Beyond the Reality Principle: On the Political Role of Imagination in Herbert Marcuse’s Libidinal Economy
Beyond the Reality Principle: On the Political Role of Imagination in Herbert Marcuse’s Libidinal Economy

Summary/Abstract: According to the psychoanalytic tradition, we function in the social world thanks to the reality principle. The article will deal with the role of the imagination as a political force, a force transforming the framework of social reality animated by the historical modification of this principle – the performance principle. Due to the fact that – as Marcuse has shown – reason has become an element of domination, the only emancipatory force capable of opposing the daily routine and repetition is imagination. Therefore, we propose developing this idea of imagination as a means of liberation from the one-dimensional world and transformation of the social world in the context of the new libidinal economy outlined by Herbert Marcuse in two works: Eros and Civilization and One-Dimensional Man.

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