psychiatric system, oh I'm there help me and it was very difficult for her to get out. She was very clever so she get out of the system but still a long time for example she wanted to have a decent good therapy but she said also to me they didn't give her they only give her the obligation to take medicine and she had to do that on the internet every day that the psychiatrist saw her to take the medicine. The the clue is they changed the law, the psychiatrist is responsible for the client nowadays and a lot of psychiatrists doesn't take a lot of risk cause they say they are responsible if the client takes suicide
Slavoj Žižek
so a lot of repression. But I agree with you just to give you an example I was depressed had some problems so I went to a psychiatrist I think it was in Ann Arbor when I was teaching there for one semester and I didn't want any deep stuff I just wanted some pills I didn't want psychoanalysis because although I consider myself a Freudian personally I hate psychoanalysis because I think if I look too deep into myself I discover that I'm full of shit. And I want to say fuck off let's do some work. So what I wanted to say is that what happens to me it was so traumatic. I came to a young guy who knew about me in theory and then I told him I feel worthless and so on give me just something to make my and he said but this is wrong. Look in the internet, you are famous! So as a therapy he prescribed to me every evening open the web and google you and see oh my god so many entries and repeat to yourself I'm a famous, I'm a good guy, I'm a famous. And then I exploded and told him you really want me to kill myself or whatever.
so a lot of repression. But I agree with you just to give you an example I was depressed had some problems so I went to a psychiatrist I think it was in Ann Arbor when I was teaching there for one semester and I didn't want any deep stuff I just wanted some pills I didn't want psychoanalysis because although I consider myself a Freudian personally I hate psychoanalysis because I think if I look too deep into myself I discover that I'm full of shit. And I want to say fuck off let's do some work. So what I wanted to say is that what happens to me it was so traumatic. I came to a young guy who knew about me in theory and then I told him I feel worthless and so on give me just something to make my and he said but this is wrong. Look in the internet, you are famous! So as a therapy he prescribed to me every evening open the web and google you and see oh my god so many entries and repeat to yourself I'm a famous, I'm a good guy, I'm a famous. And then I exploded and told him you really want me to kill myself or whatever.